This campaign from HP Australia is meant to target everyone who just bought (or is going to buy) a new printer. Even though the company had its fair share of bad publicity and lousy ad campaigns last year, I’m quite fond of the way they communicate the very simple message with humorous images. Even I have broken stuff stacked away on the attic of which I know I’ll never use it again because the drivers aren’t working or it just became too old and lost its compatibility somewhere between Windows 95 and Windows XP. But still you hold on to it because at that time you paid quite some money for it and well, hey, you never know it might come in handy one day (though I know as well as you do that day isn’t going to come). So why not make a small library or an aquarium out of it? What a good idea. They should’ve made a contest out of it, consumer generated of course, in which they invite consumers to upload pictures of the creative things they did whilst trying to find a new meaning for old devices, and then use those images to make this campaign work. If you’re tired of looking at your creations, then you can trade them in again :)
Copy:
“Put Your Old Printer To Better Use. Trade It In”
“hp.com.au/tradein”
Thanks, Mark
Martina
January 8, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Miel, sometimes it’s good to see (as users/consumers) that brands don’t always think about exploiting consumer generated content :-)
Jake Pepoon
January 10, 2007 at 12:30 am
I just saw something very much like this online (funny that you suggested that would work well). It looks to be for Intel’s latest processors. It’s weird stuff, same premise. I prefer my advertising to be weird, long as its on message. the url is: http://www.obsoletepc.org
Brendon Swanson
January 13, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Brilliant. I love those ads. It’s far too often that I find European ads to be on a level by which all people can connect. Here in the US it’s hard to find companies willing to go the extra mile to produce something that may have more of a comical note rather than a hard-selling theme.
WonderDawg
January 23, 2007 at 6:04 am
Thanks for the inspiration!
I referenced your post as I recently converted an old Macintosh into an MacAquarium : http://www.geardiary.com/?p=2079
Are you inspired to pulled down some of the stuff in your attic?
Coolz0r
January 23, 2007 at 10:08 am
I want to do something with a few old 15″ screens, but I don’t know yet, because I still might need them ;-) And totally aside from the recycling thing, I need to hook up my old Commodore 64 again. Just looking where on Earth I’ve put those cassettes. But the Mac(A)quarium sure looks like a fun thing to have. I got to remember that.
You should get in touch with Greenpeace… they’ve always wanted Mac to do something for the environment :)
Nidia
January 25, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Hello to all of you!
Is it possible that you send me the link were you did find those ads?
Thanks a lot.
Coolz0r
January 25, 2007 at 5:32 pm
A reader has sent them to me through email. I’ll send an inquiry to find out where he got them.
Blog de Javier Velilla » Blog Archive »
January 29, 2007 at 2:33 pm
[...] Leo en Coolz0r que HP ha lanzado una interesante campaña publicitaria en Australia basada en el humor y en una ejecución asombrosamente sencilla. [...]