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ubuntu_demon
June 14th, 2005, 11:34 PM
Hi,

I got this idea of an Ubuntu commercial. I'm not much of an artist. But sometimes I think I have a good idea :)

The goal of this Ubuntu commercial is : getting people into contact with Ubuntu.

When this gets of the ground maybe we can flood the world with lots of Ubuntu commercials :-P

1)
Let's create slick and funny and informative flyers that everyone can download and print (fully colored ones and low on ink grayscale ones).

2)OPTIONAL
Let's create a super funny commercial in flash :
-We can use this flash movie as a story board for the fully rendered commericial.
-We can use this flash movie to attract the expertise needed to create a fully rendered movie.

3)
I think the "final" commercial has to be a rendered animated movie because :
- we can show of opensource rendering software
-short animated movies are funnier than normal commercials because the artists have a lot of creative freedom.
-rendered movies only costs time (and no money)

These guys are creating an entire movie using only open source software :
http://orange.blender.org/cms/Home.553.0.html

As soon as this rendered movie is finished we need everyone in this community to start spreading the word about this(IM / email all your friends about it). We can spread this commercial across the world using p2p networks. We can make this happen if we all believe in it! Maybe it will get really popular and we'll start creating ubuntu commercials like crazy!

The quality of the commercial has to be really high. It also has to be super funny because we want to spread this commercial like a fire in a dry plain!

What we need :

-we need artists who want to spend time on this
-we need people who have expertise in marketing/commercials and legal stuff
-we need a website ... maybe http://www.spreadubuntu.org ?
-We need to decide what message we want to sent

For example :
-Make everyone curious about the word Ubuntu
-Show in a funny way how much more work you can do with Ubuntu
-Ubuntu is making you happy

-we need a super funny script (we've got over 30k users .. so I'm sure this is no problem)

For example :

There's a squirrel in africa. His pc crashes all the time and he's got spyware. He decides to go to the medicine man. He prescribes Ubuntu. He tries Ubuntu and a chain of events leads him to becoming so rich that he can spend his vacation in space :)

I was posting in this thread when I got the idea about the ubuntu commercial :
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=41400

my proposal :

- first I want to know how everybody thinks about this idea. That's why I created this poll.
- If there are enough people who like this idea then let's create an Ubuntu community project

Let's not discuss in this thread whether or not to attack windows anymore. There's a seperate thread especially for this here :
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=41786

I do not think we need money. Maybe in the future we may decide to raise some funds. But let's first try this out.

We do need some organization.

if you really want to help out please go here :
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=282951

edit :
This project is not active. IMHO it's best (most productive) to cooperate with the marketing efforts on the wiki.
If you want to help with marketing Ubuntu please cooperate with these efforts :
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam

GarySaved
June 14th, 2005, 11:44 PM
I'm not real sure this will work, but can we use that Ubuntu Badgers song/dance as a starting point? We would probably not be able to use the 'Lord of the Ring' one for copyright reasons. I know that will get people's attention, and before long we will have everyone humming it!

vega44
June 14th, 2005, 11:52 PM
take your time..... you have all the time in the world.. so plan it out.

poofyhairguy
June 14th, 2005, 11:54 PM
take your time..... you have all the time in the world.. so plan it out.


Good call. Its not like this needs to be delievered on a schedual, so there should be no rushing!

I like this, I'll help if I can.

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 12:04 AM
take your time..... you have all the time in the world.. so plan it out.
yeah we need to do this very organized. That's why I hope there's someone who has made commercials before in this forum.

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 12:04 AM
Good call. Its not like this needs to be delievered on a schedual, so there should be no rushing!

I like this, I'll help if I can.
great!

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 12:17 AM
from this thread :

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=213058&postcount=21




I have to agree with demon666_nl, if the commercial is great everyone will see it; but I still think it should be an all distro commercial, cuz that way it'll be cheaper for everyone to put it on TV. I'm seeing this in a way that people should know there's a bunch of options IF they change to Linux, cuz either way, it doesn't matter wich distro you have, at the end we're all Linux.

See it this way, our mother is the Linux kernel, but she likes many men, so we (her children) have different fathers (don't get me wrong it is just a metaphor; perhaps a bad one, but it is the way I see it ), but when it's mother's day we all give her presents no matter wich father we have; it's the same with the distro's we have to support Linux (our mom) no matter wich father (distro) we came from.


- I think we have to market Ubuntu as a brand. On the Ubuntu cd's there's also the word "linux" but these letters are a lot smaller than the letters of the word "UBUNTU". Also we don't want to market Ubuntu as a geeky linux distribution but as a new userfriendly OS.

-Also tv time is not the primary objective I think. We can reach very much users by IM/email/p2p if we do it right so we do not need money for this project.

skoal
June 15th, 2005, 12:39 AM
Great concept! I don't have much to contribute, but just an idea for an opening cut scene...

(Fade to focus) on Desmond Tutu's face as he delivers a passioned explanation of what Ubuntu means (http://www.ubuntulinux.org/community/conduct)...(fade to Linus) at some press conference pounding his fist repeatedly on the podium in anger as kernel patches flicker nearby on an overhead projector, while ghostly voices from the past begin to echo (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/SillySounds/english.au)....(audio and video fade to scratchy drips) as several prominent OSS faces surface back and forth on screen - Packard, Stallman, Kimball and Mattis, Vinet, all flickering in session like an old 50's black and white movie reel...(fade to focus) on a Soyuz rocket lifting off into space with deafening thunder and distant applause from the ground...(fade to focus) on some mixed CGI rendering of Mark Shuttleworth planting an Ubuntu flag on some distant planet, while a doctored JFK sound bite scratches in the background, "...ask not what your computer can do for you, ask what you can do for your computer."

\\//_

sonny
June 15th, 2005, 12:46 AM
Ok now that the Ubuntu commercial idea is on the road, I will support it; and put aside the all distro commercial. One idea for the artists, though, I think that the Ubuntu slogan should appear in the commercial.

"humanity to others"
"I am what I am because of who we all are"

Those are the spirit of Ubuntu, and as such have to be in the commercial, wheter it is implicit or explicit.

tread
June 15th, 2005, 12:46 AM
IM / email all your friends about it

This needs to be done with caution. The Ubuntu community is alredy getting a negative press as being too aggressive and outspoken .. excessive emailing might reach spam levels and leave us really unpopular. I know I am posting an extreme situation, but if you think about it, its not really that impossible.

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 12:53 AM
Great concept! I don't have much to contribute, but just an idea for an opening cut scene...

(Fade to focus) on Desmond Tutu's face as he delivers a passioned explanation of what Ubuntu means (http://www.ubuntulinux.org/community/conduct)...(fade to Linus) at some press conference pounding his fist repeatedly on the podium in anger as kernel patches flicker nearby on an overhead projector, while ghostly voices from the past begin to echo (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/SillySounds/english.au)....(audio and video fade to scratchy drips) as several prominent OSS faces surface back and forth on screen - Packard, Stallman, Kimball and Mattis, Vinet, all flickering in session like an old 50's black and white movie reel...(fade to focus) on a Soyuz rocket lifting off into space with deafening thunder and distant applause from the ground...(fade to focus) on some mixed CGI rendering of Mark Shuttleworth planting an Ubuntu flag on some distant planet, while a doctored JFK sound bite scratches in the background, "...ask not what your computer can do for you, ask what you can do for your computer."

\\//_
funny!

But I think it has to be something everyone can understand. And we don't want to do something like :linux was scary and now it isn't scary anymore. That's a bit negative towards linux.

I think it's better if either :

- we focus on happy / positive things of Ubuntu (usability / security)
- we focus on creating a very slick movie about a squirrel or some african stuff ... nobody has a clue but they keep remembering the word Ubuntu somehow
- .... ?


Please keep the funny ideas coming !

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 12:55 AM
Ok now that the Ubuntu commercial idea is on the road, I will support it; and put aside the all distro commercial. One idea for the artists, though, I think that the Ubuntu slogan should appear in the commercial.

"humanity to others"
"I am what I am because of who we all are"

Those are the spirit of Ubuntu, and as such have to be in the commercial, wheter it is implicit or explicit.
yeah!

"linux for human beings" we can use this slogan.

Maybe do something with aliens using windows? :-P

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 12:57 AM
This needs to be done with caution. The Ubuntu community is alredy getting a negative press as being too aggressive and outspoken .. excessive emailing might reach spam levels and leave us really unpopular. I know I am posting an extreme situation, but if you think about it, its not really that impossible.
yeah that's why I said "friends". We sure don't want to email everyone in our email adress books :)

But we should discuss this matter.

sonny
June 15th, 2005, 12:59 AM
Maybe do something with aliens using windows?

You have touch antoher point for the commercial.

Do we want to attack Windows? Or make some "pacific" war without saying bad things about MS?

Takis
June 15th, 2005, 01:03 AM
This needs to be done with caution. The Ubuntu community is alredy getting a negative press as being too aggressive and outspoken ..
Really? Do you have any links or anything? This is a bit new to me...

Out of curiousity demon666_nl, did you actually expect anyone in the Ubuntu forums to hit 'bad idea'? :grin:

tread
June 15th, 2005, 01:03 AM
I'd say no attacking windows. Just Ubuntu's positive side .. starting with ease of installation and use!

In fact, I think the ad shouldn't concentrate on too many points at all. We should just choose two or three main points and focus on those. Something like:

Ease of installation and use
Office apps like Evolution, Openoffice
Net apps like firefox, gaim
Ubuntu community


Oh and that its free of course :)

tread
June 15th, 2005, 01:07 AM
To read about Ubuntu community getting a negative press:

Ian Murdoch - founder of Progeny maintains a blog. Read what he has to say at
http://componentizedlinux.org/2005042602

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 01:09 AM
You have touch antoher point for the commercial.

Do we want to attack Windows? Or make some "pacific" war without saying bad things about MS?
yeah that's a big issue. There's gonna be need for a lot of discussion about this.

If we decide to attack windows it would have to be so funny that it's ridiculous. Maybe something like :

all aliens are using windows and their ufo's are crashing constantly. But even a squirrel can use Ubuntu without any problems. :-P

Also this Ubuntu commercial isn't an official one ... so we get a bit more "creative freedom".

Do you guys remember the george orwell commercial from apple ?

If we decide not to attack windows we have to think really hard to do something that is very funny. So I think if we don't attack windows ... we just have to do some crazy african stuff .... no computing / computers in it.

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 01:10 AM
Out of curiousity demon666_nl, did you actually expect anyone in the Ubuntu forums to hit 'bad idea'? :grin:

yeah .. it could be that there are users who think marketing should be done by cannonical and we shouldn't interfere

tread
June 15th, 2005, 01:12 AM
Crazy stuff will appeal to most of us, but maybe not to the people we hope to attract to Ubuntu. After all, the idea of the ad is not that we like it, but that people who do not use Linux get curious. Notice I said Linux and not Ubuntu.

I'm sorry if I am posting dampening thoughts, but someone has to play the devils advocate after all ;)

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 01:15 AM
I'd say no attacking windows. Just Ubuntu's positive side .. starting with ease of installation and use!

In fact, I think the ad shouldn't concentrate on too many points at all. We should just choose two or three main points and focus on those. Something like:

Ease of installation and use
Office apps like Evolution, Openoffice
Net apps like firefox, gaim
Ubuntu community


Oh and that its free of course :)
We'll soon have to start a poll about whether or not to attack windows. If it's gonna be a close call we have to postpone the decision and just decide which script is better.

I think the most important thing is that we make this commercial funny as hell. We want this to spread. This way we get people to the ubuntu websites. (like http://www.spreadubuntu.org) .. at these websites they can read the stuff in a relaxed way.

carlc
June 15th, 2005, 01:16 AM
Do we want to attack Windows?

attacking does not help promote something, plus gates and crew do a pretty good job at making themselves look bad without any outside help

sonny
June 15th, 2005, 01:23 AM
In fact, I think the ad shouldn't concentrate on too many points at all. We should just choose two or three main points and focus on those.

I think you are right about this, but Ubuntu (and Linux in general) has many positive things, that wouldn't be good to put aside. I guess that we can create a character and make one commercial for one positive characteristic, and then an other commercial (with the same character) making a point in an other positive thing. I think that demon666_nl has some sort of fetiche with squirrels :razz: so we can use that little and cute animal for the commercials.

Any ideas?

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 01:30 AM
Should the Ubuntu commercial attack windows ?

Please continue the discussion about attacking windows here (there's also a poll) :

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=213265

skoal
June 15th, 2005, 01:33 AM
[...] I think it has to be something everyone can understand. And we don't want to do something like :linux was scary and now it isn't scary anymore. That's a bit negative towards linux.
Yes sir, I agree. Most people don't find the obscure as very "entertaining" - like the occasional references Groening will throw into a Simpsons episode (probably hoping most sitting at home will scratch their chin and turn to their friend on the couch and say, "huh?"). Personally, I like the awkward torturous silence Dennis Miller created with his "play by play" calls on Monday Nite football (oops! probably another reference most won't get). Anyways, that's how I roll.

My "vision" started off as rather serious and reflective, but as the Dr. Pepper in my cup began to dwindle, flashes of Linus dressed in galactic emperor clothing while cracking lashes on our backs with his whip began to surface. Somehow it all began to just blur together as I wrote.

sorry 'bout that.

But, quite frankly, even as I type this sentence, I still see Linus wringing his hands together as he monitors the hordes of Windows users converting over to Linux daily from his spaceship, "Come my children...come my precious...muahahahaha..."

\\//_

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 01:34 AM
I think you are right about this, but Ubuntu (and Linux in general) has many positive things, that wouldn't be good to put aside. I guess that we can create a character and make one commercial for one positive characteristic, and then an other commercial (with the same character) making a point in an other positive thing.


Yeah we can make more than 1 commercial. Maybe a good first one is a total crazy and funny one. Maybe use africa / aliens / medicine masks or something.The word Ubuntu in the end This will create curiousity.



I think that demon666_nl has some sort of fetiche with squirrels :razz: so we can use that little and cute animal for the commercials.

Any ideas?

:-P

I just think that using animals is nice. Ubuntu does it in all their release names. Maybe we should use a warthog for all commercials during hoary. Maybe start using a badger when it's almost time for breezy.

tread
June 15th, 2005, 01:38 AM
Maybe a badger learning to use Linux? :razz: ok, possibly dumb idea :)

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 01:39 AM
Yes sir, I agree. Most people don't find the obscure as very "entertaining" - like the occasional references Groening will throw into a Simpsons episode (probably hoping most sitting at home will scratch their chin and turn to their friend on the couch and say, "huh?"). Personally, I like the awkward torturous silence Dennis Miller created with his "play by play" calls on Monday Nite football (oops! probably another reference most won't get). Anyways, that's how I roll.

