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Mozilla The Internet

Firefox Commercial Contest 112

Posted by Zonk from the go-spread-the-word dept.
Robbyboy writes "Mozilla announced an advertisment contest for the Firefox web browser, according to Information Week. They are asking Mozilla Fans to send them samples and the winners will receive prizes. The Contest is hosted at the Spread Firefox site" From the article: "Earlier this month, Mozilla launched the first phase of its Firefox Flicks campaign, which was a testimonial Web site in which fans could sing the browser's praise in short videos. To date, several dozen of the amateur clips, which vary widely in quality and have been submitted from more than 20 countries, have been posted on the site."
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Firefox Commercial Contest More

Firefox Commercial Contest

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  • i hope... (Score:4, Funny)

    by know1 ( 854868 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @12:24AM (#14330801)
    ....that they do an out takes / freaks release a la viral advert style that can't be traced to them. everyone knows those reality tv shows that are talent contests are funniest when the contestants fail

  • humour is key (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eobanb ( 823187 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @12:30AM (#14330827) Homepage
    seriously guys. how do you make something as arcane as auto insurance rates funny? you do it like Geico does. fact is, most people don't find what web browser they're using a terribly fascinating subject either. it might be hard for a lot of slashdotters to swallow, but one of the best ways to get people talking about Firefox is not throwing statistics at them or preaching about open source software. it's proper marketing. this is one of the reasons why Firefox has succeeded reasonably well so far versus, say, Opera. webmasters have 'get firefox' buttons on the bottoms of their web pages. taking it more mainstream would just be easiest, in my opinion, if a bit of humour was thrown in. i can't imagine what exactly it would be, but if you can make car insurance funny, you can make web standards funny too.

    • freedom is key too (Score:5, Insightful)

      by H4x0r Jim Duggan ( 757476 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @01:00AM (#14330937) Homepage Journal

      > preaching about open source software

      I agree that preaching must be avoided, but not mentioning that it is free software [compsoc.com] is a false economy.

      People who don't value their freedom will let it slip through their fingers. i.e. they will install a bunch of proprietary plug-ins, and over time, Firefox will become a platform for a set of non-free plug-ins for browsing the non-free WWW.

      ...but the preaching has to be removed. Freedom and community could be mentioned without an explanation, and at least the user would then have the option of investigating for themself.

      In business terms, freedom is the software's "unique selling point".

      • Re:freedom is key too (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Short Circuit ( 52384 ) * <mikemol@gmail.com> on Saturday December 24, 2005 @01:50AM (#14331102) Homepage Journal
        People don't value their freedoms.

        Cases in point: Gun control, DMCA, PATRIOT Act, Copyright extensions, broadcast flag (you know it's going to pass), DRM (Sony's rootkit wouldn't have gotten press if it didn't introduce security holes), All those bits of PATRIOT II that got slipped into other bills...the list would go on and on if I had bothered to divide DRM and gun control into passed and pending legislation.

        All you have to do is tug on their heartstrings, or put the fear of death in them, and they'll support whatever agenda you propose.

        It's political micro-minorities and activist groups that end up defending their own rights. The "silent majority" doesn't silently support or silently oppose; It just doesn't care. :-(

        Check back in 20 years, and see if I'm not right.

        • People don't value their freedoms.

          Cases in point: Gun control, DMCA, PATRIOT Act, Copyright extensions, broadcast flag (you know it's going to pass), DRM (Sony's rootkit wouldn't have gotten press if it didn't introduce security holes), All those bits of PATRIOT II that got slipped into other bills...the list would go on and on if I had bothered to divide DRM and gun control into passed and pending legislation.

          I can agree with you on all of those, except for gun control. Maybe you've heard of something I

          • > Does anyone honestly consider that a loss of freedom? I mean, freedom != anarchy

            the point is that our system of one single state for a group of poeple is hopelessly outdated. If you take a bunch of poeple that agree on a certain set of rules of living together, you can form a traditional country. But nowadays countries tend to rule all and everything. The problem is that if you make too much rules most of the poeple are most of the time annoyed. the same thing happens with too *many* poeple. And with t

      • Re:freedom is key too (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Epistax ( 544591 ) <epistax@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Saturday December 24, 2005 @09:06AM (#14331896) Journal
        Well, I think the commercial needs to have some like this, in huge letters:

        "This ad is paid for through voluntary donations by very satisfied users."

        Or the like. Just throw out a claim like that that no one can ever possibly match.

    • Not only humor (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Pneuma ROCKS ( 906002 )

      I agree, on the Firefox Flicks globe, the videos I prefer are not the ones that talk about Firefox's features or "coolness", but the ones that are different and original. But there's plenty of other elements that are very appealing to people. For instance, I particularly liked a couple of videos from France, were some dude's little kids talk about Firefox. I don't even know what they're saying, but babies are cute, and the videos are cool to watch. Other stuff that sells: sexiness and puppies.

