adam wagler

Friday, March 28th, 2008

Atomic Bomb Patents

On NPR this morning they had a story about the rush to patent the atomic bomb and it’s components. Here the story on NPR. So why am I posting it here, the website shows some great line drawings of the patent applications. The drawings are wonderful to look at but also very eerie to view know what the product was ultimately used for. Here’s some drawings:

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

Internet advertising usually is bad, but…

So I wrote a short paper about web advertising for a marketing class (see below). The text mention banner and skyscrapper ads were not effective. Although I generally agree Apple has a couple great applications of these formats.

Apple began the “Get a Mac” campaign in 2006 with a series of television commercials featuring humorous exchanges between a Mac, Justin Long and a PC, John Hodgman. The campaign also included static internet banner ads to supplement the television effort. In November 2007, they launched a new rich media advertisement on the internet which combined a banner ad across the top and a skyscraper ad along the right side of selected websites. The ad features video of the familiar characters, Mac and PC, in the skyscraper ad commenting on and interacting with the banner ad displaying an unlit sign which says “Don’t Give Up On Vista.” In the ad, PC hits a button to light up the sign but only the “Give Up” part illuminates, he hits the button again and “On Vista” lights up. He then repeatedly hits the button with these two phrases alternating on and off. The ad is a comment on the number of PC users who upgraded to Windows Vista and were unhappy with the new operating system.Clutter is mentioned in the text as a disadvantage for internet advertising with the effectiveness of banner ads on the decline. This ad builds off the popularity of the TV commercials creating good synergy and reinforcing Apples brand image. Another disadvantage it overcomes is annoyance to the user. The initial state of the ad is static with information about the new Mac computers and includes a play button where viewers have the option to view the rich media content. This technique adds to the brand image of a class, innovation, and a customer driven company who thinks of everything. The ad is a creative use of the medium which not only breaks through the clutter of online advertising, but has created a buzz with internet users seeking out the advertisement.