My "vision" started off as rather serious and reflective, but as the Dr. Pepper in my cup began to dwindle, flashes of Linus dressed in galactic emperor clothing while cracking lashes on our backs with his whip began to surface. Somehow it all began to just blur together as I wrote.

sorry 'bout that.

But, quite frankly, even as I type this sentence, I still see Linus wringing his hands together as he monitors the hordes of Windows users converting over to Linux daily from his spaceship, "Come my children...come my precious...muahahahaha..."

\\//_
you are funny :-D

Keep it coming. Maybe you'll strike gold :)

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 01:40 AM
Maybe a badger learning to use Linux? :razz: ok, possibly dumb idea :)
not so bad. But how do we make it funny ?

gylf
June 15th, 2005, 01:43 AM
My suggestions:

Keep it simple - focus on name recognition. A lot of people have no idea what Ubuntu is.
Be careful in defining what "funny" is. I personally didn't think the firefox clips where funny in the slightest. Evidently a lot of other people did. If you go the humor route, try to aim for a more universal humor (if there is such a thing).
Don't attack Windows. It's a waste of time at this point and it plays into the sterotypical "elitist linux nerds hate Microsoft for no reason". Save it for a later commercial, if at all. For now, just educate people about what Ubuntu is.

tread
June 15th, 2005, 01:46 AM
For now, just educate people about what Ubuntu is.

Amen. I wish some designer would come over here and make suggestions!

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 01:46 AM
My suggestions:

Keep it simple - focus on name recognition. A lot of people have no idea what Ubuntu is.
Be careful in defining what "funny" is. I personally didn't think the firefox clips where funny in the slightest. Evidently a lot of other people did. If you go the humor route, try to aim for a more universal humor (if there is such a thing).
Don't attack Windows. It's a waste of time at this point and it plays into the sterotypical "elitist linux nerds hate Microsoft for no reason". Save it for a later commercial, if at all. For now, just educate people about what Ubuntu is.

Maybe first something that's universal funny (maybe like ice age?) .. but it would be nice to do something with africa too.

Maybe education movies after the ubuntu commercials gain popularity. We want to spread p2p networks here :)

sonny
June 15th, 2005, 01:52 AM
My suggestions:

Keep it simple - focus on name recognition. A lot of people have no idea what Ubuntu is.
Be careful in defining what "funny" is. I personally didn't think the firefox clips where funny in the slightest. Evidently a lot of other people did. If you go the humor route, try to aim for a more universal humor (if there is such a thing).
Don't attack Windows. It's a waste of time at this point and it plays into the sterotypical "elitist linux nerds hate Microsoft for no reason". Save it for a later commercial, if at all. For now, just educate people about what Ubuntu is.

I agree with you, we have to be carefull in the humor thing...

HEY--- UBUNTU designer come here .... :grin:
Ideas are flowing out here... come on and take them.

DanN
June 15th, 2005, 01:56 AM
I see tux (perhaps similar to the way he is depicted in the wallpaper where he's swatting the windows butterfly) throwing an ubuntu logo like a ninja star, the camera tracks the logo as it whooshes through the air and turns into a CD which ends up flying into a slot loading CD drive, then BANG the computer is transformed in an awsome glowing starburst into an Ubuntu PC.

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 02:02 AM
I see tux (perhaps similar to the way he is depicted in the wallpaper where he's swatting the windows butterfly) throwing an ubuntu logo like a ninja star, the camera tracks the logo as it whooshes through the air and turns into a CD which ends up flying into a slot loading CD drive, then BANG the computer is transformed in an awsome glowing starburst into an Ubuntu PC.
nice

sonny
June 15th, 2005, 02:06 AM
I see tux (perhaps similar to the way he is depicted in the wallpaper where he's swatting the windows butterfly) throwing an ubuntu logo like a ninja star, the camera tracks the logo as it whooshes through the air and turns into a CD which ends up flying into a slot loading CD drive, then BANG the computer is transformed in an awsome glowing starburst into an Ubuntu PC.
That is a good idea, at least the best one we have... :-P

Can you do it in flash??

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 02:12 AM
That is a good idea, at least the best one we have... :-P

Can you do it in flash??
We are going to do this organized and slow. Brainstorming is a good thing. But we don't assign anyone to anything for now.

And now I'm really going to sleep :-P

trash
June 15th, 2005, 02:16 AM
Great ideas people.

I think rather than pushing the ease of installation which is something a lot of people hate even at the best of times, that the commercial pushes something like 'test drive Linux/Ubuntu today' with the live cd's you are bound to have many more people interested enough to download and/or order their free cd's.

jerome bettis
June 15th, 2005, 04:39 AM
great idea but wait 12-18 months :-#

ok now that i've read the first post:

do it ... i thought we were talking about a tv commercial. ](*,)

poofyhairguy
June 15th, 2005, 07:51 AM
Whatever happens, a penguin must be involved.

Its THE Linux symbol. Closest thing to an Icon (like steve jobs...oops I mean apple logo).

jeremy
June 15th, 2005, 11:04 AM
How about a penguin flying out through a window and shouting "FREEDOM..."?

(I know that penguins don't fly, but that is just a technical detail).

I also thought that a penguin shi**ing on Mr. Ballmers head would be funny, but realise that others may not appreciate my scatalogical sense of humour.

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 12:02 PM
How about a penguin flying out through a window and shouting "FREEDOM..."?

(I know that penguins don't fly, but that is just a technical detail).


funny!
But I do think it's better to brand Ubuntu as a new and userfriendly OS than as a geeky linux. So I don't know about the penguin.

Spoofhound
June 15th, 2005, 12:21 PM
How about a penguin flying out through a window and shouting "FREEDOM..."?

(I know that penguins don't fly, but that is just a technical detail).

I also thought that a penguin shi**ing on Mr. Ballmers head would be funny, but realise that others may not appreciate my scatalogical sense of humour.

Nice one! "Who says penguins can't fly.........."

I don't think that Windows bashing is a good move - it'll just come across as a frustrated wannabe product.
Focus on all the issues people have with windows - security, stability, cost etc. but position it as a new way to improve your computing user experience without refering to windows (no Tux-Butterfly death matches). The comparisons will happen soon enough. Then wrap some community spirit around the message because, lets be honest, this is a pretty cool community (preaching to the converted)

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 12:29 PM
I don't think that Windows bashing is a good move - it'll just come across as a frustrated wannabe product.
Focus on all the issues people have with windows - security, stability, cost etc. but position it as a new way to improve your computing user experience without refering to windows (no Tux-Butterfly death matches). The comparisons will happen soon enough. Then wrap some community spirit around the message because, lets be honest, this is a pretty cool community (preaching to the converted)

It's pretty much decided we are not going to attack windows.Let's stop this discussion in this thread. Here's the relevant thread :

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=41786

primeirocrime
June 15th, 2005, 12:46 PM
isn't flash closed source?* I know it's swampy ground here, but I would like anything ubuntu to be as ethical as possible. but come to think of it most media in the web is closed source. Ok back to Super8.:smile:

anyway, a commercial to work has to appeal to the positive side of things or else it's just propaganda, any kind of message that depicts microsoft or windows as beeing evil will backfire. And also it's a bad practice to promote a product through the shortcommings of the other. If a jedi uses the same tactics as a sith then this jedi is no longer a jedi, he is in fact a sith.** Although the sith have better looking outfits and swords.





*is there any app out there to make flash movies in gnu/linux?

**Although the sith have better looking outfits and swords.

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 01:12 PM
isn't flash closed source?* I know it's swampy ground here, but I would like anything ubuntu to be as ethical as possible. but come to think of it most media in the web is closed source. Ok back to Super8.:smile:


I don't like flash very much too. But it's relative easy to create something fast. We could use it as a storyboard and only release the final rendered commercial.

Is there open source software that's easy and fast and creates small files that everybody can watch without needing to install plugins ?



anyway, a commercial to work has to appeal to the positive side of things or else it's just propaganda, any kind of message that depicts microsoft or windows as beeing evil will backfire. And also it's a bad practice to promote a product through the shortcommings of the other. If a jedi uses the same tactics as a sith then this jedi is no longer a jedi, he is in fact a sith.** Although the sith have better looking outfits and swords.


It's pretty much decided we are not going to attack windows.Let's stop this discussion in this thread. Here's the relevant thread :

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=41786

sonny
June 15th, 2005, 04:04 PM
*is there any app out there to make flash movies in gnu/linux?

We have to find out about that point. Does anybody know any program, cuz I think that emulate flash from macromedia with Wine, Cross-Over, or VMware, will be hypocrite, we need to do it 100% Open Source.

nrayever
June 15th, 2005, 05:54 PM
some great ideas where post rigth now here. bus we shouldn't attack directly to MS. while i was reading i was thinking in a possible spot. maybe homer j. simpson using a computer and saying ouch all the time, then lisa come up with an ubuntu live cd and tell homer to try it, then homer after some days of trying it thanks lisa for give him a simple-use OS. or something like it.

i hope u like it!!

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 06:07 PM
some great ideas where post rigth now here. bus we shouldn't attack directly to MS. while i was reading i was thinking in a possible spot. maybe homer j. simpson using a computer and saying ouch all the time, then lisa come up with an ubuntu live cd and tell homer to try it, then homer after some days of trying it thanks lisa for give him a simple-use OS. or something like it.

i hope u like it!!
that's nice but doesn't that violate copyright ?

sonny
June 15th, 2005, 06:07 PM
some great ideas where post rigth now here. bus we shouldn't attack directly to MS. while i was reading i was thinking in a possible spot. maybe homer j. simpson using a computer and saying ouch all the time, then lisa come up with an ubuntu live cd and tell homer to try it, then homer after some days of trying it thanks lisa for give him a simple-use OS. or something like it.

i hope u like it!!
Great idea... but we're still having a discussion about comparing Win vs Linux or not, cuz of the implications it might bring to us.

you can present your ideas in the thread about attacking windows in the commercial.

sonny
June 15th, 2005, 06:11 PM
that's nice but doesn't that violate copyright ?
I think that can be a problem... that means we are not able to use any famous cartoon or character people can recognize [-X ... that sucks ](*,)

ubuntu_demon
June 15th, 2005, 06:40 PM
I think that can be a problem... that means we are not able to use any famous cartoon or character people can recognize [-X ... that sucks ](*,)
I don't think we can use cartoons. But we could use animated characters of real people (southpark does it all the time).

sonny
June 15th, 2005, 06:48 PM
I don't think we can use cartoons. But we could use animated characters of real people (southpark does it all the time).
I guess we'll have to find out about that.

AgenT
June 15th, 2005, 06:57 PM
isn't flash closed source?*
*is there any app out there to make flash movies in gnu/linux?

[emphasis added because font was size 1 :)]

Why yes! At least from what I understand. See Moho. And before you say that it's not professional, check out what one of the Ubuntu fans (CaptainCavern) made with it (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=26238) (search for the flash animations).

sonny
June 15th, 2005, 07:11 PM
[emphasis added because font was size 1 :)]

Why yes! At least from what I understand. See Moho. And before you say that it's not professional, check out what one of the Ubuntu fans (CaptainCavern) made with it (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=26238) (search for the flash animations).
well there's the squirrel demon666_nl wanted to add to the commercial, that's a pretty nice job he did, look like the one of the ice age... I think we could use that for the commercial, I'm guessing it's GPL, right?

Lagiv
June 15th, 2005, 07:15 PM
You could wait for Firefox 1.1 and it's native SVG support. Then make an SVG animation. It would be bleeding edge tech and fully Free, as is Ubuntu.

sonny
June 15th, 2005, 07:20 PM
I have posted a thread in the ubuntu art work forum inviting them to this thread, so we can get some ubuntu artist interested in this project.

clb137
June 15th, 2005, 07:30 PM
OMG what is wrong with you all???????????///////////////

LINUX is a free bird keep it that way UBUNTU is but a little one among many love learn and carry on

gylf
June 16th, 2005, 04:37 AM
I have one more suggestion:

Don't put the main focus on "Ubuntu is malware free!" Granted, that is a big benefit right now. But we all know it'll become less and less true as the months roll by.

Ironically, it'll be all the people switching to escape malware that end up bringing malware to us :)

TravisNewman
June 16th, 2005, 05:04 AM
well hopefully with the sudo model and not letting people have free reign, they won't bring it to anyone.

but that's neither here nor there for this discussion :)

weekend warrior
June 16th, 2005, 10:09 AM
It's important to be realistic people. If you're going to do a project like this it should be simple, not too time intensive. Otherwise it will never get done!

My proposal - focus on the desktop. This is what will really pique people's interest. After all, it's what they look at when using their computer. How many of you saw the Florida Voting Machine parody? If you missed it here it is in movie and media player format:

http://www.boomchicago.nl/images/Voting_Machine.mov
http://www.boomchicago.nl/images/Voting_Machine.wmv

This is very simple and it's also funny. Something like this could be done to show people the ubuntu desktop and how easy it is to use. It could be made as funny as the Voting Machine (though tbh I think the only way it could be that funny would be comparing desktops - like that clip indirectly does with Bush and Kerry).

Personally I prefer something more professional but using the same "cursor-interface & comments" concept. Imagine the desktop comes up... cursor starts navigating menus....some inquistive "hmms" surprising "ooohs!" comforting "yeahs" as each app quickly starts up and does its thing.... The cursor continues going round the different features, changes themes, opens the browser (and goes to ubuntu.com of course!) uses Gaim and IMs something like "Hey! you should really try Ubuntu!" (a little subliminal message never hurts ;-) ) etc etc.

There could even be a quick cutaway to a digital camera being plugged in and an emphatic "COOL!" when the "download images?" box automatically pops up (gets them every time that one :) ) and so on til the end when a message comes into view:


Looking for a free alternative?

Look at Ubuntu

then a slow fade in/fade out with...
www.ubuntu.com


Simple, effective, and to the point. It could of course also be done in a totally funny way like the Voting Machine, that's one reason I linked it. But most importantly, this "cursor-interface & comments" concept is fully possible to do with the resources this community already has at hand.

weekend warrior
June 16th, 2005, 10:22 AM
oh and btw, I think it's more appropriate to continue the project here on this thread instead of the other one. For the past 20 years we've watched MS attack and destroy anything and everything, a complete predator :evil: - and now it's seriously asked whether ubuntu should do the same??? Count me out! :mad: I don't even think a thread like that is worthy enough to stay up.

ubuntu_demon
June 16th, 2005, 10:37 AM
oh and btw, I think it's more appropriate to continue the project here on this thread instead of the other one. For the past 20 years we've watched MS attack and destroy anything and everything, a complete predator :evil: - and now it's seriously asked whether ubuntu should do the same??? Count me out! :mad: I don't even think a thread like that is worthy enough to stay up.
I will close the other thread after there will be no votes for a while (maybe no votes and no new posts for 2 days like I suggested)

sonny
June 16th, 2005, 03:55 PM
I think we have to bring some ideas from the other thread to this one... so we can disscuss them all here.

aragorn2909
June 16th, 2005, 04:19 PM
I think we have to bring some ideas from the other thread to this one... so we can disscuss them all here.