      Hope somebody

    • Re:humour is key (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @01:06AM (#14330949) Homepage
      You think out of the box i.e. create a branding kit so that ISP's can readily rebrand firefox to be an ISP branded web browser (with a range of bookmarks and extensions etc. than have an affiliation with the ISP). Give larger commercial organisations an incentive to distribute and promote firefox. The ISP's can then use firefox and thunderbird to compete against MSN and AOL.
    • Right! And we could honor an important part of the browser, such as the the Layout Engine [wikipedia.org]. We could model him after the Geico mascot, which is a lizard or an iguana or something... and then we could give him a name, like the "Geico Layout Engine".

      Of course, saying "Layout", "Engine" and the name of an auto insurance company brings up some wierd images.

    • Re:humour is key (Score:4, Funny)

      by cashman73 ( 855518 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @01:36AM (#14331057) Journal
      Oh, my god! I've got really great news!!!! I just saved a whole bunch of my sanity by switching my web browser to Firefox!!!!
    • I think it's more important to state why it's so important to "upgrade". Why they cannot live without it. Something along the lines of:

      Firefox: Less viruses, Less popups, Faster porn, Free!

    • Well, funny can be good, but I think the Mozilla Foundation should be careful with selecting clips that are involuntarily funny. Most of the people that have sent in clips seem to be good-natured people that just want to "spread the word", not to become the next Star Wars kid. Could easily backfire.

      Of course, that doesn't preclude me from making fun of them. Take a look at this guy [spreadfirefox.com] for instance. Evidently, he enjoys "firefuck". Now, I don't know what a firefuck is, but it sure sounds intriguing! Possibly

    • Like Geico did. They didn't just make their commercials funny, they made them relevant. Who cares about car insurance? Anyone who wants to pay less for it, that's who. Who cares about Firefox? Anyone who wants to pay less for it... uh, wait a minute...

  • Firefox strikes back... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ruff_ilb ( 769396 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @12:30AM (#14330829) Homepage
    I find this a much better idea than the opera-user-photo concept. I hope they release all the best submissions. They could be quite amusing.
    • "I find this a much better idea than the opera-user-photo concept."
      Why?

      Firefox Flicks doesn't exactly seem to be a huge success. I don't see it mentioned anywhere except on Slashdot a couple of times.

  • (Night time, Opening shot of sky above neighborhood)
    (Pan in window showing various people in front of computers)
    (Cue music "The Internet is for porn - Avenue q") ...

  • Get high first (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Remember that Apple hippy chick?

    "Beep, beep, beep."

  • "Daddy, the computer stopped working" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @12:41AM (#14330877) Homepage
    LIVING ROOM, EVENING
    Father, mother, daughter, desktop computer.

    Daughter: "Daddy, the computer stopped working"

    TRACK to Daughter walking to computer with Father following.

    CUT to computer screen. Screen full of blinking ads and popups. Hint of pornographic content, but not directly on screen.

    Daughter: "Can you fix it?"

    Father: "I'll try"

    Father sits down at computer.

    CUT to side view of Father at computer, illuminated by glow from screen.

    FADE to side view of Father at computer, looking at screen, intermittent typing.

    Daughter (offscreen): "Is it fixed yet".

    Father: No, not yet.

    FADE to side view of Father at computer, head in hands.

    Daughter (offscreen) "I need the computer to do my homework".

    Father (annoyed): "I'm working on it".

    Mother: (offscreen): "Honey, is this going to take long"? ...

    • That would be the worst advert in the world.

      • That would be the worst advert in the world.

        Why? Advertising what your product isn't seems to be a pretty popular technique. Progressive has an ad showing a guy getting an on line insurance quote, and the computer says he'll get a call back in 12 hours... 48 hours... 72 hours... eventually. T-Mobile has their ads for "Poser Mobile" showing people getting nickel-and-dimed by their cell phone company. Apple had an ad showing someone trying and failing to use software on a Windows PC. High speed Internet c

    • Father: Hey (girl's name) where are you going?
      Daughter: With my neighbor, his computer always works.

      (Pan to neighbor's computer, he's using firefox)

      PunchLine: "Firefox. The web as it was meant to be."
    • "FADE to side view of Father at computer, head in hands."

      Come on now, it's not like his daughter is pregnant. Yes, spyware sucks, but most people don't see it in the light we do. They've become accustomed to ignoring the pop-ups and going on with their lives. Firefox would be much better served to stay away form melodramatic, pseudo-crisis scenarios and stick to the positive.

  • My Vision (Score:5, Funny)

    by bensafrickingenius ( 828123 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @12:50AM (#14330908)
    Involves thousands of paniced Japanese running through city streets screaming "MOZIRRA!!!!!! MOZIRRA!!!"
  • What about taking a bunch of stuffed animals and making a bondfire? Or they could use a real fox and get even more publicity once the animal rights people start making a fuss!
  • This is a good idea on behalf of Mozilla to save money when it comes to producing advertising. It's a good program, mine as well contribute if you can make a good commercial.

  • Prizes (Score:4, Informative)

    by wyldeone ( 785673 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @01:28AM (#14331031) Homepage Journal

    They have some pretty sweet prizes [spreadfirefox.com], too:

    • 1st: $5,000 gift certificate to B&H
    • 2nd: A get up of three 19" lcd panels
    • 3rd: An alienware pc
    • 1st: $5,000 gift certificate to B&H

      I prefer Lucky strikes but I'm sure they would come in useful.

    • Are the prizes really that great when you consider what they'd normally have to pay an ad agency to create and produce a spot like this?

      I should mention that I work at an ad agency. And while I am not saying they shouldn't do this...since I think its great and love viral work...I am saying that companies should certainly be compensating people QUITE a bit more for their hard work...especially if they win. What they are offering is bordering on insulting in terms of industry pricing.

  • My guess: Superbowl.
  • lots of these... (.Y.) Take a cue from the trash that is "popular" today... eMpTV, anyone? Maybe you have like a firefox mascot roll up in a limo, pop some bubbly and get freaky in da club with lotsa fine women. Oh, them curves is like BLAM!
    • hmm... yours seem to be saggin. Perhaps we want women who won't have a heart attack when Da Fox gets freaky with them? I'm thinkin some of these (*)(*) See? Nice and perky! Or, if you want tassles (!)(!) Puffies? (@)(@) Implants? (^)(^) (lil too perky if you ask me) Grandma? UU

  • when did this become about domination? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @01:42AM (#14331073)
    Mozilla announced an advertisment contest for the Firefox web browser, according to Information Week

    Um...why?

    Good products don't need advertisements. Bad products- or products indistinguishable from their competitors- need advertisements. When you have a lot of technically clued-in people encouraging friends, family and coworkers to use Firefox...and a market share that is going up...why do they need more?

    I just don't get it. Open source isn't about taking over the world, but yet a lot of people seem to think that way. Guys (and gals)...that's exactly what got us in trouble with Microsoft.

    Choice and diversity is GOOD, shockingly. What you should be doing is pointing coworkers to lots of different browsers and encouraging open standards support (ie, don't support browsers that have fussy behavior web designers must account for and/or don't support open standards.)

    Choice and diversity encourage innovation, and assure users needs are met best. Here's a little parallel- I worked for an advertising agency that was owned by a holding company. The holding company is one of 3-4 of its kind, and together they own a massive percentage of the advertising firms out there. Yet the holding company frequently encourages multiple companies it owns to present proposals to the same client. Why? Better chance at getting one of -their- companies in the door is one reason, but another is that with 4 companies from "The XYZ Group"...well, the client has more selection, there might be a better fit between client and firm, and the client is liable to be happier with whoever they DO pick.

    By the way- corporate needs aside, of course...do NOT ram Firefox, or anything else, down a user's throat. They'll quite likely resent it, look for excuses for it to fail or not meet their needs, etc. Where you can, be GENTLE and try to have it be their decision- not yours.

    • When? When it became clear that if you have a majority of the users, web designers will follow the standaards instead of being worry about the major company product not showing it properly. I had a web designing studio, and my clients were woried not about technical aspects, but if people would be able to see their site. So I had to break the standards several times just to look nice in Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, that's the true.

      Good products NEED advertisements! That's how people becomes aware of th

    • I just don't get it. Open source isn't about taking over the world, but yet a lot of people seem to think that way.

      There are no "products"- noone needs to sell anything to anyone. The issue is freedom, as in GNU/RMS."Open source" isn't "about" anything. If you want to download and use whatever software you want, well okay.

      What is important is that people are free to do this. Which cannot happen when the defacto standard is a proprietary and secret platform (secret binary plugins, IE only sites etc). Going "

    • Re:when did this become about domination? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by TedRiot ( 899157 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @02:37AM (#14331209)
      Good products need advertising to make them known. I like and use Firefox, but I don't feel I have to push it to anyone even though I consider myself "technically clued-in". When people have problems with eg. malware after surfing in suspicious parts of the web, I tell them about problems with IE and if they ask for alternatives, I might direct them to Firefox. I don't push it to people that have no problems with IE and are not looking for alternatives.

