We get a lot of emails here at GWL. This is an email we got this morning. I cried into my cornflakes.
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is ***** ******* and I am a 20 year old college student.
I am currently an undergrad at the University of Rochester.
I am writing to you today because of a need that I have. I am in need of a new computer and I do not have the money to purchase a new one.
What I am writing to say is that in order to buy a new computer, I am selling ad space on the new computer in order to help cover its cost. This is an extremely unique way to advertise that is sure to get noticed and talked about.
The ads would be laser engraved on the top of the aluminum computer by a company located in New York City.
I would be a good person to do this for because the laptop I buy will be seen by a lot of people.
During the school year I go to a school with more than 4000 students and a vast graduate program and faculty located in a major city. And during the summer I live and work in New York City, riding the subway every day with my computer which, at least with my old laptop, I often used on the subway.
The idea behind the selling of the ad space was that your company would get some publicity, an ad wherever I go, people seeing your ad all the time, and I would be able to afford a new laptop. The ad space I sell would be by the square inch and would cost in the range of $55 a square inch.
Please feel free to contact my at any time with questions or to express interest. Thank You,
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Just to confirm , we replied and said no in the nicest possible way
I think we made a mistake. The guy will become popular
$55 per square inch isn’t really a bad price for a permanent advert. But unless the laptop belongs to someone who is already a celebrity or the advert is incredibly clever it is probably of little value to an advertiser.
It does make for great reading though
Didn’t Leah Culver do this a couple years ago? (Leah is the chick who created Pownce w/ Kevin Rose)
What did Leah do ? Cover her laptop in ads ?
I am the one who sent this to them, please check out my website at http://www.laserengravedlaptopads.com. Thanks
I think this is a great idea! Hope he succeeds.
Hi Daniel , just for the entertainment that you supplied me with, I will let your link to your site stand.. I hope you manage to get yourself that new laptop
Just a little point, but a relevant 1.. He seams to want an apple; makes you think maybe he is not a bright as he thinks
@ Shennan: Guarantees that it won’t get stolen in NYC. On average, as a percentage, Apples are the least desired and sought after laptop. I guess the crooks feel that the owners are suffering enough already.
Nobody’s gonna see any one particular square inch ad unless they’re right in front of it.
Also: photoshopped. shadows = pixelated
ahhhhhhhhhhh guys lets not get into the whole apple Vs Microsoft thing
Hello fellow U of R student. Your idea seems like an interesting proposal, although i feel like the only potential buyers are small, local companies, as many people might actually pay money to have a cool brand-name logo on their laptop (coca-cola, nike, etc), and that they are potentially not that interested. Also, won’t the engraving itself be more expensive then it’s worth in AD revenue? Why don’t you apply for more financial aid or loans, and get that nice macbook (which i assume you want due to the aluminum casing you mentioned) from the IT store and just pay a small amount per month instead of lump sum. Or you could just get a less expensive computer, as macs are more expensive and all. In any case, good luck, and if i see some laptop around with a funny looking logo, i’ll be sure to say hi! Good luck with finals!
wow…go get a job and earn it rather then being lazy.
But what if the laptop were to get… stolen?
yes, get a job – and as a bonus you’ll learn something about the real world
This would be the easiest laptop to identify ever if stolen, making it the least desirable laptop to steal.
Why a Mac? Maybe the student is taking courses that require a Mac. Maybe he is replacing a mac, and he has all the software and files for it on hand. Why is his choice of hardware even an issue? It’s a school supply. No one would care if this was about embroidering logos on a backpack.
To those who are telling him to get a job…this is a job. Marketing, PR and so on. It seems to me this student has a fairly good handle on the “real world” and has done his research. And maybe he is working a job as much as he can already just to survive. I remember doing that in school, and having to sell my possessions to replace my clunker of a computer.
This isn’t a new idea. No one seems to mind NASCAR vehicles sporting ads, or even our own sportswear bearing the insignia of large corporations. There is a guy who will wear your company’s T-shirt for a dollar.
He’s very professional and polite. I wish this student success.
Get a job.
Rochester, a major city? Haha- good one.
In my younger years I always asked santa clause for toys that came with small balls. Hungry Hungry Hippos, Crossfire, you name it. I would always swallow the balls (5-6 at a time) then try to sift through my shit to find them. I guess thats what makes me a good archaeologist as an adult.
I have also contacted some companies with a similar request. For £20 a square inch any company can have their logo printed onto my plain white t-shirt which I wear constantly. With all the money I make I plan to buy more white t-shirts and sell more advertising space maybe even to the same companies. I don’t know why any of you plebs haven’t thought of this before. Next I’ll be selling space on my drinking container and my lunch wrappers.
I’ll be milking it shortly. I am now so sure this will work I have quit my day job and have taken this a step further… I locate myself in a prime advertising spot and for an undisclosed sum passers by can view the stunning apparel and beverage container I have selected each day. Often people miss me as they go about their daily march so I call out “Behold today I have selected various fine garments with appealing advertisements about them, for a small amount of spare change you make bask in their glory”, often this is shortened down to “spare change”.
I’m living the dream.
Mike
Please give generously
This idea might work in another scenario. Say you go to Bestbuy to buy a laptop, they could give you 1 of 2 options: A laptop with no ads on it, or a laptop with ads on it for a discounted price. The ads could be partners with Bestuby. This would be beneficial for Bestbuy, as it would encourage spending, beneficial to the ad company and to the consumer. The ads don’t have to be bland either, they could be edgy and attractive. A cheaper form of putting the ad on the laptop would be necessary though.
I’m just hoping for somebody who can miss the money to buy space thats says: “I’m the geek who was to lazy to get a job
so I came up with the lame-ass idea to sell
laserengraved laptop-ads”.
Most of us work for a living and I for one to afford the luxury of a laptop found a company that supplies one as part of the internet service contract agreement.
Use your old laptop and take a few marketing courses then re-read your letter. At that point you should be smart enough to see that this concept wouldn’t work. However, that may make you smart enough to get a job in marketing.
I take it mom and dad have good reason for not buying you a new laptop?
@ Buk, Not all of us have Mommies and Daddies that pay for everything.
@ those who told him ‘Get a job’…did you ever think that he may already have a job but has to pay his own tuition and his books and food and whatnot and can simply Not afford a new laptop?
@ those who criticized Macs. Seriously, if you are too dumb to figure out a great system like Mac OS, then please, just shut it. I’m a Mac Addict yet I don’t bitch and complain how shitty PCs are, or how in the span of 3 years the PC which was ‘cheaper’ when you first bought it, will end up costing 3x the original price cuz it keeps breaking down.
@ Jace, Everyone has mommies and daddies. Some may not know who they are but they still have them.
Why do you say that PC’s break in 3 years? Are you trying to tell us that the electronic components used in a Mac are somehow superior to the components used in a PC? I have a 5 year old laptop. Works fine! My desktop is about 3 years old. No problems with it either.
I would think that you would eventually upgrade your Mac for the same reasons a PC owner would. The technology becomes outdated. You want something newer and faster.
But does the student here NEED a new laptop or does he WANT a new laptop? He suggests that he has an old laptop that is used on the subway. He didn’t say it didn’t work anymore. Beyond doing school papers and research, does he need a newer/faster computer? Probably could get by without it.
Oh, and just for the sake of argument. I used to maintain about 10 computers in an office I worked at. Two of those computers were Macintosh G5’s running OS X. The Mac computers were the constant headache. They would work fine one day but not the next. Trying to keep them connected to a printer (either networked or local) was an almost impossible challenge. Then were the days when we’d come in to work and “fire-up” the Mac’s and one of them just decided it didn’t want to do any work that day. Many times we had to figure out ways to do on the PCs what we would typically do on the Mac’s. The two Macs would have more problems in a week then all the other PC’s did in a month. I dread the day, if it should ever happen again, that I might have to work with a Mac. Nothing but headaches.
WHO CARES! It doesn’t matter if its XP, Vista, Fedora, Ubuntu, Puppy Linux or a Mac! As long as it does everything you need it to do, USE IT! I dual boot Fedora 11 and Windows 7 on my Toshiba Tablet PC, and try just about everything on my desktop.
This guy is probably just a spammer…
just to let you know i literally tried this same thing every company i inquired about respectively told me to shove it
If it works, kudos to anyone who tries it.
Now,
To all those people who said “Get a job”
Aparently you never went past high school. Do you not know the amount of money students need to go to school ? and the ones that do work, why do you think they are working? they are working to pay for a roof over thier heads and food in thier gut.
Why not think of things like this before you judge quickly.
assholes