I'll second that. There are ideas in that thread worthy of serious discussion

sonny
June 16th, 2005, 04:54 PM
From the other thread:


How about this... A bunch of monkeys in a large dingy room shackled to their desks, and using computers, quietly at first. Then the virus and spyware alert messages start showing up with an appropriately annoying audible one. At first the the monkeys complain through an occasional squawk or screech, with the crescendo growing to an ear-shattering symphony of the audible warning sounds emitted by Windows.

Three monkeys "escape" by discovering that their shackles aren't really keeping them there, and they wander into the hallway (as dark, dirty as their orignal room) with one covering his eyes, one his ears, and one his mouth. They notice a brightly lit doorway at he end of the hall and walk towards it.

The closer they get, the more human they look. They get to the door and are each met by a beautiful woman and guided work station with the Ubuntu logon screen. They log in (with user names like "see no evil", etc) and are greeted with the Ubuntu login sound, and they being working.

They eventually noticed that they are now fully human. The scene fades to an Ubunto logo on a black background (as it fades, the Ubuntu startup sound plays in the background), and a soft female voice with ahint of sedcutiveness says "Ubuntu - Linux for human beings."

jsimmons
June 16th, 2005, 05:03 PM
Here are some of my ideas (I originally posted them in the other commercial thread).

---------------------------------------------------------------
Title: "Don't Be A Sheep"
---------------------------------------------------------------
Have agreen hill/blue sky setting (like the Windows XP default background), and have a bunch of sheep walking in a single direction in straight lines, possibly towards a window that sees to hang in space.

Have one of the sheep morph into a human being and deviates from the path the other sheep have taken. Music starts (the modernzed version of "Somewhere over the rainbow"). The camera zooms out a little to follow him as he walks towards an Ubuntu logo hanging in space. Camera pans around so that it can see what's happening behind this person, and you see a bunch of other sheep morphing into humans and walking in the same general direction as our hero.

And then, a soft female voice with a hint of seduction narrates "Ubuntu - Linux for human beings."


---------------------------------------------------------------
Title: "Don't Monkey Around"
---------------------------------------------------------------
A bunch of monkeys in a large dingy room shackled to their desks, and using computers, quietly at first. Then the virus and spyware alert messages start showing up with an appropriately annoying audible one. At first the the monkeys complain through an occasional squawk or screech, with the crescendo growing to an ear-shattering symphony of the audible warning sounds emitted by Windows.

Three monkeys "escape" by discovering that their shackles aren't really keeping them there, and they wander into the hallway (as dark, dirty as their orignal room) with one covering his eyes, one his ears, and one his mouth. They notice a brightly lit doorway at he end of the hall and walk towards it.

The closer they get, the more human they look. They get to the door and are each met by a beautiful woman and guided work station with the Ubuntu logon screen. They log in (with user names like "see no evil", etc) and are greeted with the Ubuntu login sound, and they being working.

They eventually noticed that they are now fully human. The scene fades to an Ubunto logo on a black background (as it fades, the Ubuntu startup sound plays in the background), and a soft female voice with ahint of sedcutiveness says "Ubuntu - Linux for human beings."


---------------------------------------------------------------
Title: "Pick Your Favorite"
---------------------------------------------------------------
A room full of people standing in line in front of a curtained booth to get their favorite Linux distro. As they enter, a voice says "Enter your favorite operating system at this time."

They type something in a keyboard (we don't know what), and enter the booth. a sound (like a moderately substantial "poof") and maybe a shot of steam is heard, and a puff of smoke rises from the booth.

An animal comes out of the other side of the booth. The animal is different for each person, and each animal has a black plastic bag containing it's OS of choice. We see tis happen four or five times before our hero comes up for his turn.

Our hero types in "Ubuntu" (we can see this), he enters the booth, and nothing happens. He merely comes out with a white plastic bag with the "Ubuntu" logo on it.

As he walks away, the next person has selected and walked into the booth, and is transformed into an animal that is clearly too big for the booth (an elephant).

The screen fades to black with the Ubuntu logo and a soft female voice with a hint of seduction says "Ubuntu". At this point the elephant makes a standard elephant trumpeting sound (this might shake the word "Ubuntu" eventually having the last "U" tilt a little, and the female voice continues, "Linux for human bengs."

NOTE: The ending could be easily modified to have the large animal (Giraffe, elephant, hourse, gorilla, etc) wanter onto the black screen at the end (or have their head come up form the bottom and look around). this would result in several similar commercials but with different (clever) endings.

aragorn2909
June 16th, 2005, 05:17 PM
I don't think we can use cartoons. But we could use animated characters of real people (southpark does it all the time).
day late and a dollar short maybe, but my understanding is, Southpark gets away with it because the images/cartoons are satirical. If cartoon images of real people were used in an Ubuntu commercial, that would be considered an endorsement.

sonny
June 16th, 2005, 05:28 PM
day late and a dollar short maybe, but my understanding is, Southpark gets away with it because the images/cartoons are satirical. If cartoon images of real people were used in an Ubuntu commercial, that would be considered an endorsement.

You're right it maight be considered as advertising and they are not getting pay... is that what you ment??

aragorn2909
June 16th, 2005, 05:36 PM
You're right it maight be considered as advertising and they are not getting pay... is that what you ment??
exactly

sonny
June 16th, 2005, 05:43 PM
Well here in Mexico they do some cartoonish character that resembels the one in real life (just enough so you can know who the character is), and then they change the name a bit so it won't be the same but you get the idea it's the same; it's done with artist and politicians, once they got britney spears and made her charcater the name was in inglesh (hehehehehehe) and was something like babe streep or something; our president last name is Fox and his character name is Fots, .. do you get the idea???

aragorn2909
June 16th, 2005, 06:03 PM
But the characters, I'm assuming, are merely satirical, and aren't selling anything?

sonny
June 16th, 2005, 06:17 PM
But the characters, I'm assuming, are merely satirical, and aren't selling anything?
Well you're right... they don't sell anything... :?

N'Jal
June 16th, 2005, 08:20 PM
I cannot remember this guys name nor what thread i read it in, but i will not take credit for this idea since it's not mine.

It's abstract but very good, I will post the txt document but i can't abriviate it since i could not do the work justice. Imagine that as a comerical it's not really attacking windows it more states that there is another way to do things and that we are all capible we just have to flex the right muscles

weekend warrior
June 16th, 2005, 08:23 PM
Another possibility to at least consider for something like this is outsourcing to an animation studio. If you're looking for something funny and well produced there might be an up and coming studio that would relish the idea and take it on for little more than the notoriety.

Sony chose to outsource with jibjab.com for their Atrac CD Walkman. (BTW their "Ahnuld for Governor" clip is hilarious! "Drugs I Need" is good too :lol: )

A studio like JibJab, The Animation Farm or atomfilms.com (of "This Land is My land" fame) would be more than capable to handle penguins, badgers, monkeys, Zulu warriors or what have you. In fact, it would be interesting to see what people like that could come up with for a distro with names like Warty Warthog, Hoary Hedgehog and Breezy Badger! It is after all, their specialty.

Again I'd urge bringing the discussion back to this thread and stop flogging the "attack MS or not" dead horse. The more positive ideas there are in a positive context the more chances this will have getting off the ground.

aragorn2909
June 16th, 2005, 08:26 PM
Well, as jsimmons did, I feel compelled to reiterate my (only) suggestion from the other thread concerning this commercial. Something simple, flashy, universal? Music. One recognizable song from one politically aware artist/band that wouldn't charge $12 million for its use, is all it really takes to get the word out. Sort of akin to a very successful 1995 ad campaign involving the Rolling Stones.

N'Jal
June 16th, 2005, 09:18 PM
Anyway, dunno if this has been mentioned before but jargon is a no-no. Suppose it really didn't need to be said.

"Linux: Teaching hackers since '91". I didn't think so either :p

Seriouly now

Ok U2's beautiful day start playing, and you start with a sunrise just as the sun peaks over the tree's there's that massive flash and quickly you see the ubuntu logo, as the sun rises you see animals i was thinking perhaps a lizard scuttle past and on it's back is the ubuntu logo, camera zooms in to the logo till that's all you see, camera zooms out to a wallpaper featuring the logo further to see it's a laptop and further to see that the person is sat outside in nature. The camera spins around and up in a fancy trick effect and follows seemingly nothing but there's this small lineas the camera crashes into this line the camera is in the middle of 0's and 1's, it slide in and out of this stream until the camera is propelled into another machine perhaps a desktop with the wall paper with the location of the origanal shot the camera zoom's into the wall paper propelling it back to the origanal forest as the sun's setting as the screen goes dark the ubuntu logo appears with ubuntu linux written underneth it.

Seems a bit short but perhaps as the camera travels along the binary stream you should see the african theme, then another shot of a child, in to the stream then out again, cut to high school the child has matured some shows him/her hard at work, in then out agin university working hard, in/out, parent digital photo of their kids, in/out family snaps showing their kids growing up, final shot of the origanal person in old age with their kids and grandkids then the camera moves to the desktop, which after this should be some futuristic device now, with the forest pic, zoom to the forest as the day ends cut to ubuntu logo.

The end

What you think?

allforcarrie
June 16th, 2005, 09:34 PM
http://www.exploredc.org/images/presidents/43_06.jpg

PLUS

http://www.it-administrator.de/img/artikel/2004-10/ubuntu.gif








SO EASY ANYONE CAN USE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

somuchfortheafter
June 16th, 2005, 09:35 PM
how about ubuntu as a theif
like we get video footage of a dude in a black theif suit with ubutnu's logo on the back and show him robbing a package with the label apt-get on the side.... then off to red hat for a odd shaped pc labeled professionalism.. and somthing other distros just for fun... then show the dude putting it together and cut to a pc running ubuntu and have it say in white text up top. Ubuntu and then at the bottom.. i am what i am because of what we all are.....

aragorn2909
June 16th, 2005, 09:37 PM
Anyway, dunno if this has been mentioned before but jargon is a no-no. Suppose it really didn't need to be said.

"Linux: Teaching hackers since '91". I didn't think so either :p

Seriouly now

Ok U2's beautiful day start playing, and you start with a sunrise just as the sun peaks over the tree's there's that massive flash and quickly you see the ubuntu logo, as the sun rises you see animals i was thinking perhaps a lizard scuttle past and on it's back is the ubuntu logo, camera zooms in to the logo till that's all you see, camera zooms out to a wallpaper featuring the logo further to see it's a laptop and further to see that the person is sat outside in nature. The camera spins around and up in a fancy trick effect and follows seemingly nothing but there's this small lineas the camera crashes into this line the camera is in the middle of 0's and 1's, it slide in and out of this stream until the camera is propelled into another machine perhaps a desktop with the wall paper with the location of the origanal shot the camera zoom's into the wall paper propelling it back to the origanal forest as the sun's setting as the screen goes dark the ubuntu logo appears with ubuntu linux written underneth it.

Seems a bit short but perhaps as the camera travels along the binary stream you should see the african theme, then another shot of a child, in to the stream then out again, cut to high school the child has matured some shows him/her hard at work, in then out agin university working hard, in/out, parent digital photo of their kids, in/out family snaps showing their kids growing up, final shot of the origanal person in old age with their kids and grandkids then the camera moves to the desktop, which after this should be some futuristic device now, with the forest pic, zoom to the forest as the day ends cut to ubuntu logo.

The end

What you think?


You Sir, have just put into words almost exactly what was running through my mind, even down to the song. Perfect.

N'Jal
June 16th, 2005, 10:06 PM
Thanks [sheepish grin], i'm not very arty in practice if truth be told, but i like to think i know what looks good.

Who do we see about making comercials a reality? or is this just an ideas pool?

aragorn2909
June 16th, 2005, 10:14 PM
Well, my opinion, youve hit the nail right on the head. Something like that a few months ago would have peaked my curiosity.

N'Jal
June 16th, 2005, 10:19 PM
Then where do we submit the idea? I don't mind someone else making it as i lack the talents to pull it off. It just better look good :P

if you yourself could do it go ahead.

geokker
June 16th, 2005, 10:55 PM
If I were head of Ubuntu advertising, I'd surf the current Africa thang. With Live 8 and the world focusing on Africa, exploit Ubuntu's roots.

I'm thinking the Great Rift Valley, with a huge herd of migrating penguins.

Under would be the definition of ubuntu, the a suitable strap-line, maybe 'follow the herd' or 'Be Open, think Free'. Innit. I'm sure I could create the graphic - Gimp and Inkscape have nicely replaced my Abobe bloatware.

aragorn2909
June 16th, 2005, 11:26 PM
Then where do we submit the idea? I don't mind someone else making it as i lack the talents to pull it off. It just better look good :P

if you yourself could do it go ahead.

Trick number one would be to get an artist/band to agree to let "us" use their song. Have no idea how to get that done. Besides, I was a business admin. major in college, I don't know if we're good for anything other than saying "thats a good idea!" and "keep up the good work!"

sonny
June 16th, 2005, 11:59 PM
Anyway, dunno if this has been mentioned before but jargon is a no-no. Suppose it really didn't need to be said.

"Linux: Teaching hackers since '91". I didn't think so either :p

Seriouly now

Ok U2's beautiful day start playing, and you start with a sunrise just as the sun peaks over the tree's there's that massive flash and quickly you see the ubuntu logo, as the sun rises you see animals i was thinking perhaps a lizard scuttle past and on it's back is the ubuntu logo, camera zooms in to the logo till that's all you see, camera zooms out to a wallpaper featuring the logo further to see it's a laptop and further to see that the person is sat outside in nature. The camera spins around and up in a fancy trick effect and follows seemingly nothing but there's this small lineas the camera crashes into this line the camera is in the middle of 0's and 1's, it slide in and out of this stream until the camera is propelled into another machine perhaps a desktop with the wall paper with the location of the origanal shot the camera zoom's into the wall paper propelling it back to the origanal forest as the sun's setting as the screen goes dark the ubuntu logo appears with ubuntu linux written underneth it.

Seems a bit short but perhaps as the camera travels along the binary stream you should see the african theme, then another shot of a child, in to the stream then out again, cut to high school the child has matured some shows him/her hard at work, in then out agin university working hard, in/out, parent digital photo of their kids, in/out family snaps showing their kids growing up, final shot of the origanal person in old age with their kids and grandkids then the camera moves to the desktop, which after this should be some futuristic device now, with the forest pic, zoom to the forest as the day ends cut to ubuntu logo.

