by , 10:00 AM EDT, October 15th, 2002
ABC News is reporting that Dell may be giving spokes-character "Steven" his pink slip. Steven has lined up millions of people to buy PCs from Dell, even while making many others cringe in horror when his face, and voice, came on their TV sets. His success even sparked iMac-attacker Gateway to mock his tag line, "Dude, you're getting a Dell," in a recent ad for that company.
ABC News said that Dell is looking at alternative ads. From the story:
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.
There is additional information in the full article.
While this has been suggested before, the fact is that Ben Curtis may have some new time on his hands. Maybe Apple's legal department could spare some time from pursuing people trying to make tools for changing Mac OS X's GUI to seeing if they can help young Mr. Curtis break his exclusivity clause in his Dell contract. Hey, it's just an idea...