macnn/electronista
09/10/2008, 12:00am, EDT
Wednesday, September 10thDell slams MacBook Air with E4200 video
Dell on Tuesday broadsided Apple's famous manila envelope commercial with its own tongue-in-cheek version, removing the Latitude E4200 from the sleeve and comparing it to the MacBook Air. A shiny Dell logo crosses the screen as the notebook is removed from the envelope, set down, and opened in the same manner as the Air in Apple's commercial. Dell highlights the E4200's thinner width and length, but negates to compare the notebook's height, which is known to be taller than the MacBook Air.
The end of the video boasts that the E4200 offers "more substance" and "less air" than its Apple counterpart.
Filed under: computers
Other story tags: Dell, MacBook Air, E4200
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uh
More substance less air means heavier and thicker than the Air. Not exactly a good selling point.
I'm in advertising, and if I had put together a spot like that, I would have been chastised for being unoriginal and beaten about the head and shoulders for picking such a hideous song.
Hmmph!
One of the cheapest things to do for a rival product is to directly 'take on' the alpha product directly. It's not only an indirect admission that you treat the latter as a benchmark, it's just plain unoriginal (as Tim_s has right said).
But then it's only DELL, folks. I think that's a shade better than Microsoft trying to be 'original'.
It's all in the name
What sounds more appealing: Aston Martin Vantage? Or Ford F100?
Like the Ford, E4200 tells you nothing about the product. Dell may as well called it the "Meh" because that's the reaction you will get when you tell someone you have one of these.
Guess what
No one cared about it.
Fail
I like the beginning where you can see the manila envelope almost bursting because the Dell is so thick. That's exactly the Air's selling point and they managed to completely miss it. Bravo.
Also they didn't manage to spell MacBook Air correctly so I'm assuming they simply didn't put much care into the ad in the first place.
At least that fits the way they do their hardware. Little attention to detail. It's all just about being cheap. Oh well. To each his own I guess.
Chubby
It looked kinda chubby in the envelope like Simon said. They should've taken a bigger envelope. Oh, I like the stickers on the keyboard, nice touch... and I bet there's going to be Dell logo's and sofware all over the OS, nice.
Seriously though, at least it's good to see manufacturers are trying to compete, and making notebooks smaller and thinner... I can remember my first Dell laptop, it gave me leg cramps. I won't even start about the docking station...
Fake
That ad doesn't look real at all. It's all overexposed and yuck.
eeeew
1- It's hideous looking.
2- Trackpad is tiny and I don't think it handles gestures.
3- The commercial is a total failure.
4- The keyboard looks cramped.
5- Typical ugly PC look, too complex looking.
6- It's hideous looking.
7- It looks hideous.
8- It's ugly.
9- I like the way they end with the Dell logo that visually reflects the ugliness of their hideous product.
Stickers?
I can't see the ad at work, but are you telling me they left stickers on ad unit? You have to be kidding.
indeed fake
Fake or not meant for broadcast. Dell would never put Appe's product name in a commercial and it looks amateurish. Laptop moving backwards when opening the lid and to shaky when holding it. If this is real then Dell is in big trouble.