Better Computing Through Advertising, or something like that.
It seems a woman named Leah Culver was able to buy a laptop by offering advertising space on its lid - see Help Me Buy a Laptop!. The question that comes to my mind is this: Why would a company pay to advertise on the lid of a laptop?
One angle is viral advertising. It seems to be all the rage these days and it undoubtedly brings in the press. Do a quick search on Google or Digg and you’ll see tons of references to it, I even wrote about. I even clicked the links on the laptop. Lots of press for only $150 a square inch.
Another angle I can think of is the male need to help. I don’t have any statistics to prove this thought but I bet there were a lot of men who run companies who bought space on the laptop. If this is case then would it have been any different if Ms. Culver wasn’t beautiful? I may be cynical but I think someone not so good looking would still be waiting for a laptop.
A less cynical idea would be just a general want to help someone else, the I-have-money-and-you-don’t mentality. This would be the most heart warming of all of my ideas but again the cynic in me doesn’t think this is the case either.
I’m hoping to spark some debate with this post so I’m going to leave comments open, please let me know your thoughts.
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006