March 13th, 2000

[10:00 AM] PowerBooks Shown In E*Trade Commercial...Sort Of by Staff Steve Martin [Editor's Note: No, it's not *that* Steve Martin...] has eyes of the eagle and put them to use for the Mac. He noticed that the laptops used in a current E*Trade commercial were PowerBooks, but that the big Platinum Apple Logo had been blacked out. According to Mr. Martin: I was just watching the E*Trade infomercial and they have this big RV that goes around the country with Ben Stein. Inside they have a bunch of financial wizards showing people how to use E*Trade. Guess what, they are all using G3 Powerbooks! BUT, they have the white apple logos blacked out! Looks like they have painted a black band across the back of the computer so as not to provide Apple with free advertising. I saw the infomercial on CNBC at 12 noon EST on Saturday, March 11th. You can find more information on E*Trade at their web site. The Mac Observer Spin: Mr. Martin does indeed have some sharp eyes. It may not be so much that E*Trade doesn't want to give Apple free advertising, but that they don't want to alienate the mindless millions out there who live in WintelWorld. A lot of traders out there, especially the wannabee day traders, are working on Wintel, so that is an important demographic for the company. In any event, it's good to see a PowerBook or two in a commercial, even if only the hard core Mac faithful will recognize them. :-) E*Trade