      Having ads in mainstream media makes a product more known and makes the product (in some cases at least) more credible to your average consumer. This might make a new population of people that realise that they have a choice and may become interested. For those I am willing to tell that in my experience it's actually a very functional browser.

    • Good products don't need advertisements. Bad products- or products indistinguishable from their competitors- need advertisements.

      To the average user, Firefox is indistinguishable from its competitors. Hence the ads and all the hype to make it stand out.

    • I have a feeling that the idea is not really about promoting a product at all. It's about promoting the lifestyle and the mentality of a 'geek' as opposed to those of a 'norm', in a way, and the 'evil' corps against the 'good' free software developers stuff is secondary. Many geeks develop a sort of inferiority complex against norms and since firefox=feek, then actions life this one are acts of self-assertion of sorts.
    • Um...why? Good products don't need advertisements.

      *COUGH* Commodore Amiga *COUGH COUGH* bankruptcy *COUGH*.

      Pardon me, you were saying? :)

  • They Need To Concentrate On Fixing The Bugs (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Master of Transhuman ( 597628 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @02:17AM (#14331174) Homepage
    A recent article elsewhere listed a number of problems reported by several hundred users of 1.5 - many of which I have experienced first hand.

    While 1.5 doesn't slow down as quickly as the 1.07 when downloading images off the Net, it DOES slow down eventually and eat up all of Windows' virtual memory. Eventually it starts issuing "picture cannot be displayed due to errors" messages. In other words, severe memory leaks. These were supposed to be fixed in 1,5, but clearly have not been, although some may have been ameliorated somewhat.

    It also seems to be slightly less stable than 1.07, with a slightly higher incidence of crashes (still thankfully relatively rare.)

    If they start trying to add features to this code base, they'll get a rep for having a crappy browser on a par with IE 5. They need to fix these problems and fix them fast.
    • The guys who are doing the marketing won't be fixing any bugs anyway, so whether they do more or less marketing is irrelevant.

      So whether the product has bugs or not does not depend on the marketing.

      • That may be true, but they still need to fix the bugs first. The more people use the product, the more the bugs will become noticeable - and the worse the reputation backlash will be. As Firefox is a leading example of open source software, we need to prove it is a quality piece of work - and we need to prove that open source isn't just about geeks pursuing their own features list like some Microsoft marketing team...

  • Okay, I've GOT IT! (Score:5, Funny)

    by mister_llah ( 891540 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @02:25AM (#14331190) Homepage Journal
    What about a jar of jelly, but instead of jelly, it says FIREFOX... ahahha SPREAD FIREFOX, GET IT? ...

    Anyway, if someone takes this idea, does it, and wins... well, at least think of me when you get your delicious prizes...

  • A sample (Score:3, Informative)

    by Bananatree3 ( 872975 ) * on Saturday December 24, 2005 @02:39AM (#14331213)
    www.funnyfox.org [funnyfox.org] has been around for several months now, and offers 3 short funny clips advertising Firefox. They're flash videos right now, but could easily be adapted for the TV.
    • www.funnyfox.org has been around for several months now

      ... And that's an example of how we should NOT make the commercials. Next question, please? :)
  • It is a great idea, and I would have loved to participate before 1.5 was released. Unfortunately, my experience with Firefox 1.5 was terrible. It ate up RAM like nobody's business, much moreso than previous versions, and ignored the settings to help keep it from doing that. I was upset when I noticed that it was using error pages instead of the trusty error dialog. It also would slow to a crawl when it was loading, something it's done to a much lesser extent in every version I've used. I didn't see any
  • The flicks, although a good idea, suck in practice. They're all badly recorded, low-res, volume screwed-over, web cam clips.

    About the advertising, I have never seen any type of ad for FireFox before, aside from the non-animated, pretty much out of the way, banners.
    I hope they don't go too far with the advertising. If it starts becoming obtrusive then they're going to have a lot more angry customers on their hands.

  • One problem... (Score:5, Funny)

    by mrjb ( 547783 ) on Saturday December 24, 2005 @05:08AM (#14331484)
    ...the Mozilla team has Adblock switched on. No winner will be announced.
  • I'm checking for updates the last weeks but there still is no fix for the latest JavaScript bugs. What should I do? There are more and more so called Web 2.0 sites. I can't disable JavaScript.
  • Pushing aside the idea for the ad, which is the ideal video software to use?(or is it flash?)
    If it was a print medium,photoshop could be a starting point for creating.But video left me stumped - theres a whole gamut outthere,that are quite complicated to use too......

    So which software is fast, easy to learn,with decent results?

  • spreadfirefox.com insistence on not having a link to download firefox or at least firefox's main website has got to be the most asshat move of all time
  • Too bad Apple didn't use mozilla for the Safari engine. They might have donated their Think Different ad for this. The press alone would probably be huge.

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