The end

What you think?


I love it.. as I read I could imagine all that... it's fantastic... well done...

ubuntu_demon
June 17th, 2005, 03:04 AM
Anyway, dunno if this has been mentioned before but jargon is a no-no. Suppose it really didn't need to be said.

"Linux: Teaching hackers since '91". I didn't think so either :p

Seriouly now

Ok U2's beautiful day start playing, and you start with a sunrise just as the sun peaks over the tree's there's that massive flash and quickly you see the ubuntu logo, as the sun rises you see animals i was thinking perhaps a lizard scuttle past and on it's back is the ubuntu logo, camera zooms in to the logo till that's all you see, camera zooms out to a wallpaper featuring the logo further to see it's a laptop and further to see that the person is sat outside in nature. The camera spins around and up in a fancy trick effect and follows seemingly nothing but there's this small lineas the camera crashes into this line the camera is in the middle of 0's and 1's, it slide in and out of this stream until the camera is propelled into another machine perhaps a desktop with the wall paper with the location of the origanal shot the camera zoom's into the wall paper propelling it back to the origanal forest as the sun's setting as the screen goes dark the ubuntu logo appears with ubuntu linux written underneth it.

Seems a bit short but perhaps as the camera travels along the binary stream you should see the african theme, then another shot of a child, in to the stream then out again, cut to high school the child has matured some shows him/her hard at work, in then out agin university working hard, in/out, parent digital photo of their kids, in/out family snaps showing their kids growing up, final shot of the origanal person in old age with their kids and grandkids then the camera moves to the desktop, which after this should be some futuristic device now, with the forest pic, zoom to the forest as the day ends cut to ubuntu logo.

The end

What you think?
nice!
can we make this funny ?

ubuntu_demon
June 17th, 2005, 03:05 AM
Thanks [sheepish grin], i'm not very arty in practice if truth be told, but i like to think i know what looks good.

Who do we see about making comercials a reality? or is this just an ideas pool?
We might start up a project (like the backports project). I'm not much of an artist though.

N'Jal
June 17th, 2005, 09:51 AM
can we make this funny ?

Can you make it funny for me? I like it as it is, but if you can splash a little light humour into it give us some ideas. What did you have in mind?

I like having other people's input too, so if anyone can make it funny without loosing it meaning by all means post your ideas!

ubuntu_demon
June 17th, 2005, 12:09 PM
Can you make it funny for me? I like it as it is, but if you can splash a little light humour into it give us some ideas. What did you have in mind?

I like having other people's input too, so if anyone can make it funny without loosing it meaning by all means post your ideas!
maybe we can make it a bit funny just by the way it looks.

aragorn2909
June 17th, 2005, 04:47 PM
maybe we can make it a bit funny just by the way it looks.

I know your looking for humour, but, perhaps its not required here, yet. Humbly, N'Jal's idea was just gravy for me. We want to create a buzz, but we're not limited to this one commercial, so lets look down the line. What are we trying to say about Ubuntu? That it is smooth, slick, versatile and that it is functional. It sounds to me like we have an idea for an ad that would do just that. Perhaps humour can wait? Just a thought.

ubuntu_demon
June 17th, 2005, 04:51 PM
I know your looking for humour, but, perhaps its not required here, yet. Humbly, N'Jal's idea was just gravy for me. We want to create a buzz, but we're not limited to this one commercial, so lets look down the line. What are we trying to say about Ubuntu? That it is smooth, slick, versatile and that it is functional. It sounds to me like we have an idea for an ad that would do just that. Perhaps humour can wait? Just a thought.
yeah maybe you are right!
But we want to make it super slick then! There are plenty of slick movies/clips to find on the internet and we really have to stand out. This might cost extra time.

It might be easier to make it funny :p

sonny
June 17th, 2005, 04:51 PM
As aragorn2909 said, we don't have to limit to only one commercial... we can do several... I think that the community will support doing several commercial, we have great artists here that would love to support Ubuntu.

ubuntu_demon
June 17th, 2005, 05:05 PM
As aragorn2909 said, we don't have to limit to only one commercial... we can do several... I think that the community will support doing several commercial, we have great artists here that would love to support Ubuntu.
yeah that would be great

aragorn2909
June 17th, 2005, 05:13 PM
Easier to make with humour, yes, but also easier to miss your intended target. Its really a coin toss. I was also thinking, that when this commercial is done, we don't necessarily have to rely on merely p2p and mass e-mailing. I know in Canada and the U.S., a TV station like G4 Tech TV can really reach people with ideas that they would never otherwise come across. Perhaps we could consider petitioning outlets like this. Not for air-time or commercial spots, but even a 20-30 second mention on one show would really help to create the buzz we're talking about here

sonny
June 17th, 2005, 05:33 PM
Easier to make with humour, yes, but also easier to miss your intended target. Its really a coin toss. I was also thinking, that when this commercial is done, we don't necessarily have to rely on merely p2p and mass e-mailing. I know in Canada and the U.S., a TV station like G4 Tech TV can really reach people with ideas that they would never otherwise come across. Perhaps we could consider petitioning outlets like this. Not for air-time or commercial spots, but even a 20-30 second mention on one show would really help to create the buzz we're talking about here
I think that would be great... but I have one question, though, what kind of audience sees that TV channel, geek people, Linux people, average users??

aragorn2909
June 17th, 2005, 06:11 PM
I think that would be great... but I have one question, though, what kind of audience sees that TV channel, geek people, Linux people, average users??
Just on the surface, it seems like a very young crowd; teens, young adults, gamers. BUT, they come across as very forward thinking, and aren't afraid of new ideas. Even more specific, here in Canada, there's a weekly Puter show put on by Dave Chalk (google his name) called Chalk TV. Heavily Windows oriented, some Mac, but he has a relatively large and loyal following, and I would say he's fairly forward thinking.

sonny
June 17th, 2005, 06:23 PM
Just on the surface, it seems like a very young crowd; teens, young adults, gamers. BUT, they come across as very forward thinking, and aren't afraid of new ideas. Even more specific, here in Canada, there's a weekly Puter show put on by Dave Chalk (google his name) called Chalk TV. Heavily Windows oriented, some Mac, but he has a relatively large and loyal following, and I would say he's fairly forward thinking.
Well we can try that... but are they gonna put on the Ubuntu commercial for free?? or are you dating his sister :razz: ???

aragorn2909
June 18th, 2005, 05:51 AM
Well we can try that... but are they gonna put on the Ubuntu commercial for free?? or are you dating his sister :razz: ???

lol, no not dating his sister. The thing is, no one has to actually air the commercial, just the mention of it on air should be enough to send (some) people scrambling to thier computers to check it out!

sonny
June 18th, 2005, 06:35 AM
lol, no not dating his sister. The thing is, no one has to actually air the commercial, just the mention of it on air should be enough to send (some) people scrambling to thier computers to check it out!
Well we'll surely need all the help we can get.

N'Jal
June 18th, 2005, 10:00 AM
I might know someone that might put the comercial onto his website, though he has a dynamic personallity and i don't know him all THAT well, but it's worth a shot, right?

vega44
June 23rd, 2005, 12:35 AM
micosoft is already on tv with stupid commercials linuxs needs to get on tv soon.

Ether
June 23rd, 2005, 02:57 AM
Humm when i think of commercials i immediately think of a takeoff of the standard visa ad.

*image of persion setting up a computer.

Cost of New Computer $1,100
Cost of Updateing Operating System $150 (crossed out each time) $0 (flash ubuntu start)
Cost of New Office Suit $350 - $0 (image of open office document)
Professional Photo Editor $700- $0 (flash gimp)
Antivirus/Firewall/Administation Software $1100- $0 (show firefox)
Software Licenceing $500- $0 (flash GPL readme)

Being Free to Create without boundries - Priceless. (child runs in, man points her to a icon with the Ubuntu logo)
With Ubuntu the world is yours, and with the thousands of free open source programs you can work, play and create without limit.

as for the music discussion.
the main band i can think of to do this with would be Radiohead, they are right into the whole open source thing from what i've seen, and would probably let you use a tune.

allforcarrie
June 23rd, 2005, 06:09 AM
Humm when i think of commercials i immediately think of a takeoff of the standard visa ad.

*image of persion setting up a computer.

Cost of New Computer $1,100
Cost of Updateing Operating System $150 (crossed out each time) $0 (flash ubuntu start)
Cost of New Office Suit $350 - $0 (image of open office document)
Professional Photo Editor $700- $0 (flash gimp)
Antivirus/Firewall/Administation Software $1100- $0 (show firefox)
Software Licenceing $500- $0 (flash GPL readme)

Being Free to Create without boundries - Priceless. (child runs in, man points her to a icon with the Ubuntu logo)
With Ubuntu the world is yours, and with the thousands of free open source programs you can work, play and create without limit.

as for the music discussion.
the main band i can think of to do this with would be Radiohead, they are right into the whole open source thing from what i've seen, and would probably let you use a tune.


I smell a Mastercard lawsuit.

A beastie boys song would probably work...

aragorn2909
June 23rd, 2005, 06:13 AM
I smell a Mastercard lawsuit.

A beastie boys song would probably work...

Good call. So Watcha Want comes to mind here.

Ether
June 23rd, 2005, 07:31 AM
I smell a Mastercard lawsuit.
lol. i know, notice i didn't actually say we should use it.

but it just makes me think of the biggest advantage Ubuntu has over Windows and all the other operating systems.
Its Free... in every single way.
hell you don't even need to pay for offical cds to be sent to you, no matter how many you want or where you live, unlike the other linux distributions.

N'Jal
June 23rd, 2005, 10:48 AM
hell you don't even need to pay for offical cds to be sent to you, no matter how many you want or where you live, unlike the other linux distributions.

That would be a VERY good thing to include in the commercial

BWF89
June 23rd, 2005, 12:48 PM
Mabye we could do some Ubuntu commercials like the Spreadfirefox ones. You know the guy is sitting infront of his computer and when he starts Firefox all this wind comes out of his pc and he gets blown to the back of the room.

Arthemys
June 23rd, 2005, 06:18 PM
One of the things that I feel needs to happen before a commercial is even considered is that the distro itself needs to be drastically improved before the public (at large) gets to touch it.

Things like the well known internet / DNS connection issues that requires moderate tweaking and the issue with ALSA and ESD for sound mixing. Windows doesn't have those problems, and I hate to admit that.

Small things such as those need to be addressed before the distro is marketted to the masses. I love Ubuntu, it's a good solid distro, but not for those people out there that will not or cannot do those minor tweaks to get 100% functionality out of their system.

That's one of the things that pay-for distro's have over free ones, when you're paying for support and updates, you're paying for a flavour of linux that's been hammered on by a large centralized group of people for quality control. They're saying if you pay us, we'll make sure it will work for you. I know the paying for linux business model is a sour one for many of you but it is a good idea to consider in terms of how much effort needs to be put into a distribution, one large group of people deciding together what it's going to be, not x number of developers just slamming stuff together. (No that isn't an intentional flame.)

ubuntu_demon
June 24th, 2005, 10:35 AM
One of the things that I feel needs to happen before a commercial is even considered is that the distro itself needs to be drastically improved before the public (at large) gets to touch it.

Things like the well known internet / DNS connection issues that requires moderate tweaking and the issue with ALSA and ESD for sound mixing. Windows doesn't have those problems, and I hate to admit that.

Small things such as those need to be addressed before the distro is marketted to the masses. I love Ubuntu, it's a good solid distro, but not for those people out there that will not or cannot do those minor tweaks to get 100% functionality out of their system.

That's one of the things that pay-for distro's have over free ones, when you're paying for support and updates, you're paying for a flavour of linux that's been hammered on by a large centralized group of people for quality control. They're saying if you pay us, we'll make sure it will work for you. I know the paying for linux business model is a sour one for many of you but it is a good idea to consider in terms of how much effort needs to be put into a distribution, one large group of people deciding together what it's going to be, not x number of developers just slamming stuff together. (No that isn't an intentional flame.)
Let's hope most of the minor issues are solved with breezy and our commercial is ready by then.

sonny
June 24th, 2005, 04:30 PM
Let's hope most of the minor issues are solved with breezy and our commercial is ready by then.
We have to cross fingers... :grin:

Arthemys
June 24th, 2005, 04:35 PM
One of the most embarassing things is when you're trying to show off a product to someone or group of people and it f's up... We all remember Bill Gates and a product dev. demo'ing Win98 with a scanner and it blue screening on them infront of a ton of people.

If you're gun-ho about a product and it can't do as well as a leading product in some or most areas. Then people are going to question switching, one thing that popped into my head while writing this is driver support for whatever the latest printers or scanners or digital cameras you could find at say Best Buy. I know driver wise a large percentage has to do with oem's not building up linux drivers but still. Let's say on the off chance I plug in my thumb drive and gnome doesn't mount it on the desktop. Well sh*t, a home consumer isn't going to know where to look for it.

I don't wanna sound like an elitist, but things should be 99% perfect before you go public with something like this. I am hopeful though, don't get me wrong here, I know the potential behind linux and certain distros for what their worth.

sonny
June 24th, 2005, 04:55 PM
One of the most embarassing things is when you're trying to show off a product to someone or group of people and it f's up... We all remember Bill Gates and a product dev. demo'ing Win98 with a scanner and it blue screening on them infront of a ton of people.

If you're gun-ho about a product and it can't do as well as a leading product in some or most areas. Then people are going to question switching, one thing that popped into my head while writing this is driver support for whatever the latest printers or scanners or digital cameras you could find at say Best Buy. I know driver wise a large percentage has to do with oem's not building up linux drivers but still. Let's say on the off chance I plug in my thumb drive and gnome doesn't mount it on the desktop. Well sh*t, a home consumer isn't going to know where to look for it.

I don't wanna sound like an elitist, but things should be 99% perfect before you go public with something like this. I am hopeful though, don't get me wrong here, I know the potential behind linux and certain distros for what their worth.
Well when you install Ubuntu the web-browser has a page with all the pages for ubntu, and there it is... www.ubuntuforums.org ... but I understand your point, but I think we should go for a bigger goal. People using windows are like the poor people form X century, don't know how to write and read, and Linux is the Public School; cuz Windows has schools but only rich people goes there to learn, people shouldn't be dumb, I think that every user has to be able to at least fix some minor stuff on their pc's, but home users don't know how to do a simple task. I'm talking about doing whole campaign for Linux, but just to educate people (in the IT area) with the very basic knowledge, cuz educated people are the ones using Linux :grin: , they know about what is good and what is not, so we can make a more informed decision. If we do that, people will move to Linux by theirself without someone telling them to do so.

ubuntu_demon
June 29th, 2005, 12:08 AM
Hi,

I created an ubuntu europe clan for total combat elite. This is also a way of making ubuntu known :). So gamers please join :

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=44995

polo_step
June 29th, 2005, 01:00 AM
One of the things that I feel needs to happen before a commercial is even considered is that the distro itself needs to be drastically improved before the public (at large) gets to touch it.
Yep, just what I said in another thread.

Expensive mass-market advertising -- and advertising IS expensive! -- is premature. Spend the money on development. That'll be better "advertising" in the long run.

You get a desktop Linux distro that's heartbreak-free and you'll be the biggest thing EVER, even without a cent of paid advertising.

ubuntu_demon
June 29th, 2005, 01:39 AM
here's a tv show about open source .. we might get some inspiration there .. since cannoncial is sponsering it :)

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=45088

obx-jdt
June 29th, 2005, 02:35 AM
Hi,

I got this idea of an Ubuntu commercial. I'm not much of an artist. But sometimes I think I have a good idea :)

The goal of this Ubuntu commercial is : getting people into contact with Ubuntu.

Let's create a super funny commercial in flash. The quality of the commercial has to be really high. It also has to be super funny because we want to spread this commercial like a fire in a dry plain!

We can spread the url of this movie to all our friends. We can use this flash movie to attract the expertise needed to create a fully rendered movie.

I think the final commercial has to be rendered because :
1) we can show of opensource rendering software
2) short animated movies are funnier because the artists have a lot of creative freedom. Also it only costst time instead of creating a real commercial.

We can also use this flash movie as a story board for a fully rendered commericial that we can spread across the world using p2p networks.

These guys are creating an entire movie using only open source software :
http://orange.blender.org/cms/Home.553.0.html

As soon as this flash movie is finished we need everyone in this community to start spreading the word about this(IM / email all your friends about it). We can make this happen if we all believe in it! The same applies as soon as the rendered commercial is finished. Maybe it will get really popular and we'll start creating ubuntu commercials like crazy!

What we need :

1 we need artists who want to spend time on this

2 we need someone who knows a lot about marketing / commercials. We need a leader for this project. Preferably someone who has created commercials before.

3 We need to decide what message we want to sent

For example :
-Make everyone curious about the word Ubuntu
-Show in a funny way how much more work you can do with Ubuntu
-Ubuntu is making you happy

3 a super funny script (we've got over 25k users .. so I'm sure this is no problem)

For example :

There's a squirrel in africa. His pc crashes all the time and he's got spyware. He decides to go to the medicine man. He prescribes Ubuntu. He tries Ubuntu and a chain of events leads him to becoming so rich that he can spend his vacation in space :)

4 a website for hosting the flash movie / p2p links .... maybe http://www.spreadubuntu.org ?

I was posting in this thread when I got the idea about the ubuntu commercial :
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=41400

my proposal :

- first I want to know how everybody thinks about this idea. That's why I created this poll.
- If there are enough people who like this idea then let's create an Ubuntu community project

edit :

Let's not discuss in this thread whether or not to attack windows anymore. There's a seperate thread especially for this here :

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=41786

sounds like it would work ;-) I like the idea about "There's a squirrel in africa...", but I think it should be done in a number of other ways, on the same theam, as well.
For instance;
Two people are in a car. One is driving, and the other is working on his laptop computer. Suddenly the car starts sputtering, starts smoking, breaks down, and won't go any farther. The driver gets on his cell phone and calls for help just to be put on hold for what seems to be forever.
After a while, the other man starts diging through his breifcase & finds a copy of Ubuntu. He removes the disk from the case, inserts it into the car's CD player, the car not only starts up, but runs better, faster, and stronger than ever. ;-)
Heck, even have them driving through a country side that looks like the XP desktop :razz: \\:D/

sapo
June 29th, 2005, 02:39 AM
sounds like it would work ;-) I like the idea about "There's a squirrel in africa...", but I think it should be done in a number of other ways, on the same theam, as well.
For instance;
Two people are in a car. One is driving, and the other is working on his laptop computer. Suddenly the car starts sputtering, starts smoking, breaks down, and won't go any farther. The driver gets on his cell phone and calls for help just to be put on hold for what seems to be forever.
After a while, the other man starts diging through his breifcase & finds a copy of Ubuntu. He removes the disk from the case, inserts it into the car's CD player, the car not only starts up, but runs better, faster, and stronger than ever. ;-)


lol.. good idea :grin:

He could see a Badger.. or a hedgehog and them he remember about ubuntu :grin:

sonny
June 29th, 2005, 05:56 AM
sounds like it would work ;-) I like the idea about "There's a squirrel in africa...", but I think it should be done in a number of other ways, on the same theam, as well.
For instance;
Two people are in a car. One is driving, and the other is working on his laptop computer. Suddenly the car starts sputtering, starts smoking, breaks down, and won't go any farther. The driver gets on his cell phone and calls for help just to be put on hold for what seems to be forever.
After a while, the other man starts diging through his breifcase & finds a copy of Ubuntu. He removes the disk from the case, inserts it into the car's CD player, the car not only starts up, but runs better, faster, and stronger than ever. ;-)
Heck, even have them driving through a country side that looks like the XP desktop :razz: \\:D/
That is great and funny, although the windows desktop might confuse some people, it'll be better if the ubuntu logo shows in the horizon.

tread
June 29th, 2005, 05:58 AM
I just read the last post so far, but obx-jdt has a really nice idea there!

obx-jdt
June 30th, 2005, 02:28 AM
hehe, I have a few other ideas on the same theam too, but I'd like to see a web site/ftp setup just for this. Password protected so ideas aren't stollen, and those of us that are really into doing this, can get it going. Kindda' like game devlopers do.
I can come up with ideas/story boards, & possable music to use. I don't know anything about scripting (Flash/Java). I did play in a rock band for a few years, so I might be of some use in marketing too.
You learn quick when you have to sing for your supper...LOL
If we can get something good working, I'm sure we would get support from the Ubuntu team too.

*EDIT*
I should have added that they break down in the XP country side, and ride off into the Ubuntu Gnome wallpaper, kindda' like riding into the sunset..... :wink:

obx-jdt
June 30th, 2005, 03:17 AM
This needs to be done with caution. The Ubuntu community is alredy getting a negative press as being too aggressive and outspoken .. excessive emailing might reach spam levels and leave us really unpopular. I know I am posting an extreme situation, but if you think about it, its not really that impossible.
You make a good point, but...(like you didn't see that comming)...After useing Ubuntu/Kubuntu 5.04 for a week or two, I don't think it's impossible that Ubuntu has a better chance of taking market share from Microsoft than any other distro. I'm thrilled to death with this distro (was useing Mandrake 10.1 offical).
The only thing I see holding Ubuntu back is the current lack of third party software support for Linux. I don't think of myself as a Linux noobie, but on Mandrake, after 2-3 years, I was still having trouble installing some software. Ubuntu might have just made Windows (Win2000 Pro) obsolete on my system. Not sure if I should thank Debian for that, or Ubuntu...I never had a successfull install of Debian, so I guess Ubuntu is to thank :???:
Besides, we're loaded with Ms adds avery day, so what's the diffrance with Ubuntu useing an agressave marketing campain?
I have a buddy of mine down here that has a computer shop. I'm going to talk him into letting me setup a Linux box in his store on a 32 & 64 bit system. I'm hopping to install Ubuntu on both, & I'm going to put a handfull of Ubuntu CD's in the display case.
Heck, now that I think about it, I wonder if I can talk him into building a 64 bit system for me if I let him use it for a display model to pimp his work..... :roll: .....probably not, but it can't hurt to ask right

ubuntu_demon
July 3rd, 2005, 06:09 PM
We need someone who wants to organise this commercial project who shares our visions and has a marketing background. When we have a leader we can request a seperate forum thread and really get this idea of the ground :).

N'Jal
July 3rd, 2005, 06:58 PM
hold the phone, doesn't canocal offer bounty's, someone check out what the bounty's are and see if advertisement is one. The we just do a forum vote of the best idea's.

ubuntu_demon
July 3rd, 2005, 07:18 PM
hold the phone, doesn't canocal offer bounty's, someone check out what the bounty's are and see if advertisement is one. The we just do a forum vote of the best idea's.
1)we don't need money to make this commercial
2)bounties are only for software (AFAIK)

N'Jal
July 3rd, 2005, 09:33 PM
i still say we vote for a comerciall else with no concept we will get nowhere, to make things fairer you can't vote for your own idea, now this is fair since i have submitted one myself that i really like so if i can't vote for it then i can't push it and you see how much merit it holds.

jsimmons
July 3rd, 2005, 10:24 PM
I think the commercial should connect with the slogan.

jsimmons
July 3rd, 2005, 10:40 PM
Here's another idea...

A conveyor belt in a dark and dingy factory is moving along under a big round tube. Every couple of seconds, the conveyor stops and a robot is "floomphed" onto it. The robot is in a sitting position.

The conveyor moves forward and stops. Each time, the camera is showing the robot from a different angle.

Eventually, the robot reaches the "Scanning Station". A laser scanner (visible red and green beams of light) quickly scan the robot from all angles. The conveyor moves forward one more time, and the robot is handed a box with a XP-like landscape on it labelled "Your Operating System" (but no logos are seen anywhere, so as not to incur the wrath of that company in Redmond).

Off camera, you can hear the machinery falter, cough, sputter, and complain. The camera pans back to the big round tube just in time to see a human being be "floomphed" onto the conveyor. He looks bewildered, nervous, and maybe even a little scared. He's wearing Dockers and a brightly colored hawaiin shirt.

As the conveyor lurches forward and stops, the camera shows the man from different angles.

Eventually, the man reaches the "Scanning Station". A laser scanner (visible red and green beams of light) quickly scan the robot from all angles. The conveyor moves forward one more time, and the man is handed a box with the Ubuntu logo on it. He smiles and shows a look of relief on his face.

As the man lurches forward one more time, he climbs off the conveyor belt, and begins walking away.

The screen fades to black, and shows the Ubuntu logo. A soft female voice says "Ubuntu... Linux for Human Beings."

Kvark
July 4th, 2005, 12:41 AM
Just a thought...

For a single flash flick you could just go ahead and make one. But if you make a successful advertizement campain that will be many peoples' first impression of Ubuntu. Then you better double check with Canonical first. It is very important that it fits well with the kind of image canonical wants Ubuntu to have.

Ideally, pick out a bunch of ideas that would work well. Explain to canonical that a group of people from the community wants to do an advertizement campaign to promote ubuntu, show them the ideas, and ask which ones would be ok. Then have a vote among the ones that passes canonical's quality check. Maybe canonical can even fund the efforts if needed.



And an idea...

For one flash movie, something similar to the kenya song (http://weebls-stuff.com/toons/kenya/) might be successful.

But if there is resources for it. An ongoing flash cartoon with a new episode every or every secound month could have a huge impact. Similar to Weeble & Bob (http://weebls-stuff.com/wab/) and Happy Tree Friends (www.happytreefriends.com).

For example a flash cartoon series about a gang of friends hanging out in africa. Tux would ofcourse be the leader figure of the gang, a warthog, a hedgehog and a badger would also be main characters. Add a new one in the future for each release. With an episode about how the new mascot met the gang to celebrate the new release.

But what would they do? The same thing as all other cartoons do. Run into an exciting adventure in each episode.

Showing off the spirit and meaning of ubuntu is very easy. Just make the gang of friends display the same spirit on their exciting adventures. Some of the positive sides of linux could probably be mentioned somewhere. Or make the adventures metaphores for that.

But commercials is not about showing that your product is good. It is about showing the spirit and meaning of your brand, and make people remember that. Hopefully the cartoons would demonstrate the meaning and the release-mascot-cartoon-characters would be branding people remember.

ubuntu_demon
July 4th, 2005, 07:52 AM
Just a thought...

For a single flash flick you could just go ahead and make one. But if you make a successful advertizement campain that will be many peoples' first impression of Ubuntu. Then you better double check with Canonical first. It is very important that it fits well with the kind of image canonical wants Ubuntu to have.


We can read about canonical philosophy at their site.

Whenever our first project is up and running we can ask them for input. But this is not strictly necessary. Because I think the community knows best what people like as a commercial........... provided we get a good leader for this project (I'm not a marketing type of person)

jakew1991
July 23rd, 2005, 12:46 AM
i'm not sure if this'll help with anything, but...

my small teen-owned/operated/made-for Internet radio station is looking for advertisers. the only problem is is that bandwidth isn't cheap. neither is music licensing. but the most expensive option is $20, and you get 372 60-second slots! ;-)

anyway, i'm not sure if the ubuntu community is trying to get teenagers trying to use linux or not, but if you guys are interested just quote me or e-mail me O:) ill be tracking the topic, too.

i can also get it produced, too (for free.) all i'd need is a script.

- jake

jdodson
July 23rd, 2005, 12:55 AM
BWF* lets keep things a bit more PG rated ok?

Omnios
July 23rd, 2005, 02:02 AM
Commercials, lets see Either you can blow a lot of money aimlessly with a bad target audience or possibly reach a lot of people or both all counting on your medium. Then again if your anouncing to the world you are there it justifys the expense or propaganda like Microsoft we are good cuz you saw us on tv and you can not estimate how extreemly affective this is. Oh Im rambling again.

Anyways It boils down to what you are trying to achive hell running a commercial of Tux Racer racing down the hill could even make a good commercial for peeople who like that thing. Linux is very tecknical so my bet would would be with magazines and I dont mean Linux Mags hint hint. As for commercials the hard part is reaching the manimum number of your taget audience with the smallest possible expenditure which allows for more commercials. The problem I see is Linux is global.

A big move would be to have commercials on programs like Dotto's Caffee and Teck4TV programs or similar programs as 99% of the people who watch those programs have interest in computer.

As for my idea of a comercial would that group of nerds from the Xfiles running Ubuntu systems figuring out some alian tecknology. What where they called anyways they even had there own show for a while but unfortunatly up here in Canada we miss a lot of good programming.

ubuntu_demon
July 26th, 2005, 01:25 AM
Maybe we should create a slick Ubuntu flyer that people can print out and hang around. This is easy and safe. see :

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=12249
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=6884

Omnios
July 27th, 2005, 07:54 PM
Maybe we should create a slick Ubuntu flyer that people can print out and hang around. This is easy and safe. see :

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=12249
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=6884

Sweet be nice if the flyers came with a box of cd's lol.

Is putting Ubuntu CD's in magazines affective (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=51325)

Expecialy pertaining to a reply about area's with slow internet connections.
Skotty we may have stumbled on something here.

Personaly I think a Ubuntu commercial is a good idea but must note the number one commercial is news and specialty programs that can give you exposure where the money value could be priceless

thechitowncubs
July 28th, 2005, 01:35 AM
http://share.skype.com/tools_for_sharing/tools_for_sharing/little_movies/

something like that would be really cool, but those are a little too weird for my liking

KrisDwyer
July 28th, 2005, 02:17 AM
http://share.skype.com/tools_for_sharing/tools_for_sharing/little_movies/

something like that would be really cool, but those are a little too weird for my liking
OK, why not have something like a concert for Ubuntu (similar to live8) in which it shows ravaged computers (fading screens to black). And the lead singer is Tux. And instead of "G8 - The World Is Watching" we can have "PC Owners - Ubuntu is Here". and the supporters/fans can be computers with ubuntu logos on the screens, then at the end zoom into a computers screen and show the ubuntu logo with "Ubuntu - Linux for Human Beings"

obx-jdt
August 2nd, 2005, 05:56 AM
ok, great ideas here, and alot of thinkers....But what we need is $$$ & doers! Money to get this thing seen, and people that do this stuff for a living.
I know I can't can't afford to do this. I'm thinking a round $500,000 - $1,000,000 just for a small amount of air time. So the first thing we need to do is raise some money!

1- Who's going to be in charge of the prodject
2- Who is willing to deadicate the time needed to see this through
3- Who can do what
4- Who can do this for free?

After we get organized, we can make it happen. Right now it's just talk.
I think I can deadicate the time (I work for myself). I'm not willing to try to raise the capital for this, unless we have 75% of the money waiting to get this ont the air. I know of a few resources I might be able to tap into, but I don't want to do it if no one else is trying. That's why I say 75% of the money must be there before I'll raise a dime for it.

Any one that is really into this, pm me, and we'll try to get it going. If you want me to lead, I'll lead...If you want me to stay out of it, I'll stay out. Once we find out who's for real about this and who's not. We can get it going.












If we can do this, just think what we (?Humanity Productions?) could do for paying costomers!!!!
Could be the start of something big if we do it right....
I think we need 5-10 people to make it happen. Please don't waist my time if you're not able to work on this, or can't dedicate the time. We have enough ideas to work with right now. Let's get this rolling, then prehaps we can look at new ideas. I've seen 3-4 here worth looking into.

Oh yeah, if your idea is used, you will get creit for it weather your on the team or not.

NoTiG
August 2nd, 2005, 06:27 AM
Picture a crew of Penguins sitting on a planet, chilling. Maybe sipping Koolaid. And the shot is from space so you see them, but they are pretty large compared to the planet so they are like sitting on the planet. And the scene rotates around the sun and everything is going kool till all of the sudden... A window floats between the sun and the planet. This would be like an eclipse, but the window instead of blocking the light it amplifies it in a narrow beam, zapping one of the penguins in the ass.

From there you could go a couple of directions I guess. YOu could try to send the message of community effort... by getting the penguins to retaliate(Defenseive) and work together, maybe by building a wall of snow balls or something. Maybe you could introduce a badger and have them cooperate with the badger... the badgers are good at digging. Maybe you could make it cute and have them redirect the light with reflective walls of ice and aim it at a coffee or something.. so they could use the light to their advantage.

Just a strange thought i had the other day. *passes out*
edit: btw the idea sort of came from the firefox logo of the fox running around the planet

f76
August 2nd, 2005, 09:48 AM
I believe producing something funny can cause a rapid spread on the net. Big companies pay $$$ to but airtime and cred but cred is somehow inherit of the opensource idea so perhaps we get get away with 0$. Also we (as in linux) are the underdog - more cred. So i think funny is the way to go and i think i t can work.

The more information/overt propaganda you try to put in a commercial/cartoon the greater the risk that you loose the funny part/the cred. I think simple is the way to go in the beginning of a campaign if not all the way. I think we need to formulate a phrase/an idea that can attract people to an information/propaganda site that will explain the details of the benefits of ubuntu... I think simple is the way to go basically.

As for format i believe in using open source progs for creation.. but exporting to all possible formats.

Ex svg/renderd/other 3d ->mpg,wmv.any other.

ubuntu_demon
August 2nd, 2005, 12:46 PM
edit :

I do not think we need money.

-We can create nice (funny and informative) flyers that people can print out (grayscale and color).
-We can create something funny and slick and spread it using the internet

Maybe in the future we may decide to raise some funds. But let's first try it out.

We do need some organization.

if you really want to help out please go here :
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=282951

macgyver2
August 2nd, 2005, 02:48 PM
I voted for "Other" because I think the web-commercial idea is excellent! The one thing that gives me pause, though, is this:


Let's create a super funny commercial in flash.
It just doesn't feel right, to me, to make the commercial in flash...something that can't even be viewed in Ubuntu if one wants to stay with Ubuntu's core philosophy of every piece of software included in Ubuntu (which I read as the ubuntu main repository) is free software.

Using non-free software to promote a distro that prizes the ideal of free software...is there no better way?

ubuntu_demon
August 2nd, 2005, 03:04 PM
I voted for "Other" because I think the web-commercial idea is excellent! The one thing that gives me pause, though, is this:


It just doesn't feel right, to me, to make the commercial in flash...something that can't even be viewed in Ubuntu if one wants to stay with Ubuntu's core philosophy of every piece of software included in Ubuntu (which I read as the ubuntu main repository) is free software.

Using non-free software to promote a distro that prizes the ideal of free software...is there no better way?

I've updated my first post in this thread. This is the relevant part :

2)OPTIONAL
Let's create a super funny commercial in flash :
-We can use this flash movie as a story board for the fully rendered commericial.
-We can use this flash movie to attract the expertise needed to create a fully rendered movie.

N'Jal
August 2nd, 2005, 04:12 PM
Ok say i just went ahead and made a comerciall who would i have to send it to? Why don't people just get on and make thier own commercialls and then post them to a 'judge' and let a neutral party decide which is better? Coz i am very interested in a commerciall but at the moment it's just all talk, no action.

ubuntu_demon
August 2nd, 2005, 04:19 PM
Ok say i just went ahead and made a comerciall who would i have to send it to? Why don't people just get on and make thier own commercialls and then post them to a 'judge' and let a neutral party decide which is better? Coz i am very interested in a commerciall but at the moment it's just all talk, no action.
It was just talk because we wanted to do this right.

If you are interested in helping out please go here :
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=282951

Can you post a link to your commercial ?

N'Jal
August 2nd, 2005, 04:31 PM
Erm no, i havn't started one, on holiday right now. But if i ever get it started and finished i will post a link. It was more a hypothetical question right now. But being at uni in a few months might mean a rather large cast and resources avalible to me :D

Unfortunatly i lack most of the skills you require for your core team, i do however have my head in the clouds a lot as such i have a lot of ideas.

Reb
August 2nd, 2005, 06:28 PM
I think a good start to this would be getting spreadubuntu.org registered and up and running. That sort of community based site worked well for Firefox.
edit: I may be able to host the site, but I'm sure there are others with faster hardware who could as well.

ubuntu_demon
August 2nd, 2005, 06:38 PM
Erm no, i havn't started one, on holiday right now. But if i ever get it started and finished i will post a link. It was more a hypothetical question right now. But being at uni in a few months might mean a rather large cast and resources avalible to me :D

Unfortunatly i lack most of the skills you require for your core team, i do however have my head in the clouds a lot as such i have a lot of ideas.
ow sorry I didn't read it very well apparantly :-P
ideas are always welcome :)

ubuntu_demon
August 2nd, 2005, 06:39 PM
I think a good start to this would be getting spreadubuntu.org registered and up and running. That sort of community based site worked well for Firefox.
edit: I may be able to host the site, but I'm sure there are others with faster hardware who could as well.
It is up already. It's a seperate project of one guy. I didn't contact him because we don't have a core team and a leader yet.

obx-jdt
August 3rd, 2005, 04:30 AM
I voted for "Other" because I think the web-commercial idea is excellent! The one thing that gives me pause, though, is this:


It just doesn't feel right, to me, to make the commercial in flash...something that can't even be viewed in Ubuntu if one wants to stay with Ubuntu's core philosophy of every piece of software included in Ubuntu (which I read as the ubuntu main repository) is free software.

Using non-free software to promote a distro that prizes the ideal of free software...is there no better way?

How to install Flash Player (Macromedia Flash) Plug-in for Mozilla Firefox

sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla

Restart Mozilla Firefox

You didn't know flash works on Linux (even Ubuntu)???

N'Jal
August 3rd, 2005, 04:39 AM
it might be possible to look into a linux codec code named MILF (Movies In Linux Format) don't ask! Though i don't know how far along this project is really. It might be a possible avenue. Why do Linux users give stupid names to things?

obx-jdt
August 3rd, 2005, 05:08 AM
Why do Linux users give stupid names to things?

LOL
I've Gnoticed this....Kbut can't figure it out xither ](*,)

ubuntu_demon
August 3rd, 2005, 11:13 AM
How to install Flash Player (Macromedia Flash) Plug-in for Mozilla Firefox

sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla

Restart Mozilla Firefox

You didn't know flash works on Linux (even Ubuntu)???
the problem is :
-that flash-player is non-free
-there is no good free flash creation program for ubuntu

But flash is a good option to create a storyboard movie to work from IMO

plasmatonic
August 5th, 2005, 03:46 PM
I run Flash MX 2004 via VMware, I'm probably the only professional flash developer to use linux (exclusively) on the planet.

At any rate, if you are interested in seeing some of my work PM me. With the free time I have nowadays, I could put alot into this.

ubuntu_demon
August 5th, 2005, 04:08 PM
If you are interested in helping out please go here :
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=282951

N'Jal
September 5th, 2005, 11:30 PM
Ok i now have software to create a 'demo' promo, if someone can get video footage of ubuntu running on both a PC and a Mac that would be cool, and perhaps the ubuntu circle of friends that would be cool.

Email it to neilmunro _at_ gmail dot com

npaladin2000
September 6th, 2005, 02:44 AM
Exactly what is the premise behind this commercial? An increase in Linux awareness? an increase in Ubuntu "sales?" Promotion of the benefits of FOSS (Don't you dare try to use the phrase "free software" because a 30 second commercial is way too short to try and explain that you don't really mean "free software as in beer in the library" or whatever). Incidentally, that's funny.

I've got some marketing background and about 6 years in the IT industry at a professional level. And it sounds like you guys have no plan. You need to figure out the following:

1. Who/what is your target market?

Which to some degree will affect the answer to:
2. Which aspect are you 'selling?'

Then you need to refine, find the particular features you want to present, and the image you want to present them with. Incidentally, that's why attacking the opposition (Microsoft, in this case, I guess) is a bad idea. It presents an image of combativeness and such that only seems to work for American politicians (do you REALLY want to have the same level of commercial as George W. Bush?).

The ideal commercial will emphasize Ubuntu's advantages and values in general without even mentioning a competing product except by implication. Let the viewer make the connection "Hey, one of whatever? That sounds SOO much better than Windows"). It presents a positive image; and some good-guy PR is never a bad thing. One can put in funny, but it's tricky....ridiculing the opposition directly presents a negative image. However, a fuzzy caricature can work (Like say, a user sitting at a screen that just keeps popping up random windows...anyone ever see that ISP commerical? ).

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Of course, the above opinions really apply best to serious commercials rather than net stunts

ubuntu_demon
September 10th, 2005, 10:43 AM
npaladin2000 thanks for your input. We really need marketing guys!
We still have to discuss 1 and 2 for the most part.

obx-jdt
September 18th, 2005, 06:58 AM
I've been pimping the hell out of Ubuntu localy (I had 20-32 bit CD's & 10-64 bit, have 1 of each now...) Even gave a 64 bit copy to a UNIX IT guy that hasn't had the time to try Linux yet LOL
Sorry I haven't been on the forum much lately, but I've been workin' 7 daze a week, hand in hand with da' boss, with little time to spare. However, I see s break in my workload comming up very soon, in about a week or so....I'm still very much into this idea.
I thought for sure it was rolling by now.
I assum there is still no leader for the project. I wasn't looking/wanting it, but I'll step up to the plate if no one else will.
I was PM'd some nice java work that I was impressed with.

Let me know if this is cool with everyone, the "I's" have it.....
We can get started ASAP!
I'm thinking we need to work on 2-3 projects at the same time, so we don't ware out the Ubuntu concept with the same old, same old......
any how, it's late here, and I need to get to bed. I was going to post a polling thread about who should lead the team, but I'm not really sure who else it intreasted in the job....
If you want me to head this gig, say so, if not, that's cool too....I'll still toss a few bones at ya'

thechitowncubs
October 2nd, 2005, 11:22 PM
is this idea dead?

N'Jal
October 3rd, 2005, 07:32 PM
I hope not, by all means assume leadership, i don't have the time or engery to lead a project, and we really do need a leader.

Omnios
October 3rd, 2005, 07:50 PM
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=71320

"The 100 Best Products of 2005"
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120763,pg,12,00.asp

"Ubuntu Linux: Free and Fabulous"
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120520,00.asp

Aperently this thread dealing with "The 100 Best Products of 2005" This should possibly be mentioned in the commercial and definatly be posted on the web site. To Ubuntu this would inflate a .50C square into a priceless recomondation. You cant buy this type of bublicity, 1 Ubuntu saying we a good=good, PC Magazine stating it= priceless, freebee value=priceless.

darkmatter
October 3rd, 2005, 08:01 PM
I think that this is definitely an idea worth investing some time in.

I am an artist myself, and although I cannot devote much time (other resonsibilities to the community pending, and real life issues to deal with), I'm more than willing to help out where I can.:)

lotusleaf
October 4th, 2005, 04:39 AM
Forgive me, I haven't followed the whole thread, but someone mentioned flyers. If we could get some designs up for people to download and print out themselves to distribute this would be a cool thing.

I'd love something simple even, like the ubuntu logo on a paper with a simple message and the url to the ubuntu site and forums.

ubuntu_demon
October 8th, 2005, 02:12 PM
learn from the wiki and cooperate with the efforts on the wiki :

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BreezyMarketing
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam

marketing_ubuntu
October 8th, 2005, 04:45 PM
Thanks ubuntu_daemon.

Ok, I'm seeing great ideas - lots of innovation (hey, that's what we do, right?).

But we need to look at the big picture. A commercial is a good idea. Flyers are great too. The most important point about marketing is that it is much less effective if it is not timed correctly. For example, you send a flyer to a house and the call around the day after to tell them how great your double glazing is - and they say "I've heard of you"..you get me?

This is irrelevant for what we are doing, but you see the point. The whole marketing plan needs to be organised. We need to be inline with Canonicals plans. We need to be working towards a common goal. We need to be focused.

Most of all, we need to dispell any ideas that we have loads of time. Just because you are efficient does not mean you are not precise.

I have contacted Mark regarding this and it seems there is no 'immediate' support to us want-to-be-advocates. By support I mean correlation, organisation, time-sensitivity and action.

