The Dell dO0d is gone

[SNGX1275]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dude, are you getting a pink slip?

Dell Computer Corp.'s sales of personal computers have soared since the advent of the fictional pitchman "Steven," known for his catchphrase, "Dude, you're getting a Dell!"

But perhaps fearful of a backlash against the ubiquitous Steven, who playfully harangues friends and strangers into buying a Dell PC, the company said on Monday it is moving on to a new, less dude-centric advertising campaign.

"We're trying to look at some alternatives," said Dell spokesman Bob Kaufman, who said the company is currently airing ads that feature a group of eager interns. "We test ran some of the interns spots during the summer and got some positive reactions."

Kaufman declined to say if the "Steven" campaign was merely on hiatus, or gone for good.

In two years, Steven, played by 21-year-old New York University acting student Ben Curtis, has become a cult advertising figure not seen since the likes of Joe Izuzu and Clara Peller of Wendy's "Where's the beef?" fame. Inundated by calls from adoring fans, Dell set up a Web site (http://www.dell4me.com/dude) and even offered a line of "Dell Dude" apparel.

The campaign was originally created in 2000 by Dell's then-ad agency Lowe, a unit of Interpublic Group of Cos. Inc. . When Dell switched to Omnicom Group's DDB agency in April, 2001, Steven went along for the ride.

If Steven is on the way out, nobody seems to have told "DellDudeSteven," an automated chat program set up by Dell to run on America Online's Instant Messenger.

When asked on Monday, "Dude, I heard you're getting fired!" the program responded, "I haven't."

[size=1]source: http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=entertainmentnews&StoryID=1574823[/size]

 

[poertner_1274]

This makes me feel a lot better. I am sick of hearing that guy speak. I personally will never buy a PC from anyone and will build all of my own. Therefore it is just annoying to hear DUDE YOU'RE GETTING A DELL!!!

Good to hear.

 

[Vehementi]

The king is dead!
All hail the king!

Rejoice! For the end is near.

I'm starting to like Dell now...:haha:

 

[Ne0CyPh3r]

Dell is major crap. I just wish I could've seen the "Dude, you're getting a Dell!" advertisement somewhere before they decided to kill the entire thing off. I don't see how that 'catchphrase' can get so...........widely known. It sounds like a rip off of "Dude, where's my car!?"


Some PC manufacturers are good, like Alienware for example. Even though they have some of the LOUDEST PC's on the market, they look cool and they seem pretty stable and 'optimized'. My most recent PC is a modified Alienware system, the Aurora DDR.

I also saw some Dell advertisements for P4 PC's as the P4 was just being released. They were selling systems of "extremely high performance for a low price,".........unfortunately.........they were usually equipped with incapable integrated graphics cards and extremely low-end graphics cards. What's the point of a P4 if not for gaming or anything related to graphics? There's no point in buying a P4 for surfing the net or sending e-mails...........

 

[PHATMAN5050]

Believe it or not, but people actually buy computers without doing ANY prior research. Many people walk into computer stores and directly up to someone wearing a name tag and say "i'm looking for a computer so that I can type papers and email and whatever other things computers do." Dell's computer's actually are at a minimum managable and their customer support is excellent. A client of mine had a broken DVD-Rom drive and after talking with a dell technician for 10 minutes he sent the request to have a new DVD-Rom drive sent to the house by next-day mail at no charge, as this is their standard procedure. The computer was on a 1-year warranty which means that any part on it that broke, including processors and motherboards, would be replaced free of charge for a year.

I will agree that the dell kid was annoying, but its much better than a song playing in the backround of their commercials praising dell.

 

[Vehementi]

Originally posted by --Ne0-CyPh3r--
Dell is major crap. I just wish I could've seen the "Dude, you're getting a Dell!" advertisement somewhere before they decided to kill the entire thing off. I don't see how that 'catchphrase' can get so...........widely known. It sounds like a rip off of "Dude, where's my car!?"

Dude, step away from your 3 monitor surround gaming and turn on that freaking flat wide-screen TV. You would've seen them every single commercial break.

Dells are for those simple minded folk who don't like Macs.

 

[PHATMAN5050]

ehm, vehementi, notice under his name on the left of the screen it says HANNOVER, GERMANY. Could it be that they don't play dell commercials there? Yes, that sounds like an excellent explanation for why he has yet to see one.

 

[PanicX]

As annoying as Steven is, its all marketing. If its not a clueless buffoon, then it'll be a nagging brat or some other mindless gimmick designed to put their product name in your head. If you're really as clueless to what you want , that a commercial can sell you a product, then you deserve what you bought. While I, personally, would prefer to build my own systems, there's many times that I would refer someone to a company such as Dell to buy their PC. Because when it comes down to it, my customer support skills suck ( intentionally) , where as Dell and HP customer support is award winning.

 

[Kaorichan]

Dude, step away from your 3 monitor surround gaming and turn on that freaking flat wide-screen TV. You would've seen them every single commercial break.

Dells are for those simple minded folk who don't like Macs.

Well your right I severely wish mac would die... i do NOT like their set up you have to hold down the menu's to open crap...

 

[GeekieNick101]

Mac's are good ok Dell sucks there no good service its in India they dont speak English very cleary explain to be how that won an award

 

[mopar man]

Grammar kind of a problem? (to above poster)


Any way, I bought a 2400 from Dell in 2002 (or 1, can't remember) and it had better support than most companies I have dealt with. They may not speak english that great, but better than most. They helped out quicker than customer service at Wal-Mart. (Well, close enough )


Dell really has never been a gaming computer I don't think, but they make aftermarket Graphic Cards, so whats the big deal? The one thing I hate is the PCI only thing that was goin on and still may be.

If It was a rating out of 10, it would be a 9 for me.
There's my experience.

 

[nickslick74]

Another blast from the past.....

 

[GeekieNick101]

Oh so I have been grammer skills?

 

[SNGX1275]

You have poor grammar skills (and spelling), don't worry though, apparently all the cool kids are doing it.