You may have seen the Cisco television ads with Ellen Page. I’m specifically referring to the one where she goes into a US classroom and the kids say they are going on a field trip to China.
The suprise is supposed to be that they are video linked live with a similar aged classroom of children in China.
Depending upon which timezone the US classroom is, it is anywhere from 13 - 16 hours from Beijing or Shanghai.
Does Cisco expect us to believe that these Chinese kids go to school in the middle of the night?
That entire series of commercials is so plastic and contrived; I have to think they’re intended as some sort of ironic joke. To whom is Cisco advertising, anyway? Are there that many IT procurement people out there that it makes sense to advertise on mass-market TV? And why is Ellen Page supposed to appeal to those buyers?
I see these as “branding” commercials - though I’m probably using the wrong word there. Those kinds of ads that try to conveince us that a company or brand is really good even though most of us have no real access to their products. I think the target is middle and upper management. They don’t know IT and they control the money. If they can get one CEO to ask “Are we using Cisco?” they have done their job.
For example, I see TV ads for military jets. I can’t buy them and probably can’t influence anyone who does but they give me a nice feeling like that company is helping to kick some non-USA ass. If those mean congresspeople tries to cut funding for jet planes I just might write a letter.
Cisco helps children, here and in China, and Ellen Page likes them! I’m going to go down the IT department right now to see if they are using Cisco. If I get lucky, Ellen will be there helping them set up a network right now.
Classroom videoconferencing exists, and I wouldn’t put it past a Chinese school to trudge their kids in in the middle of the night for a video chat with American kids.
I can’t find the story, but I remember hearing about a school in the US having their (non-Cisco) video connection with a school in Pakistan or Kashmir suddenly not working one morning following an earthquake in their counterparts’ region.
They’re advertising to the general public promoting the idea that their HD video conferencing system (Telepresence) has applications far beyond a virtual business meeting table. One real-world example is a Cisco exec in San Jose with a secretary who lives and works in Texas; she works on one end of a Telepresence system, with the other end placed inside a cubicle outside the exec’s office.
I don’t like the commercials, either, mainly because Page acts so clueless about the whole thing.
I didn’t even think about the time zone problem! The commercial itself is so bizarre I couldn’t get into the logistics. I have no idea why Ellen Page is at that school in the first place or why she is getting a guided tour, or why Cisco got her involved in the marketing of this thing.
My gf is in advertising. I’ve asked her before about accounts she deals with where I can see no need for advertising. There is always a cool explanation. For example, there is a coal mining corporation that has had a big ad campaign going. I know of no one who buys coal.
Turns out they are addressing the near impossibility of finding people willing/eager to work below ground. They hope that through advertising potential workers will be willing to take jobs in coal mines.
I used to wonder why BC Hydro (our local electric utilily, which has a monopoly) spent so much money on daily full-page advertising in both of our local newspapers. After all, it’s not as though there is a significant number of people out there who are likely to persuaded to give that newfangled electricity a shot.
Then I noticed that both of these papers carried an AP story which our national paper (like most news agencies) had given the headline “HYDRO LINES LINKED TO BRAIN CANCER AND LEUKEMIA,” but they opted for the more comforting “HYDRO LINES NOT LINKED TO MOST CANCERS.”
What’s weird about these commercials is that they are clearly set in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia - and unlike many things filmed in Canada they make no attempt to hide the Canadian-ness of it. I live about an hours drive from Lunenburg, and while Ellen Page is a sort of local hero around here, I have never seen this commercial on TV. But I get the impression it is shown in the US a lot.
This seems odd to me - usually specifically Canadian commercials are shown exclusively in Canada and not broadcast in the US. I don’t really understand what they are trying to do with this technique.
It’s apparently part of a three-ad series, all of which involve Page being surprised at Cisco technology being used in various places in Lunenberg. I guess the idea is that if a place that’s as visibly old-fashioned as Lunenberg is hip to Cisco’s tech, then the rest of the world ought to be too.
For those of you who don’t know, Lunenberg is a small fishing town just outside of Halifax, NS and has the distinction of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Because of its designation, the town is perfectly preserved in its original state - no tall buildings, no big box retailers, and no neon signs. It’s very very very quaint and adorable, and not in that fake “olde fashioned” sort of way, either. It’s the last place you’d expect to find a Cisco Telepresence setup (and I say that as someone who works for a huge telecom, where we have the tech but rarely use it)
(Random unrelated factoid: what you can’t see in the commercial is that Lunenberg’s schoolhouse is at the very top of a hill as you drive into town, right next to the town’s old cemetery… on a misty day, it looks like it ought to be in a Victorian gothic horror novel)
I spent a week in Lunenburg a couple years ago. Went right past that schoolhouse on the way into town. The first time I saw that commercial, my jaw dropped; it was just about the last place I expected to see on TV.
I wonder how those schooners they’re building down at the dory shop are coming along.
There’s also one where she goes to see the doctor but the receptionist tells her he’s on vacation in Copenhagen, but she can see him anyway. They walk into an office with a big screen TV and the doctor is on the other side of the link.
He’s on vacation
In a wildly different time zone
There was a mother and her child already in the waiting room when Ellen came in. Damnit, they were there first! It’s their turn!
In addition to advertising to CEOs etc., generic corporate entities advertise to potential share holders. If I’ve got 30 million share options coming up next moth, I’m gonna try and bump up the price any way I can.
(Haven’t watched the commercial.)