Google sends Cr-48 to "Will it Blend?"

http://www.gstatic.com/chromeos/demolab/video/blend.mov

by antimatter15 • 16 years ago

134 90 16 years ago

phlux5• 16 years ago

While funny etc. We have so much waste in the world as it is - the last thing we need is the toxic waste of a perfectly good machine being blended and thrown out.

I have never had respect for the 'will it blend' concept, regardless of how funny one may find it. It is simply wasteful.

huntero• 16 years ago

It's advertising. Admittedly, I don't have the numbers to back it up, but I would imagine that the economic impact of this advertising is worth more than the cost for Google to send a CR-48 to be blended.

phlux5• 16 years ago

>...economic impact of this advertising is worth more than the cost for Google to send a CR-48 to be blended.

I know what it is called - but it is still clearly waste.

I was not referring to the economic impact but rather the environmental.

Sure, we can all say "who cares" -- I do, which is why I ask.

Have you seen the garbage problems we have? The toxic waste dumps that are china and other places.

I am not trying to be some tree hugging hippy here - I just dont see the need/value of such advertising.

If they want to advertise - why not go give the things to even more people who want/need it?

How about give one to every student in a school of their choice?

This is utter stupidity on the part of the advertising industry and proves how little value they provide society other than more and more thought pollution on top of the actual pollution they produce.

thingie• 16 years ago

It might still be cheaper than some kind of elaborate ad with a lot of actors, scenes and stuff, and even have lesser environmental impact (one laptop is much less waste than, say, flight to some distant place to take the shots for an ad). So, yes, it can actually make sense.

But still, I just don't like the culture which shows that it's perfectly ok to smash and destroy stuff just for pleasure and marketing. Imagine that they would blend people in the show. Can't we have some respect for our machines as well?

ryanhuff• 16 years ago

<i>It's advertising</i>. How meta.

As I ponder the implications of Google engaged in this publicity stunt, I wonder. Was this device, sent off to sacrifice, my CR-48, lost in shipping?

As my desk maintains an empty spot, so carefully cleared, in anticipation of the arrival of the CR-48, perhaps now, my eagerness and expectation will turn regret, as I consider the future that may never be... Google, I beg you, send me my CR-48. <sob, tear>.

DavidSJ• 16 years ago

By what criteria do you distinguish wasteful environmental impact from justified environmental impact?

Andys• 16 years ago

Heh - indeed. Is blending any less wasteful than someone using this notebook to download a bunch of porn, post a few hundred vacuous tweets, and then toss it on the trash heap after 11 months when a newer slimmer version comes out.

robryan2• 16 years ago

While we sit here thinking about this though much worse waste is going on it the world unseen. My uni gets big dumpsters and throws out 100's of computers each year. Granted they are usually getting old though.

phlux5• 16 years ago

So here we have:

New-laptop->blender

For your comment we have:

New-machine-->user------------------------->trash/other-user/some-other-market

WTF don't people understand about how wasteful this is?

Also, this machines toxic+precious components are being munger to the point where any hope of recycle is lost. If you aren't already paying attention, countries like China are securing the next 50-100 years worth of natural resources, required for the information age lifestyle, in Africa in such a way that the US will be relatively 3rd world in the next 25 years (with respect to our ability to produce that which we need).

So even though we are focused on the micro - the problem and question are macro.

Please tell me I am misguided, and prove it.

benatkin3• 16 years ago

The environmental cost per viewer is infinitesimally small, so I don't buy that argument. An argument about it leading viewers to carelessness would be a sad statement about humor.

axod3• 16 years ago

The average mail shot wastes more in envelopes stamps, CO2 from delivery van etc etc.

Chill out.

guiseppecalzone• 16 years ago

Google did another advertisement where they destroy at least 5 laptops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm-Vnx58UYo&feature

I used to think that "Will it blend" was funny. Maybe the novelty of it has warn off. Instead of laughing, watching this video made me wince.

riobard2• 16 years ago

I had the same weird feeling watching that video. There is something fundamentally wrong there. I'm especially worried about the last part when the little girl destroying the last CR-48: she was so calm to do that without a blink. I was shocked. This is not the way we teach our children.

[edit]: there's a tagline said by the demo guy in the video: “good thing I get a new one every time”. This kinda thinking bothers me.

gloob• 16 years ago

What about it bothers you, exactly?

cma3• 16 years ago

Almost the entire advertising industry is pure waste, whether they are physically destroying laptops or not.

DanI-S• 16 years ago

I'm pretty sure the creepy ice cream child was an actor.

code_duck2• 16 years ago

I completely agree. This video is not amusing: it is offensive and I see that man as a complete idiot. I have no idea what this smug destruction is intended to signify.

kurtsiegfried• 16 years ago

I find it somewhat ironic that this video will not play on my CR-48.

antimatter152• 16 years ago

It's meant to be played from http://www.google.com/chromeos/demolab/ which is in flash and should (from what I've read) be excruciatingly slow anyway.

mey• 16 years ago

Thermite is sadly not an option.

alinajaf• 16 years ago

If you swear at that chat bot enough times with enough profanity it forwards you to a google search for 'cleaning supplies'.

sliverstorm2• 16 years ago

I wouldn't say that's irony- sounds to me like your CR-48 just doesn't want to watch the execution of it's brother.

melvinram• 16 years ago

lol reminded me of this: http://www.jokeawhenever.com/archive/media/pictures/horror_m...

mivok• 16 years ago

Go to about:flags and enable media player, then it will play pretty well (although it's a little laggy when played full screen)

sshconnection• 16 years ago

I just watched it on mine. You need to go to settings and enable the media player. It pops up a little player like the download and im windows.

signal2• 16 years ago

What was that Google mantra again?

Evil has many shades of grey but wasting a computer that could literally educate an entire schoolhouse in Africa and keeping this old, stupid joke going must be somewhere south of good.

sliverstorm2• 16 years ago

Who's to say this old, stupid joke of a publicity stunt won't sell them enough cr-48's to give TWO cr-48's to schoolhouses in Africa instead of the one they started with? That's what business is, the classic best answer to "you have one egg. How do you make two?"

signal2• 16 years ago

My point is that there are more positive ways to make two than by destroying one. If Google is just interested in getting publicity for the cr-48 they might as well join Cheerios on Days of Our Lives.

bdb• 16 years ago

This is particularly awesome because my Cr-48 came with a piece of paper that said something like:

"Do not crush, incinerate, blend (guess we'll never find out if it'll blend...), ...(several other things)..."

cypherpunks012• 16 years ago

The full first paragraph of the Safety Notice:

This product contains sensitive components. Do not drop, disassemble, open, crush, bend, bake, deform, puncture, blend (guess we'll never know if it'll bend), shred, incinerate, paint, bring to the moon, or insert foreign objects into the device. Do not spill liquids, rocks of any size, or food on the device. Do not expose the device to water, moisture or rap music.

It keeps going... :)

alex_c• 16 years ago

The entire thing (from Reddit):

http://i.imgur.com/hA2Fd.jpg

jrockway2• 16 years ago

I actually wanted to test my application on a Cr-48, but I didn't get one.

Oh well. I keep forgetting that it's Microsoft that says "developers, developers, developers, developers".

apetresc• 16 years ago

You're joking, right? The fact that you weren't one of the thousands to receive a free laptop makes Google developer-unfriendly?

jrockway2• 16 years ago

Yes, my post was intended to be tongue-in-cheek. The article is about putting the laptop in a blender; comments should be read with that in mind.

cypherpunks012• 16 years ago

Uh, well I wanted to test my application on a Cr-48, and they did send me one...

Microsoft has never given me anything except excruciating IE 6/7/8/9 bugs.

quux• 16 years ago

Now blend the cloud!!!!

simonsarris• 16 years ago

Wouldn't that just be blending things from a datacenter?

Lest we let it slip our mind, the cloud is a still a group of real places, its just data/processing not near your location.

moondowner• 16 years ago

"I wonder where the cloud is?" When he finds the servers he'll blend them too :)

guyzero• 16 years ago

Does this video series actually sell any blenders?

natrius• 16 years ago

No one would've ever heard of Blendtec without them. I'm sure they've sold more than enough to recover the couple thousand dollars they've spent on the videos.

bpd1069• 16 years ago

Its all about mindshare, I am sure this series places BlendTec in your top 10 list of blenders. If you have never seen the series, it would never get on your top 100 (if there are that many).

unsignedint• 16 years ago

I've spotted few of those blenders at Starbucks. Not sure if these videos are ones convinced vendor relations people though...

sanswork• 16 years ago

The guy in the videos(the company founder) has said its had a noticeable effect on sales.

Griever• 16 years ago

With that question in mind, BlendTec is the only blender company that I know of. Granted, I don't exactly pay much attention to the blender market, but I think that's the point.

ugh• 16 years ago

I’m pretty certain that this marketing campaign stars prominently in the wet dreams of many marketing guys and girls.

The iPhone and the iPad “Will It Blend?” video have ten million views each on YouTube, other videos usually clock in at between a few hundred thousand and a few million views. The videos themselves have shoddy production values, I would be surprised if producing one costs more than a few thousand dollars. All this makes for a ridiculously low CPM. Oh, and those ten million views are high quality contacts, they all actually wanted to watch the video, unlike, say, a pre-roll ad on YouTube that’s forced on them.

A pre-roll ad on YouTube has a CPM between $10 and $15. Blendtec could have spent $100,000 on the production of their iPhone video (I doubt they spent even a tenth of that) and still pay less than a company which tries to get an ad on YouTube the normal way. (Those companies pay for the production of the spot, just like Blendtec, but they also pay Google for running the spot.)

code_duck2• 16 years ago

Well, that was a stupid waste. At least I can take solace in the knowledge that this man is inhaling a significant quantity of toxins.

gvsyn• 16 years ago

Only question with the blending, have they ever tried blending another blender (same model etc)?

riledhel• 16 years ago

OOOhhh blender recursion!!

acangiano• 16 years ago

It's blenders all the way down.

retroafroman• 16 years ago

http://www.virtualshackles.com/102

icco• 16 years ago

I'm still waiting for the iFixit teardown. Maybe Google will send them one?

bigwally• 16 years ago

a youtube link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5IHNeyHjtM

albemuth• 16 years ago

I couldn't apply for one of these (though I really wanted one) because I'm not on the US, good to see them put to good use.

metatronscube• 16 years ago

What a waste! especially since I have little to no chance of getting picked to try one out :( Oh well.

wildmXranat• 16 years ago

Do NOT breathe that in.

Apocryphon• 16 years ago

That's no Chromebook! That's a black MacBook running Chrome!

Google sends Cr-48 to "Will it Blend?"

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