ShadowRAM: September 15, 2008
A Commercial About Nothing
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So what do you get for $300 million? A pair of shoes called "Conquistadors" and a churro. And you get to see Bill Gates shake his moneymaker—not that there's anything wrong with that.
The 90-second ad (which you can find on YouTube or Microsoft's Web site) takes place in a discount shoe store called "Shoe Circus: Quality shoes at discount prices." Seinfeld sees Gates in the store and, eventually, ends up helping Gates pick out a pair of size 10 Conquistadors.
The discussion between the two centers around whether or not Seinfeld is feeling Gates' toe and if Gates showers with his clothes on, because, as Seinfeld puts it, "You're dressed and you're clean."
Sound kind of odd? It was, and the highlight of the commercial comes when a Shoe Circus clerk asks if Gates is a Shoe Circus Clown Club member.
But when you're one of the richest men in the world, recently retired from one of the biggest and most important companies in the world, and have plans to eradicate malaria from the planet Earth, even Newman will give you a little bit of leeway.
Do Uglydolls Dream Of Mobile Twinning?
• When Sheri and Eli Gurock opened the first branch of Magic Beans in Brookline, Mass., in 2004, they had modest hopes for their store: an outlet for high-end toys and baby gear targeted to modern parents who were willing to spend a bit more for the good stuff. Sheri and Eli saw explosive growth in their first two years, fueled by a palpable buzz in the Boston area—and by Sheri's store- and parenting-related blog called "Spilling the Beans"—so they opened additional Magic Beans outlets in Hingham, Mass., and Wellesley, Mass. They also have a Dedham, Mass., location set for 2009.
Needing to be in constant contact with each store—and be available for important calls as if they were physically at any location at any time—the Gurocks chose Avaya's IP Office to meet their rapidly expanding infrastructure needs. Andy DeAngelis of All Business Communications Inc.—the VAR that brought Magic Beans and Avaya together—was encouraged by Avaya's renewed focus on SMB channels: "I think there's more of a personal touch. I definitely can sense the real push for SMB, where before it was a very big push into enterprise and SMB was just sort of the nice little other side of the house. It's been great so far." There was no word on which Uglydolls (pictured) were thought to be best of breed.
Seen And Heard
• Reports of Steve Jobs' demise were oh, a little exaggerated, leaving an embarrassed Bloomberg wire service with a face full of egg earlier this month when it accidentally ran an obituary. Of course, this high-profile mistake puts Jobs in some pretty elite company: Mark Twain, Alfred Nobel, Paul McCartney, Abba, actor James Earl Jones, British folkie Dave Swarbrick and child star Adam Rich all had to say, "Wait, I think you've got that wrong," in similar circumstances.
• Eric Kim, Intel's Digital Home Group chief, played the Bob Barker role for a game show segment during his Intel Developer Forum keynote last month, using the stage to announce a new Internet TV collaboration between the chip maker and Yahoo. The upshot: Intel will supply CE 3100 "media processors" for purpose-built set-top boxes and digital TVs that can run Yahoo's new Widget Channel, a simple Internet browser that runs on TV sets concurrently with regular TV broadcasts.