From: jeffo@uiuc.edu (J.B. Nicholson-Owens)
Subject: REPOST: What is with the advertising in NeXTworld?
Reply-To: jeffo@uiuc.edu (J.B. Nicholson-Owens)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 01:13:35 GMT

[After NewsGrazer almost completely reformatted my post]

I've recieved a lot of mail saying that some sites couldn't read
this post, and that people want to read it, therefore, I'm
reposting this so that it's legible.  I've tried mailing this to
some of them, but some of the mail bounced.  Hopefully NG will
decide not to reformat what I've entered.  In the future, I will
try to be more careful about what NG spits out. 

Repost begins here:

So far, I've seen two companies advertise their products in
NeXTworld with sex as the attention-grabbing feature. 
Rightbrain has the shot of a painting of a suprised looking
woman and Chromagrafx has the shot of a sleepy-looking
(supposed to be sexy-looking probably) woman.  It's really
getting to be the level of other advertisers who have
bikini-clad models holding equipment of one sort or another. 
In Rightbrain's ad, they even wasted an entire page to bring
NeXTworld readers that sexist crap.  That ad was a real fall from
the humourous and non-offensive "If I push this pencil..." ad. 

If the product can't be sold on it's own merits, I guess those
folks feel they need some sex-boost to make it sell.  However,
what they fail to notice is that if it can't sell on it's own
merits, there's no reason for anyone to buy it.  If it's that
good, show screen shots, show panels associated with the
program, show the program in action, not some sexist drivel. 

Someone that both these companies can learn from is Stone
Design.  No b.s. with Stone Design.  They talk about their
product, and only their product.  They realize that their
products can sell based on the fact that they are high-quality
merchandise.  The only thing I would suggest to them is to change
the color of the word "Design" in their logo to something that is
a little more readable. 

NeXT app companies who seek to advertise: please don't fall
into the trap of offending your readers because you think that
'sex sells'.  It doesn't reflect well on people you'd like to
make your customers; men and women alike.  Just because the
people in Computer Shopper do it (among other places) doesn't
mean you have to.  After all, you are selling your product, not a
woman. 

On the side,  when it comes to posting to USENET, if you're
posting RTF, please label it.  Yet another advertisement from
Glenn Reid came out that wasn't labeled as RTF when it was RTF.  It
takes so little time to label posts properly and not piss off
people who pay for their news. 
-- 
-- Jeff (jeffo@uiuc.edu)
-- NeXTmail welcome
 entire page to bring
NeXTworld readers that sexist crap.  That ad was a real fall from
the humourous and non-offensive "If I push this pencil..." ad. 

If the product can't be sold on it's own merits, I guess those
folks feel they need some sex-boost to make it sell.  However,
what they fail to notice is that if it can't sell on it's own
merits, there's no reason for anyone to buy it.  If it's that
good, show screen shots, show panels associated with the
program, show the program in action, not some sexist drivel. 

Someone that both these companies can learn from is Stone
Design.  No b.s. with Stone Design.  They talk about their
product, and only their product.  They realize that their
products can sell based on the fact that they are high-quality
merchandise.  The only thing I would suggest to them is to change
the color of the word "Design" in their logo to something that is
a little more readable. 

NeXT app companies who seek to advertise: please don't fall
into the trap of offending your readers because you think that
'sex sells'.  It doesn't reflect well on people you'd like to
make your customers; men and women alike.  Just because the
people in Computer Shopper do it (among o
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy