Top 10 Most Memorable Tech Super Bowl Ads

theodp writes "From 1977's lovable Xeroxing Monk to 2007's smug-and-rich SalesGenie pitch man, Valleywag has rounded up videos for its Top 10 most memorable tech-oriented Super Bowl commercials. The commercials are: Apple (1984), Monster (1999), CareerBuilder (2005), GoDaddy (2005), Xerox (1977), E*Trade (1999), Pets.com (2000), Computer.com (2000), SalesGenie.com (2007) and OurBeginning (2000). This year's ads are coming soon." I've always been a fan of the Outpost.com gerbil cannon spot.

digg?

[loconet]

/me checks the URL. Yes, it says slashdot.org . wtf is going on? I'm scared.

This new look...

[Anonymous Coward]

Is just horrible: Don't go the same way as Digg, or you'll also start attracting the same crowd. I don't need pictures of the movie: If I'm interested enough, I'll click the freaking link...

You would think...

[computerman413]

That Slashdot would bother to announce a major change to its layout. I don't like it any more than I like the new discussion system.

Salesgenie.com ad...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not so memorable...

wait a second...

[hjf]

I thought I read "tech-oriented"? Then why the hell is Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, SalesGenie.com and *gasp* OurBeginnings.com in that list? Everything with ".com" in the name is "tech-oriented" now? Sheesh.

Re:digg?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a former jock and I don't give a damn about professional sports. What the hell do I care about some massive corporation pitting its employees against each other in arenas that were subsidized by tax payers? You might as well be rooting for coke versus pepsi. Incredibly retarded, but I guess sports suits the goal of placating and soothing the masses so they don't have time or energy to care about important things that are affecting them.

Re:You would think...

[VultureMN]

If only they had some way to post articles about the changes...

Re:digg?

[scottv67]

I come here because this place is DIFFERENT, the discourse is often intelligent and insightful.

You must be new here. You can count on Slashdot discussions to contain gems of wisdom like:

1. That story about the guy who ate other people's shit
2. The story about the old farmhand who played with the "pecker" of the young farmhand
3. The plague of Minicity links
4. Every story is tagged "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" by third-graders who visit /. while their teacher isn't looking
5. The GNAA posts
6. The angry atheist comments (http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/atheist-atheism.php)

Sometimes it's really hard to find the wheat amongst the chaff.

Re:digg?

[sqrt(2)]

Of course there are trolls. You're going to deal with people like that everywhere you go, on and offline (They're just more prevalent and egregious when they have anonymity). I've read genuinely interesting and informative posts too, and they usually out number the people that are just making noise.

Re:Poor article got the shaft

[TheRaven64]

Just to prove you wrong:

The 1984 Apple advert was clearly a classic and the 1977 Xerox one (while seriously dated) was pretty entertaining. The rest, it seems, were really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Were there really no good superbowl commercials in the last 30 years? The pets.com one looks like the kind of thing that made me give up having a television in my house.

Back off topic, I quite like the new layout but the comment submission page sucks beyond belief. Was the CareerBuilder.com advert filmed in the Slashdot office?

Re:Really? The go daddy ad?

[Faylone]

No, but it sure helps.

Breaks page down and page up

[LinEagle]

Yes but it breaks page down and page up, because the left hand bar is now hovering at the top of the screen... so some text gets hidden when moving between pages because my browser (Firefox 2.0.0.11) does not realize the bar is there at the top.

Re:I Don't Remember these ads

[Dadoo]

Besides Officemax's Rubberband Man is the most memorable superbowl ad.

While I'll agree Rubber Band Man should be on that list, and a few that are on the list shouldn't be (I mean, come on, what's funny or interesting about the SalesGenie.com or GoDaddy.com commercials?), there's no question the 1984 Macintosh ad is the best, so far, and will probably remain the best for a while. Seriously - the thing was directed by Ridley Scott. Of course, if you actually watched it when it originally aired, it was a lot more powerful.

WTF?

[rnws]

I do hope this is just a section (idle.slashdot) change and not intended to be a site-wide change. Looks not good and way too many active widgets in the page.

Re:This new look...

[AstrumPreliator]

I'm going to have to guess that this move is to attract a larger user base and get some more ad revenue. Having a site devoted to geeky tech articles limits your user base considerably. Internet/Tech pop-culture is an extremely easy way to widen your target audience. Sites like Digg have tapped into this audience and Slashdot apparently wants a piece of the pie.

On the plus side it's in its own section with a design so gaudy I can easily avoid it. That's the only plus though. The bad part is it will attract Digg-like users. Now as I stated in this [slashdot.org] comment I come to Slashdot to read what others have to say about an article. The article itself isn't the most important part, it just gives a topic of discussion. I've seen the quality of comments slipping for a while now. People don't so much debate things any more as they bicker over them. Comments which are flat out wrong will be modded informative/insightful implying that not only do the users have no desire to do a little research before they shoot off their two cents, but moderators aren't even willing to do a little research to make sure a comment deserves an insightful/informative modifier.

Slashdot now has an idle section for internet/tech pop-culture, it has the firehouse, and it has a new comment system even though the old one was picture perfect (I still use it). There's only so many "Web 2.0" features you can add before this becomes another Digg.

Now it's not like I'm going to e-mail CmdrTaco and complain, but I may look for an alternative to Slashdot. This is just my opinion though.

Re:digg?

[AmaDaden]

Why is slashdot trying to copy and compete with the likes of Digg?

Why shouldn't it? The core of Slashdot is and always will be the same. Adding more on the edges (the Idle section) is unlikely to effect that. As for the layout if the site that is known to be 'news for nerds' fell behind tech wise it would be a laughing stock. They need to try new things every so often. If no one likes it they will go back to the old design.

Side note: Scrolling in this new comment system does suck. Go in to Prefs and turn off "Enable Dynamic Discussions" for a speed boost.

I can't filter idle?

[Night Goat]

So when is Slashdot going to let me start filtering out all idle.slashdot.org articles? This is not good, Digg is not something to emulate.

Re:apple ad, prophecy?

[CastrTroy]

However, most PC users are quite annoyed with their computer experience. Most of the recent Mac commercials I've seen poke fun at all the problems that PCs usually have, like viruses, ugly computer design, and the fact that they come installed with tons of adware. Mac commercials say, here's a list of all the problems we know you have, and we know you hate. And if you want something more out of your computer, then buy a Mac. I'm typing this on a Windows machine myself, which I don't really have a problem using. However, I think that Windows does a terrible job for the general populous.