TARGET: To get Linux into pole-position on the desktop
COMMENCING: Now
QUALITY CONTROL: Extremely high
METHOD: Via Ubuntu distro
VEHICLES: Talking to end users, groups, university students, CD's, printed media, organising events in connection with local chamber of commerce, small business enterprise boards etc. Talking to public representatives, politicians, governement bodies.
OPERATIVE WORDS: organisation, speaker literature, talk, talk, talk, talk, large groups of people, windows users, group, marketing support, canonical, contracts

I am at home developing in MM Flash and an accomplished professional web developer. The difference with web developers is that we actually talk to customers in the real world, unlike core developers.

The major point here is that commercial /design/printed media must come under the umbrella of the whole marketing effort for it to be effective. It cannot survive alone. We are a disorganised bunch of extremely passionate people.

Rally around and let's get on this. We do not have 12 months to fix this bug -

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1

Regarding the 'commercial' (presentation/etc):
I will help you by assisting you in the organisation of your projects. We will collaborate and select the 'cream'. We will have a visual forum where anyone can get anything into a JPG and throw it up. We'll look and decide and democratically take action. If that's what you want (can I get a hell yeah?) lol.

But what we can do today, immediately is to look at really advocating like professionals. We need a booklet for speakers. We need to train each other in the best delivery methods for talks and how to GET IN places to talk.

We also need Canonical to get off their butts and back us up. We need it now and we need to do it right.

I am writng a booklet, but also this should not be in a vacuum. As soon as I have something worth looking at (give me 2 weeks), I'll post a link.

I'll also explain why we need to focus on one distro to market, if someone doesn't get why.

If there's anything here that's a problem to you - tell. I'll explain what I mean and if _we_ decide I'm wrong, (eventually, lol), then I am. Democratically.

I'll post this in the other forum post too, because I would like to keep a focus on the 'umbrella' too.

Good ideas. Like the warm one about the logo in the sky, sun going down except I think it should be penguins walking into the sunset. Zoom out from LCD to see it was all on screen. Human minimises window, checks email and opens a DOC file called 'Productivity'. Write on screen (in MS Sans Serif, lol) "Linux for humans. (and penguins too)" *chuckle* Just an idea.

This is all fun, but we need to make it happen. And we cannot do anything with the support from Canonical. As soon as we're organised, we can make a proposition and I'll head that if you want.

Regardless, the point is feeling. I will be OHPing some cool Flash stuff in my upcoming talks in Ireland, if I can get support (in all ways - especially Canonical). But the focus is in talking to these users and giving them a human. Not expecting them to install it (they do not know how). GO to their home / business and install it for them. Train them and get them to advocate too. 2 users turned advocates are much more effective than 40 people wandering off with CD's to put in their CD racks.

Respect to all posters.

Lloyd

PS. The first draft of the booklet for 'User Speakers' is coming.

--------

Corporate deisgners, advertising execs, artists, Flash developers and TV companies who want to give us ads for free go here: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=53813&page=2

Tell us your *BEST* skills and time you can commit.

People who like speaking to an audience, will be able to possibly meet somewhere in the world for training and would *almost* kill for the success of Ubuntu go here and tell us how much time you can commit and the area you can cover:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=73132

Also, Canonical employees / CEO's etc. that actually want Ubuntu to be a success, go to the above link (73132) and tell us what you can do for us. (We don't need money, we need support).

PsyberOneZero
October 8th, 2005, 07:25 PM
I think this is something that will be important for the future of Ubuntu, but we need to be careful. Personally I feel that we should start out with "Street Teams". Start out locally, please respect any local laws for posting flyers the last thing we need is negative press.

Phase 1 - Get flyers and Live CD's
Time Frame: Start Now (Breezy)
Take these to local Internet Cafe's, Starbucks, Coffee Houses, College Computer Labs, and other gathering places where people would have laptops. *Ask* the owner/manager is you can drop off some CD's (all 3: x86, amd64, and ppc), with a little flyer describing what Ubuntu is and what a LiveCD is (i.e. No install, won't do anything to existing data) and put the Website where they can download it if they like and to pass the CD on to others.

Phase 2 - Start floating small internet ads.
Time Frame: Dapper
Make a few 10-15 second teasers (Flash, SVG, etc). Something just focusing on the Name, Where to Download (cool music in the background)

Phase 3 - Full blown TV commercial
Time Frame: Dapper+1
This should be something to aim for, for the release of Dapper+1. That would give people ~1 year to organize the commercial, get it professionally done and line up advertising time slots. I've read this thread top to bottom and here are my person favorite Commercial Ideas:


---------------------------------------------------------------
Title: "Don't Be A Sheep"
---------------------------------------------------------------
Have agreen hill/blue sky setting (like the Windows XP default background), and have a bunch of sheep walking in a single direction in straight lines, possibly towards a window that sees to hang in space.

Have one of the sheep morph into a human being and deviates from the path the other sheep have taken. Music starts (the modernzed version of "Somewhere over the rainbow"). The camera zooms out a little to follow him as he walks towards an Ubuntu logo hanging in space. Camera pans around so that it can see what's happening behind this person, and you see a bunch of other sheep morphing into humans and walking in the same general direction as our hero.

And then, a soft female voice with a hint of seduction narrates "Ubuntu - Linux for human beings."



Music starts (the modernzed version of "Somewhere over the rainbow")
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Album - Are A Drag
They use the song in taxicab confessions, it's a punk cover.



---------------------------------------------------------------
Title: "Don't Monkey Around"
---------------------------------------------------------------
A bunch of monkeys in a large dingy room shackled to their desks, and using computers, quietly at first. Then the virus and spyware alert messages start showing up with an appropriately annoying audible one. At first the the monkeys complain through an occasional squawk or screech, with the crescendo growing to an ear-shattering symphony of the audible warning sounds emitted by Windows.

Three monkeys "escape" by discovering that their shackles aren't really keeping them there, and they wander into the hallway (as dark, dirty as their orignal room) with one covering his eyes, one his ears, and one his mouth. They notice a brightly lit doorway at he end of the hall and walk towards it.

The closer they get, the more human they look. They get to the door and are each met by a beautiful woman and guided work station with the Ubuntu logon screen. They log in (with user names like "see no evil", etc) and are greeted with the Ubuntu login sound, and they being working.

They eventually noticed that they are now fully human. The scene fades to an Ubunto logo on a black background (as it fades, the Ubuntu startup sound plays in the background), and a soft female voice with ahint of sedcutiveness says "Ubuntu - Linux for human beings."

Efwis
October 9th, 2005, 12:05 AM
great idea, and yes I wanna help.

i do know that we don't want to market just teens or geeks. if we do that then no one in the mainstream system will get the knowledge of it. you definately need to figure out the market to hit, from what I have seen so far the best market to hit with this project is as follows:
15-18 year old kids in High School
18-25 year old college students
25 - 35 year old professionals
Business owners/Managers

yes this seems like a small market, but its a market that might be a little more swayed to change. Most of the peopel in this market section are people with dreams of making something exciting happen. They are open to Change with little fight. They love free stuff.

I used to do Auto sales for Honda, believe it or not the audience they targetted for the Element was 19-25 year olds, most of the ones I sold were to 40+ Year olds looking at their mid-life crisis. Honda found out three quarters of the way through their marketing campaign they targetted that wrong crowd. I would hate to see the same thing happen with this. I did do some research in to this before replying, and it seems that this is the market to aim for.

PsyberOneZero
October 9th, 2005, 02:15 AM
i do know that we don't want to market just teens or geeks.

Personally the teen market is the perfect place to start, for one they have the least to lose by switching OS's, very few 17 year old have Mission Critical data on their home systems. That segment is also rapidly going to saturate the job market with ~2/3rds of the curent work force about to hit retirement age, they will be taking over and if enough people grow up on linux then they will be more likely to push for more widespread adoption.

As this distrobution is *designed* for desktops, that's really the market that we (as a community) should aim for. Anyone who has a computer at home that is just for personal use, especially the segment that really only uses the computer for word processing, internet, e-mail, IM and solitare. All of these are included in the default install of Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu.

Market targets:
Easy:
Casual Users (basic tasks, maybe a few games),Professionals home desktop

Medium:
Small business owners, professional work environments (day to day operations)

Hard:
Large corporations, Niche software users (Old DOS systems, custom software), Entrenched linux users with other distros

Once you get enough people using Linux at home, it will start filtering into the work environmets. Once it gets in to more work environments, you'll see more commercial support. Commercial application support will lead to Mid-size companies coming onboard. Once the mid-size companies switch, the larger companies will see that it does work and will begin adopting linux for day to day, and mission critical applications.

It all starts out with that first domino. Who here wants to help push the domioes?

Efwis
October 9th, 2005, 02:21 AM
Personally the teen market is the perfect place to start,

The point I was trying to put across and maybe it wasn't the best wording, was we dont' want to only target that part of the market. If we want to make this more wide spread, we need to target a little larger audience than that one.

PsyberOneZero
October 9th, 2005, 04:36 AM
The point I was trying to put across and maybe it wasn't the best wording, was we dont' want to only target that part of the market. If we want to make this more wide spread, we need to target a little larger audience than that one.

I understand, I was just saying that it's a very large, and flexible audience. Along with *ANYONE* who just uses the computer to Browse websites, check e-mail, play solitare, and IM. That is - I believe - the core of who Ubuntu is going for, and that's where we should start the marketing effort. I used to work for a large computer chain, you don't realize how many people get brand new, top of the line computers just to play solitare. I know HP is now using Ubuntu as their desktop linux option, but unless these people see that linux isn't scary they wont bother clicking the dropdown menu when they order their next computer. Just start wherever you can.

Has anyone made up a flyer for ubuntu yet?, if not just burn-off a handful of live cd's and pass them around to friends neighbors, let them know where to get it if they do want to use it, if it's a small enough group of people - help them set it up. Word of mouth is probably the most powerful advertising tool.

Members: 44,795

If even half of the members passed out 5 cd's that's 100,000 new people who've tried Ubuntu, and even if 10% keep it that's a 20% jump in member/users.
How's that for a larger audience;)

Efwis
October 9th, 2005, 04:41 AM
fair enough on that one, I did one step a little further then burning off a copy of ubuntu, I went to a local radio shack gave the manager a disk and asked if I could show him what its all about. :)

we went to one of their display comps, put in the live cd and what a reception I got to that. he said he is going to talk to his DM and try and get some in the store for handing out. he said he was also going to have anyone that interested in getting a new computer take a look at it via the live cd, if they want it installed he will give them my number and I will come out and install if for them :)

I guess I am promoting Ubuntu and My business all in one

aysiu
October 9th, 2005, 04:43 AM
I used to work for a large computer chain, you don't realize how many people get brand new, top of the line computers just to play solitare. Most of my middle-age relatives do this. They buy a super-expensive, suped-up computer, and all they do is email, surf the internet, and share photos with friends.

PsyberOneZero
October 9th, 2005, 04:46 AM
Most of my middle-age relatives do this. They buy a super-expensive, suped-up computer, and all they do is email, surf the internet, and share photos with friends.


... and I'm sure you've passed along a complimentary Ubuntu CD to each of them;)

aysiu
October 9th, 2005, 05:11 AM
... and I'm sure you've passed along a complimentary Ubuntu CD to each of them;) Not really. Several of them use Hotmail, which doesn't have the best support outside of Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. There are also some Asian sites that are IE-only, and the characters display as gobbledygook in browsers that support any kind of W3C standards. Frankly, I don't believe in pushing people into other operating systems. I don't believe in pushing people into anything, really. I'm a Christian, a feminist, and a lot of other things besides a Linux advocate, but I try not to be pushy in any of those things. I've never found pushiness to be productive.

I'll write plenty of PR articles for Linux. I'll show people Linux if they come over. If someone expresses dissatisfaction with Windows and I think Linux would suit her well, I'll suggest it. I don't want to push, though. Also, since I would be the only Linux user these people would know, it'd be tough because I'd be the only support, and I don't know Linux that well to support from far away.

Middle-aged email-internet-photos-only users can be great for Linux, but I do think you have to be either close enough (physically) to head over in case they have any questions (God knows, as you can see in this forum, it's difficult enough to support people by describing things) or know enough about ssh-ing and remotely managing a machine in order to set up Linux for these people.

PsyberOneZero
October 9th, 2005, 05:15 AM
I guess this is another example of sarcasm failing to make the translation to text, I meant no disrespect. I have never pushed linux on anyone who didn't want to know more and that's the beauty of live cd's
(I have it on good fact there's a copy of gnoppix floating around Microsoft HQ right now)

aysiu
October 9th, 2005, 05:20 AM
I guess this is another example of sarcasm failing to make the translation to text, I meant no disrespect. I have never pushed linux on anyone who didn't want to know more and that's the beauty of live cd's
(I have it on good fact there's a copy of gnoppix floating around Microsoft HQ right now) No worries. A lot of stuff going on in my personal life--at the moment I'm in too serious a mood. Sorry about the defensiveness.

geofff
October 10th, 2005, 01:38 PM
1. Who/what is your target market?

2. Which aspect are you 'selling?'

.. find the particular features you want to present, and the image you want to present them with.

The ideal commercial will emphasize Ubuntu's advantages and values in general without even mentioning a competing product except by implication.

Sorry I've not read the whole thread but from the above it seems we are still at the storming stage?

My thoughts:- What is different about Ubuntu? (other than being another os that just happens to be quite good)

1. Us the community. (Not that I'm much of a giver to it so far but I have taken ideas, bug fixes etc from lots). It really is an amazing community. Is feeling part of something with lots of other kind generous people good for sales? Look at the Coke adverts. What did they have to do with Coke? Ubuntu happens to just have a real community actively helping each other.

2. Ubuntu is growing rapidly. It is the next big thing. It is something you need to know about. This means the community is growing rapidly. It is something you need to be part of.

3. Ubuntu generosity is enshrined in its stated philosophy and is actively encouraged within the community.

Computers just happen to be the currency that the community trades in.

Naomi Klein in her book "NO LOGO" says that today product sells nothing. Brand is everything. (Simplification but this is the gist). The Ubuntu brand should IMHO be centred on the community.

Mr_J_
October 10th, 2005, 05:28 PM
Maybe like the Unifec style adds.
They try and show loads of diferent kids that symbolize each of the continents and races.

The 3 people or 3 colors swirling, or dancing around like they look like in the symbol ubuntu uses. Of course some explanation of Ubuntu.

U could always go for fast flashy images that switch between bursts of light.
Ubuntu is simple, so it might be a bad idea, no really "UAU!" images to show.

One thing I think might look cool is a world map with Ubuntu light bulbs to mark each Ubuntu user worldwide. Sorta like the contamination of the beneficial disease.

YourSurrogateGod
October 10th, 2005, 05:34 PM
Well, my artistic brilliance is equivalent to that of a 3-year old, so I can't help out in that department. But it would be kewl if Ubuntu (or non-Windows based operating systems) took atleast 10% of the market-share.

PsyberOneZero
October 10th, 2005, 05:43 PM
Mr J, YourSurrogateGod, ANYONE ELSE:D - If you guys want to help out come check out this thread:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=73132

I guess if you can call anything official at this point, that would be the official marketing thread.

dolson
October 13th, 2005, 06:29 AM
Okay, I don't know what happened in the 19 pages here, but I was thinking of an idea...

You remember Monty Python and the Holy Grail? That scene where King Arthur is teaching Sir Bedevere how to say "ni" to the old lady? Well, you could do a spoof on that, where he's teaching him how to say "Ubuntu" and Bedevere keeps messing it up saying "Ibinti" or something.

I dunno, I would think it's funny. Heh.

Also had another idea... For the P2P/comedy thing... You could dub a commercial to George Bush's lips. That's always funny. People gobble it up... I don't know what the commercial would say, but it doesn't really matter. The main thing is Bush, lips, words. Maybe he could invent the word, Ubuntu. Heh. Or something like that. Or maybe he could mess it up, like, Ubunutu or Ububuntu. He likes making up words.

marketing_ubuntu
October 14th, 2005, 03:28 AM
Hi,

Yeah, we'd love to collaborate - hi U_D - looks like we got off the ground, lol

Thanks for your support earlier - would you like to bring all your great ideas and link a wiki from our page? This crosses into commercails / Flash work / conference / presentations etc. We'd love some cool stuff for talks - to get new users to sit up and say "Hey, that's cool" - running on the big screen from our laptops. Groovy.

We look forward to hearing from anyone here who wants to 'get down' with us - hopefully we can join our efforts and make people see your work. See:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam

Thanks again for all your help earlier - look forward to the future collaboration.

;)

Sirin
November 11th, 2005, 07:17 AM
Whatever you do, try avoiding ones like these (http://media.ebaumsworld.com/wmv/ballmerwindows.wmv) (Note: This is a WMP9-based video).

ameerirshad
December 22nd, 2005, 11:47 PM
What we need :

-we need artists who want to spend time on this
-we need people who have expertise in marketing/commercials and legal stuff
-we need a website ... maybe http://www.spreadubuntu.org ?
-We need to decide what message we want to sent

For example :
-Make everyone curious about the word Ubuntu
-Show in a funny way how much more work you can do with Ubuntu
-Ubuntu is making you happy

-we need a super funny script (we've got over 30k users .. so I'm sure this is no problem)
Fracking Rocking...... I like it, can only write story lines for commercials, not much of an artist furthermore..... has done some camera work etc... long long time ago!

Iandefor
December 23rd, 2005, 12:25 AM
I think doing a commercial would be pretty awesome, and if I could help, that'd be pretty great, too. There isn't much I'd be available to do, except perhaps some grassroots stuff around Bellingham.

However, for people who will be actively involved in the commercial, I've done cinematographical work before, and there's two obvious things to watch out for:

Polish
Hilarity

Now, to expand on those:

Polish: a necessity in a commercial. If it looks like crap, no one will pay attention. It has to look good and it has to be clear.

Hilarity: It's quite easy to throw around ideas for a funny commercial and get a pretty funny script, but, in the end, the humour should only be used to get the idea across; anything above what is needed makes you look stupid. That's not to say you should eschew all humour, but there's such a thing as overdoing it.

Hope this is of use.

t0tAl_mElTd0wN
March 28th, 2006, 07:56 PM
I think doing a commercial would be pretty awesome, and if I could help, that'd be pretty great, too. There isn't much I'd be available to do, except perhaps some grassroots stuff around Bellingham.

However, for people who will be actively involved in the commercial, I've done cinematographical work before, and there's two obvious things to watch out for:

Polish
Hilarity

Now, to expand on those:

Polish: a necessity in a commercial. If it looks like crap, no one will pay attention. It has to look good and it has to be clear.

Hilarity: It's quite easy to throw around ideas for a funny commercial and get a pretty funny script, but, in the end, the humour should only be used to get the idea across; anything above what is needed makes you look stupid. That's not to say you should eschew all humour, but there's such a thing as overdoing it.

Hope this is of use.
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/27/1211220

I'm working with 2 of my friends now on a series of 4-5 commercials for Ubuntu. After reading this Slashdot article about the most recent Vista delay, I think now is the time to begin active advertising, being that the Dapper release is so close. I plan to have at least 2 done by the release, but we will continue working on them. They will be donations to the community to do whatever you want with them. Once we've roughed out some ideas, we'll also post details on them for input from you guys. I'll be putting some of our videos that we've done for a school project up on my website later, hopefully today. Once those are up I'll post the link so you can see what we're capiable of.

Again, these will be royalty-free donations. After all, if I believe intellectual property should be free for everyone, I can't very well charge royalties for my own stuff, eh?

Check us out: www.notsorandom.com

dmacdonald111
May 25th, 2006, 11:19 PM
I think ubuntu should go commercial. It has reached that level where it is as stable as it is going to get. So long as I don't fiddle with stuff and install something in the wrong place or something, then for me, ubuntu is stable if not more so than windows. As an example, my sister has XP with XP software and a router designed for XP on a computer designed for XP. She has symantec software (designed for XP) and wants to use BT which, you guessed it, is compatible with XP. Only thing is, I had tried for nearly six weeks now to get my sister connected to the internet, but nothing seems to want to work together and the system kept crashing, etc. (Linux is new to me, windows definately isn't) We were on the phone to microsoft, symantec and bt (all who blamed each other) in the end, I decided that my sister needed something that worked. I installed ubuntu while she wasn't watching, set up the XP theme (which is just the coolest) and everything worked. I mean everything. She even managed to somehow get her windows games (she has kids) working. I know I installed wine, but I didn't expect her to work that one out!

anyhoo, what I'm basically saying is: Microsoft (for my sister) is not worth the plastic it's burned on, but ubuntu she is totally happy with and gets on better with it. DEFINATELY time for ubuntu to go commercial!

bsalt
December 13th, 2006, 07:49 PM
hey, i did not notice there was already an ubuntu commercial thread, but here are some ideas i had and some that others gave me:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=317488&page=1

plb
December 13th, 2006, 08:04 PM
Make a commercial and post it on youtube. Networks like CBS and Comedy Central post stuff there all the time...It's free advertising.

bsalt
December 13th, 2006, 08:10 PM
Make a commercial and post it on youtube. Networks like CBS and Comedy Central post stuff there all the time...It's free advertising.

Yeah... but I think the best advertising is when you use the free advertising in addition to having some actual air time on TV. Look at Apple and their commercials - their sales keep going up... Ubuntu doesn't even sell the OS, so imagine how many more downloads Ubuntu would receive. We could see entire school systems switching over to Ubuntu to cut funds, not to mention the major businesses.

iSE
February 16th, 2007, 03:25 AM
As a professional songwriter (the titles better than it sounds!) I would be willing to create the music for it, or a jingle etc.

bsalt
February 16th, 2007, 06:16 AM
Yeah, if you remember how simple the Mac jingle is, it wouldn't even take a professional :P. I mean, the jingle is soo simple, yet so easy to remember, that whenever I hear it or anything like it, I'm think "A Mac commercial!" Same thing with the Intel inside jingle, the Duracel jingle, etc. etc.

webmaster5
February 16th, 2007, 09:02 AM
I have an idea for a Commercial!

Why don't we take the Pepsi commercial and replace the regular penguins with Linux penguins?

Or we can take the mac commercial..."Hello, I'm a Mac" and "I'm a PC" and finally "...and I'm ubuntu"

billdotson
March 8th, 2007, 05:39 AM
an Ubuntu commercial would be good. Although there should not be too much advertising because if you advertise alot people are going to think you are up to something. Post an ad on google video and an ad on youtube and try to get really ballsy and get one on cable.

the commercial should not be like the Mac commercials because even if that was funny they might come away thinking it was an anti-Mac ad, just leave thinking about a Mac not Ubuntu, or simply just dismiss it as a joke.

it needs to original and get some key points across:
-the Ubuntu philosophy
-how the OS is free
-how you can bet on the community to help you out.. so you don't have to pay and wait on a phone to talk to Dell, HP, etc.
-all the software for Ubuntu is free and it can do almost anything that you can do in any other OS for free.. although people will have to understand that it isn't the oh I will just buy a dvd burning program.. you just download it and use it.
-although this could be seen as a stab towards Windows people should know that with Ubuntu (or any other Linux distro for that matter) you will probably never get a virus or have a spyware bog your PC down.

DoctorMO
March 8th, 2007, 06:36 AM
So what do we have a wiki page for putting down ideas for adverts?

Idea: {
We cut into a clan of any kind doing some sort of social event, dancing, singing even football if need be; African tribe would be ideal.

We see someone call out to his friend, he runs up and says: 'I know you've had trouble with your computer, so I got you ubuntu', we see the ubuntu disc being handed from one person to the other, a picture as the both hold the disc at the same time; we see a kind smile on giver and a relived and some what joyous smile on the recipient.

Cut to text: "Ubuntu OS - Humanity to Others"
}

The advert needs to convey emotion, not practicality. most products sell on value or some cheesy crap. but what we have is a real valuable emotion that most people somewhat lack in the modern world and that is the compassion for others around you.

kahrytan
March 20th, 2007, 09:19 AM
Just come up with a theme. And do a Ubuntu Flicks (like what Mozilla did) contest.

The ad should put focus on the ubuntu slogan. "Linux for human beings". The ad should adhere to the same standards as the meaning of the word ubuntu. "Humanity to others".

The ad should do these things;


1. Offer people a choice between Windows or Linux. We shouldn't fight Apple.
2. Show or Tell them some key benefits of Ubuntu.
a. Safety and Security. This includes viruses and spyware. And explain it in idiot proof terms.
b. Ease of Use.
c. Gaming through Cedega.
d. We can't mention DVDs. No legal way to play dvds on Linux yet. Unless MPAA agrees to let libdvdcss2 to be legal.
3. Don't attack Windows but show some humanity. It's about choice.
4. Don't try to force people to use linux. Or make them feel stupid. Just let them know there is alternatives to Windows.


But we should most of all do a contest. Everyone has different opinion on how to do it. Agreement on a theme would be best.

If it will advertise Ubuntu, then Canonical would have to officially get involved. Trademark and legal issues would be involved. Also any companies in the past that has officially support Linux and OSS.

My list;

Canonical - It's their Trademark.
IBM - For it's dozens of Linux business commercials.
Google - For it's support of OSS.
Nvidia - Because they support Linux with officially supported drivers.
Linspire - Competitor to Canonical but they have contributed to OSS like the NVU application.
OSTG - Sourceforge, Slashdot (/.), and countless other Linux sites.
Linux Kernel Organization, Inc - You know why.
and last but not least, YOU.

Do you know of any other potential sponsors?

ubuntu_demon
March 26th, 2007, 04:56 PM
This project is not active. IMHO it's best (most productive) to cooperate with the marketing efforts on the wiki.
If you want to help with marketing Ubuntu please cooperate with these efforts :
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam

markp1989
September 18th, 2007, 11:39 PM
it will be a good idea as long as it doesnt compare ubuntu to windows.

it should show ubuntus strengths and not windows weaknesses

It should point out :

stability
customization / Choice , of how you system can be configured
savings
ease of use
Current lack of viruses
Cool looking software like compiz/beryl
Low hardware requirements
The vast amount of free software that runs on ubuntu
the ubuntu community and the support they give

Tamale
November 28th, 2007, 01:09 AM
it will be a good idea as long as it doesnt compare ubuntu to windows.

it should show ubuntus strengths and not windows weaknesses

It should point out :

stability
customization / Choice , of how you system can be configured
savings
ease of use
Current lack of viruses
Cool looking software like compiz/beryl
Low hardware requirements
The vast amount of free software that runs on ubuntu
the ubuntu community and the support they give

absolutely true. we could poke fun at the mac vs. pc ads though

not in the 'here's a mac, here's windows, and here's ubuntu' way though.. i'm thinking like this:

start what looks like a mac vs. windows ad.. something 'ubuntu' related smashes through the entire commercial / scene / whatever.

then clearly point out that there are other choices, and go with your suggestions as stated already..

basically i think you're right about it being important not to bash other OSs for their shortcomings and instead simply point out what it's great at, but at the same time it's a good idea to show how it's still another alternative to OSX and Windows.

Flying caveman
November 28th, 2007, 01:43 AM
Maybe advertise on Microsoft's support page, That would be good wouldn't it?

Glenn1337
December 2nd, 2007, 01:30 AM
I would love to help this is a great idea... but... i have no idea what i would help with... voices maybe...

DeadSuperHero
December 2nd, 2007, 02:06 AM
I'm just going to bring up a few commercial ideas here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=488414

bruce89
December 2nd, 2007, 02:36 AM
Ubuntu commercial

This now exists - http://beuno.com.ar/archives/44

upgrade216
October 15th, 2008, 04:49 AM
I love the idea, and even though I hate *******, I love the "I'm a PC" Commercials so why not make an "I'm an Ubuntu" showing people from all over the world who use Ubuntu (can anyone read/write/Speak Chinese?) and at the end instead of the "Windows "Windows Logo" Life without walls" say Ubuntu "Ubuntu Logo" Life Without Boundaries"?

cardinals_fan
October 15th, 2008, 05:03 AM
This didn't really need resurrecting, did it? ;)

Dev'olution
October 15th, 2008, 02:06 PM
lolz, that has to be bump of the year.

Hilko
February 21st, 2009, 12:03 PM
Commercials is a great idea. We really need them, lots of 'em.

However, promoting Ubuntu is not easy. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1076238

emshains
February 21st, 2009, 12:16 PM
Just as long you remember not to lie, you must not talk about how it is better/faster/etc, but that it is another choice.

Giant Speck
February 21st, 2009, 12:22 PM
Damn. Resurrected again?!?

This zombie just won't die.

other guy
February 21st, 2009, 12:24 PM
As I was reading I also wanted to give input. I like the idea of odd funny, yet providing a point.Here is what I thought of.

As is Ubuntu and some of the designs currently on the disc covers. Show a few humans sitting around a table sharing various items quietly and happily. like the Ubuntu logo.

In the background and around them. All sorts of people doing various things and dressed in various atire. Maybe for comedy, have a person who is in a bikini jumping around acting really silly. A nice cross section of silly, serious and lighthearted humans.

Then as the crowd becomes heavier and louder around around the table. One of the humans at the table makes a insightful comment. While another makes a pun. Then another fires off a stoke of genius. Why not show them Ubuntu... They all agree and smile...

That is when the Ubuntu logo comes in and the name of the Distro.

Rough idea, I hope it inspires ideas.