Multiplexing answers to several posts:
Doug Becker:
> Carley, we forgive you for overlooking the HP e3000.
Well.... I'll say we *will* forgive you, if you repent and reform..
:-) ..... BTW: Carly, not Carley...
John Clogg:
> The purpose of this thread is not to promote the HP3000 to
> potential customers. ........... The idea was to call
> management's attention to the damage they do when they
> neglect to include MPE in their discussions of the operating
> systems they support.
Exactly; EXCEPT: Need to change "management" to
"Corporate management" in the above.... If as a secondary
effect some WSJ readers get the words "HP 3000", "MPE",
and "Image/SQL" implanted in their brain that's great (and still
worth the space for those words, IMO)...
> I think maybe this thread has accomplished that goal.
I respectfully but pretty strongly disagree: We have absolutely
no indication at all yet that Carly & Co. at HP Corporate have
gotten the message... We *know* that Winston and CSY had
the message even before we started broadcasting it. :-)
> ..... Maybe we need to go through with this to prove we aren't
> crying wolf.
All the reasons for doing the WSJ are still valid, IMO...
Shortest best reply by Steve Dirickson:
> .... we're calling out HP to account for why *they* aren't
> trying to sell the 3K to the Fortune 1000.
Wirt back on the Owl (twice in five minutes):
> ............... An owl mother and her chicks could easily
> be a dominant visual theme if the tag lines that were centered
> above the image said "Wisdom. Security. Protection.
> Comfort.", ......
>
> Perhaps the only other text would be just a very little text
> providing the name of the HP3000, a URL, and a notice
> saying that this ad was paid for by the users of the HP3000
> themselves.
I still respectfully disagree with going all the way to Stan's
absolute minimalist approach for one one-shot deal... If there
were going to be even three or four ads, that would be different.
... we ain't gonna get half a million for that....
> That would provide an absolutely standard advertisement,
> wholly non-confrontational, and would express some real
> sense of pride.
>
> Such an ad does not however preclude us letting each of the
> technology editors of all of the various magazines that it will
> appear, who paid for it, and why.
As per my other, I'm also back / still on the Owl kick:
(1) Lemmings association.
(2) What Wirt said above.
(3) Instantly recognizable symbol.
(4) I still like the "Who Knew" tag: You can't quite figure it
out.... and that's not necessarily bad: Might make people stop
and think longer than they would otherwise; and that would be
good.
SUMMARY:
Sooo....: While the exact words are not critical, I am still
strongly of the opinion that something like my beta at
http://www.editcorp.com/wsj/kens-ad-1.html is as far towards
the non-confrontational variant as we should go; and should
at the very least include the words "MPE" and "Image/SQL"
along with HP 3000. I would go "more confrontational" before
going "less"; i.e.: If consensus was to replace my "Hey,
Carly !!" with Wirt's "Wake up HP !!", I could go along with
that; no problem. BUT: Do NOT do a "wholly non-
confrontational, standard vanilla ad": That's a snoozer: It's the
at least mildly confrontational part that will most get readers
OTHER THAN Carly & Co. and the trade rags to notice and
then ask HP about it... Nothing but "smile, be happy" is a flat-
out mistake, IMO....
SIDEBAR: I was hoping Wirt would kind of like my variant;
after all: I stole many of the words and phases from him.. ;-)
If anyone is still doing the Hamlet thing on the "to confront or
not to confront" decision, reflect on the post 10 min ago by
Eric Sand:
> .... today I received from HP a new "e-zine" titled "HP
> Computer News" which basically is a markerting vehicle
> aimed at management. The HPe3000 writeup is the last,
> almost as an after thought, behind the "Service and Support"
> and "Peripherals" sections, not up front in the "Business
> Computing" section with HP-UX and NT. This has got to
> stop.
It's the above and things like it every day that tell us that
regardless of how hard CSY has been and is and will be trying
to get the word out and accepted by Corporate, they have NOT
gotten the message yet.... Until we have EVIDENCE that the
message is getting through: CHARGE !!!!....
O.K...: I've said my piece(s) on the ad for now.... Regardless
of other actions, I welcome suggestions for improvements to
my wording at above URL.... If what you like is so different
from what I've got that it essentially involves starting over....
well, then put up your own URL and let's see what you've got...
:-)
Ken "*way* past time to do real work" Sletten
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