p2pnet - rss feed: Tacky Microsoft Ferrari promo
p2pnet.net News:- The story of the Ferrari prancing horse emblem is simple and fascinating, says Enzo Ferrari in a quote reproduced on numerous auto sites. It was painted on a WWI fighter flown by Italian ace Francesco Baracca and, “In 1923, when I won the first Savio circuit, which was run in Ravenna, I met Count Enrico Baracca, the pilot’s father, and subsequently his mother, Countess Paolina,” says Ferrari.
“One day she said to me, ‘Ferrari, why don’t you put my son’s prancing horse on your cars; it would bring you luck.’ I still have Baracca’s photograph with the dedication by his parents, in which they entrusted the emblem to me. The horse was black and has remained so; I added the canary yellow background because it is the colour of Modena.”
The historic emblem has been used with honour and pride. But that’s changed. Now, it’s being flaunted by Bill and the Boyz in a cheap (in the metaphorical sense) promotion only companies such as Microsoft and AMD could even begin to afford.
The two have been giving away Acer Ferrari 1000 and 5000 notebooks loaded with Vista — with the Ferrari emblem on the case.
“Assuming it doesn’t use Sony batteries, this laptop blows everything out of the water,” says Long Zheng, apparently one of the happy recipients, going on, “It retails for a hot $2,299. But if you write about Microsoft, they might even give you one for free. Is it ethical? Probably not. Is it worth something to hard-working sweat and tears bloggers? Hell yeah.”
And is it doing it’s job? Hell yeah. It’s garnering all kinds of ecstatic press coverage, as intended, and the bloggers who got one will be hard-pressed to be objective about Vista or AMD or Acer.
But, “I don’t see the Free Software Foundation handing out any Ferrari’s,” says Long Zheng snidely.
PS —- “One thought occurred to me this morning,” says Juha Saarinen on The Techsploder. “Would there have been the same controversy if Apple had handed out Macbook Pros to bloggers? I doubt it.”
Did anyone send a laptop back? We doubt that too.
Meanwhile, coincidentally, this post is being keyed on an Acer laptop. Is it a Ferrari? Nope. heh.
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
Also See:
Long Zheng - Microsoft hands out Ferrari’s to bloggers, December 27, 2006
The Techsploder - That Microsoft-AMD-Acer laptop fiasco, December 29, 2006
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December 29th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
I don’t get it. What’s supposed to be unethical about a Ferrari-themed laptop? In fact I’m interested to have one (not that I would buy it!). If this is unethical just because it’s disrespectful to the history of Ferrari’s logo, it is almost like saying your making the millionaire artist poor by downloading one of his songs.
December 30th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
You are jealous because you obviously did not get one.
December 30th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
He’s not losing too much anyway. These machines are a pitiful example of trying to redefine the high-end by innovative branding (applied to mediocre generic hardware), as opposed to the actual quality one could expect a few years ago for a $4,000 price tag when a dull gray laptop carried a modest logo of some hardware company.
December 31st, 2006 at 5:12 am
The controversy also seems to be helping you bloggers. Up until the controversy, I’d never even heard of any of you guys. Now you’re showing up as top headline news on Google News. Each of you are waxing poetic about your philosophies in life, and your ethics, etc. It’s as if you guys were influential and people desire to know what you think.
December 31st, 2006 at 5:17 am
No the companies involved have full rights to use the Ferrari logo, both AMD and Acer are in fact Ferrari’s F1 team sponsors. What’s unethical is whether sending these laptops out to “journalists” is akin to bribery.
December 31st, 2006 at 11:27 am
You’re right.
They’re so non-influential that microsoft saw fit to give them
4000 dollar laptops for their non-influence.
troll.
January 1st, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Enzo Ferrari would roll over in his grave if he knew what Microsoft and Acer are doing with his name and emblem. And the bloggers slobbering over MS in order to get their hands on a free laptop should be ashamed of themselves. It makes them little more than MS-whores.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:42 am
BULL!!!
It’s just business. You can’t rate a product unless you use the thing… Give me a break…
You dooshbags are just jealous that you didn’t get one.
DOOSHBAGS
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:40 am
WOW, of course its unethical, “here take somethin worth $2500 and write a report about our products please” I’m fairly sure this is the exact definition of conflict of interest
January 2nd, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Many bloggers complain about not being take seriously as journalists.
Are reviewers at major magazines and newspapers expected to return the products they review?
Blog readers should be made aware of the nature of these reviews so we can judge them on their intellectual as well as moral merits.