From: skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls)
Subject: Re: A3000T ad (was: Re: New A3000T ?!?
Organization: University of Mississippi, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 13:08:08 GMT

In article <1992Aug21.024905.2346@nmsu.edu> dleland@dante.nmsu.edu (LELAND) writes:
>In reference to the "dorky guy" in the Amiga A300T ad: this is precisely the
>kind of "no win" complaints I seem to see more and more of on this discussion.
>In the recent issues of BYTE, in which this C= ad appeared, I have seen ads
>set on beaches with crazy guys with beachballs, people climbing mountains to
>get to their new laptops, pictures of cartoon families going totally berzerk 
>over the new such and such PC, cartoons of users having their heads bitten off
>by dragons, "enemy" computers exploding, being struck by lightning, and 
>devouring users. I have seen so many silly looking ads by "sensible" companies
>that it really makes me wonder. 

The C= ad may not be the goofiest of the lot, but I don't think that they
look as professional as those for IBM, Apple, and others.  I'd also bet
that the ads would have been better received if they'd either cut the 
price in half or left the price off entirely.  They offer a 25MHz 040
with 5M RAM, 200M SCSI HD, 32bit bus, and monitor for $5998.  Who in the
world are they trying to kid?  Flip over to the Gateway ad (the huge
multi-page job with the cow-jockey) and check out their prices.  A 50MHz
DX2 system (comparable to a 25MHz 040) with 8M RAM, 340M SCSI HD, SVGA
card and monitor, 32bit bus (EISA), and tower case is $3695.  This is
not a garage-built clone and it offers on-site service just like the
Amiga.  If the A3000T ad had listed a price of $3998, I'd bet you'd be
hearing nothing but praise for it.

>When other companies make ads of any kind it seems to me, they get praise from
>the Amiga community like this "see? they advertize!" When C= makes ads, ANY
>ads, and I have yet to see ONE ad from C= that some net guy didn't complain 
>about, they are damned for having bad ads. I really worry about this. I know
>anybody on the net is fully entitled to their opinions, but jeez guys! At 
>least try to be pleased once in a while!

I'm certainly pleased that they've finally gotten some sense and have
started advertising to persons outside the Amiga community, but I am
not happy with what they are peddling.  I hope that they really are
going to release new machines this fall and the specs are as good as
the rumors suggest, but they'll need to advertise them heavily if they
expect to sell any of them.  No one will deny that the cost of any sort
of advertising is expensive, but companies much smaller than Commodore
seem to have no problem with it.  

I don't know if my statements will serve to explain the poor reception
of the ad by everyone on the net, but I hope you'll understand why I
am not so pleased by it.  There is little doubt that mindless whining
is annoying and does no one any good, but sometimes it is difficult
to be rational when one has to deal with such an irrational company.
At least the statements are usually confined to c.s.a.advocacy instead
of being posted to the serious groups.

Skip Sauls
skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu
 



Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy