From owner-freebsd-chat Sat Mar 15 01:01:32 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id BAA11993 for chat-outgoing; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 01:01:32 -0800 (PST) Received: from antares.aero.org (antares.aero.org [130.221.192.46]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id BAA11988 for ; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 01:01:29 -0800 (PST) Received: from anpiel.aero.org (anpiel.aero.org [130.221.196.66]) by antares.aero.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id BAA22439 for ; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 01:00:54 -0800 (PST) Received: from anpiel.aero.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by anpiel.aero.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id AAA09431 for ; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 00:59:49 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <199703150859.AAA09431@anpiel.aero.org> To: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Nuances Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 00:59:49 -0800 From: "Mike O'Brien" Sender: owner-chat@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk This is interesting, and it's also good. Jordan, you're right, this is a good basic idea: "no limits". Ads must be targeted, and the narrower the audience the narrower the ad. Take a look at "Iron Age", if it's still published: a trade press publication for the steel construction industry. The ads are all masculine and are utterly incomprehensible. To be effective, a slogan must be short. "Just do it!" is a masterpiece of its type. Jordan's also right: "Coke is it!" ... isn't. (Isn't "it", that is.) By these lights the right slogan would be, "FreeBSD: No limits!" However, this sound more appropriate to selling high-ticket sneakers than an operating system. Our target audience is very narrow: those who specify an operating system. They have to a) know what one is, and b) know (or think they know, and as advertisers the last thing we want to do is disabuse them of this notion) enough about them to make such a decision. In a case like this, a more literate approach is probably better, at the cost of a few more words: FreeBSD: There are no limits. Picture a guy whose clothes look somewhat distressed breaking out of a cage made of Microsoft manuals. Hmmm? Mike O'Brien