Contributed by Linux Today reader Richard M. Kadoi.
I began to wonder about a commercial, one to begin the new year, to be the ‘millenium’ commercial that would vault Linux into the masses. I wondered if such a commercial could be produced, and how that commercial would be structured. So, here is my rambling.
The question came to me as: are there any commercials currently running in primetime television on any of the major 4 networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC) that gives exposure of Linux to the masses? If you have seen a generic Linux commercial, please email me so I can get an archive copy for viewing.
So the next question was: how should the commercial be structured, and hence the script below. I know there will be people saying I should put a window that’s compiling the kernel or another window with Gimp open, or some other window doing some obscure routine only an IT person would know, but the commercial isn’t supposed to focus in on one strength or geek-neededness. The commercial is intended to just graze and tease the masses into asking “what is Linux?” and not to cater to one particular aspect of the Operating System. Remember, the first rule of marketing a product that is relatively unknown is to make the commercial audience ask the question of “what is this product?”
Another idea before the official one-minute commercial runs on the NFL Superbowl is to have ‘teaser’ ad’s in which 15 seconds or even 10 seconds of commercial-time is bought up and shown around the country. That simple ‘blip’-mercial would be the penguin logo with the words “NFL Superbowl XXXIV” at the bottom.
After the script was written, I decided on when the commercial should run, and it dawned on me that the biggest televised event, more so than the last 3 previous Summer/Winter Olympics per event has been the NFL Superbowl games. Now I know there are you out there outside of the United States crying foul and saying that Soccer (al la non-USA-football) is watched by millions of fans worldwide, but that still leaves the largest single global event that is currently being telecast year after year: the NFL Superbowl. Yes, the Olympics draw a large crowd, but as far as a single televised event, on a global scale with every little editing on the part of stations outside the U.S. especially with a live feed, only the NFL Superbowl came to mind. I’m sure that if you are curious, you can go to the NFL site and check for yourself on how popular this American sports event is outside of the U.S.
One thing to remember is that in last year’s Superbowl, hotjobs.com ran a one minute unique commercial that not only overloaded it’s servers after the commercial, but successfully launched an obscure online job-search company. Now that’s what I call ‘reaching the masses.’ For those who don’t know the history behind their commercial, they ran over budget, not had a lot of time left before the final edit, and were basically going on a prayer that the commercial that was being produced would be a success. Most people who worked on the commercial secretly worried that it would bomb. For those who didn’t see the commercial or don’t remember it, it featured a Security Guard looking to move to a better job and the end result was becoming the security guard of a large major corporation.
Now, if you don’t think you’ve ever seen a generic Linux commercial, then follow along the script below and see if this pseudo-commercial will be an eye-catcher for everyone to start questioning people: What is Linux?