OpenOffice.org Newspaper Ad Mockup Released

Benjamin Horst writes "The volunteer effort raising $10,000 to place at least two backpage ads in New York City's free daily paper Metro is now entering its second full week. We've collected over 10% of our goal already and continue to find new pledge donors at a healthy pace. Our project's purpose is to help 'cross the chasm' and bring awareness of OpenOffice.org 2.0 to the large number of computer users who stand to benefit from its broad feature set and range of useful capabilities. This is not the first time an open source project has sought a high-profile newspaper ad buy. In fact, our effort was directly inspired by the Firefox New York Times ad. Firefox's famous effort announcing its arrival on the world stage helped push it from about 10 million downloads to its current tally of over 185 million!"

Is it just me...

[jollyroger1210]

Or do the presidents on Mt. Rushmore look especially uneasy?

They'd download it

[rminsk]

"They'd download it...". It would help if you would at least get the grammer right in the ad. The design is very ugly.

Re:Is it

[Anonymous Coward]

Slower than Office? How is that possible?

http://java.sun.com/ [sun.com]

Re:They'd download it

[rminsk]

It is in the present tense when the people in the figures are already dead. It should be "They'd would have downloaded it".

Re:They'd download it

[Petrushka]

It should be "They'd would have downloaded it".

OK, show of hands: who would trust proofreading done by this person?

Paper?

[fatius]

Man, that ad is bad. But at the same time, I've lived in new york for a long time now and I still don't know anyone who's actually looked at that paper. So we're not in danger of anyone actually seeing it.

Re:They'd download it

[Fjornir]

I wouldn't trust his proofreading but I bet he can ask if you'd like fries with that.

Re:Do it...

[cdomigan]

I just saved $10. It felt good. Please consider making a decent design.

Re:Design

[G-funk]

Oh lord. I nobody's really going to spend $10,000 putting that garbage in a major newspaper are they? You couldn't sell free money with that ad! It looks like something spit up by a 15 year old "web designer" that does the first incarnation of most small business' websites beccause "my nephew's a computer wiz".

Re:the ad looks like crap

[this great guy]

That looks like something put together in MS Paint.

Or Open Office.

Don't hit. Don't hit.

Re:Is it

[OECD]

Getting a student or two at an art school to make a top notch advert worthy of a back page ad on a newspaper is really stinking easy..

Given that the credits read "Design by ..." I suspect this is exactly what they're going to do. They could have made it a bit more obvious, though.

Re:They'd download it

[NitsujTPU]

I don't want to be a grammar Nazi, but I think that what you meant was "you'd would."

Re:They'd download it

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd would!

Re:Is it

[boingo82]

What are you talking about? As a former graphic artist at a newspaper, I know as well as anyone that Helvetica 55 roman is where it's at!
All that ad needs is a few gradients, 1pt boxes around all the text, and some drop-shadows, and it's ready to go!

Re:Ad is missing important points...

[nacturation]

doesn't mention that it can run Linux

Maybe in Soviet Russia it can.
 

Who is this ad really for?

[tqbf]

Why is "Benjamin Horst"'s name in the ad?

Since when do ads have "producer credits"?

Is this an ad for OpenOffice or a chance for some guy to get his name in the paper?

Re:Is it

[Da_Weasel]

maybe they could do a Crazy Edie spoof...

We've gone totally crazy!! We're slashing prices....
Not $600
Not $350
Not even $150
Were practically giving it away...
No...actually we are giving it away, because we've gone totally MAD!!!!!

New Yorkers can appreciate an ad like that..
http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/crazyeddie/ [pocketcalculatorshow.com]

Re:"Free" is bad

[vonsneerderhooten]

... and fancy that, the project is called Openoffice. Man that is some coincidence!

Interesting..

[xant]

Now if only there was some way we could squeeze a cliché into that.

Re:Is it

[alphamugwump]

* Comparison of Clipart and Wordart features (My kids won't use OOo cos it has none)

Hmm. I'd say that no clipart in OOo was an advantage. Just imagine:

Are you sick of stupid-looking flyers? Do "screen beans" really piss you off? Have you ever murdered someone for using gratuitous clipart in a presentation because they thought it "looked clever"?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then openoffice is the office suite for you! It doesen't have any! (maniacal laughter)

Get your free copy today, at openoffice.org.

ew

[tbird81]

it looks like the ad was made with openoffice.

Re:Is it

[mwvdlee]

It's not ugly, it's just missing a primary colored wobbly header, cute bears aligned to the borders and lots of pink filler.

Re:New office app

[linvir]

GNU/int main() {
/* we're done */
return GNU/0;
}

There, I've tidied up the syntax, put in some comments, and changed some of the stuff back to reflect all the work done by GNU in creating GCC and the rest of the toolchain.