1. Brobeck, Can You Spare a Dime?
Sometimes a company's timing is better than
perfect.
The latest proof of that particular theory arrived
in our mailbox recently, in the form of a postcard
addressed to the research lab's human resources
director.
(Actually, he's known as our chief people officer,
but
that's another
story.)
Sent by the legendary Silicon Valley law firm
Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, the mailing trumpeted the
online availability of the firm's monthly newsletter
Labor and Employment Update.
"Labor and Employment Issue Alert," read the postcard. "Find out how recent court decisions will impact
your company in 2003."
Sounded promising. That is, until we visited
Brobeck's Web site, where we encountered the following
notice: "Brobeck is winding down its operations as a
law firm. We expect that process to be substantially
completed by the end of February."
In other words, recent court decisions will have
precious little impact on Brobeck in 2003. They've got
other labor and employment issues to worry about.
2. PowerBook to the People, No Delay!
For those of you who are interested in effective
advertising strategies, we'll let you in on a little
secret: If you want people to buy a Volkswagen, don't
have the star of your commercial driving a Saab.
"Well, duh!" you must be thinking. "That's
obvious."
Gateway to a PowerBook?
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Maybe to you.
Unfortunately, it wasn't to someone at
Gateway.
As the Five Dumbest Things Research Lab belatedly
learned this week, a Gateway ad published last
December featured a prominent picture of a fun-lovin',
presumably music-downloadin' member of the youth
culture groovin' with his PowerBook. Manufactured and
marketed, of course, by
Apple .
This reproduction of the ad has been circulating
for a while, apparently. We found it on the
Apple-centric site Spymac.com.
A Gateway spokesman acknowledges the goof, which
she says ran only once, in
PC Magazine, before
it was caught. She attributes Apple's guest-starring
role to injudicious use of a stock photo found in a
library of ready-to-use photography. (For another
example of stock-photo weirdness,
look
here.)
George Mannes
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