Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!pyramid!octopus!pete
From: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Why clone the PS/2?
Summary: Hollywood is good bang for the advertising buck
Message-ID: <237@octopus.UUCP>
Date: 24 May 88 02:16:06 GMT
References: <6649@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Reply-To: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Organization: Octopus Enterprises, Cupertino CA
Lines: 32

In article <6649@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> gtchen@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (George T. Chen) writes:

>I don't know about the performance of IBM in Europe but they seem to
>be doing fine in a much more local industry, Hollywood.  Has anyone
>besides me noticed that IBM machines are lying on tables and desks
>in most of the recent features... Head of the Class
>has an IBM PS/2 Model 50?  This only a few weeks after the product 
>came out...

Even without inside knowledge, you'll realize that if a product shows up in
a TV production immediately after release, it isn't there as a prop bought
off the shelf; the manufacturer WANTED it there.

As a matter of fact, corporate marketing departments PAY to get their products
into TV shows and movies. If I remember right, they even pay to get their
products featured as giveaways on the popular game shows. The bucks depend on
the exposure, just as with any advertising campaign. Spreading your product
around on the right shows is not all that expensive, and gets the visuals
burned into peoples' subconscious. This is similar to the reasons why
drug companies pay hospitals to use their pain relievers, disposable diapers,
etc etc. [You didn't think Pampers are most-used in hospitals 'cuz the nurses
LIKE them, did you? :-)]. Hmmm... I'm way off in misc.consumers now.

Anyway, seeing a brand name product on a TV show or movie is not so much
a measure of product popularity as it is a measure of TV show/movie 
popularity.

Pete
-- 
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