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Gateway 2000's hilariously bad ads in the 90s (Part II)

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Re: Gateway 2000's hilariously bad ads in the 90s (Part II)

#61

Post by rcxdude »

to11mtm wrote: post #15
addaon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They would also give you a PC in agreement for continued employment for N years. Do you mean that in exchange for accepting a PC, he had to agree to a multiple-year enforced contract? Is the right to leave a company even a right that one can sign away in the US? Would people really do that for a few thousand dollars? That seems shockingly close to indentured servitude... "we'll pay two months of your rent up front,…

There's actually a mortgage company that does worse; They call it the 'People Promise', and it sounds like a bonus, but; 1. It's actually a loan. 2. If you leave or are terminated at any point for the period, you have to pay back the ENTIRE loan amount. 3. Because it's a loan, if you -do- survive employment through the term, guess what, you now have to pay tax on the 'forgiven loan'. 4. If you don't take it, you don'…

Sounds like a typical retention/signing bonus, except structured so that you get the bonus up front and pay the tax later. The main question I would have is whether people who took it understood what they signed up for (i.e. were they misled somehow?). It's a bit weird for it to be mandatory but if you don't want to be on the hook for it, you could just keep the money in a savings account until the term expires.

Re: Gateway 2000's hilariously bad ads in the 90s (Part II)

#62

Post by esseph »

addaon wrote: post #13
majormajor wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually signing bonuses are "pay back all or a pro-rated percentage if you leave before [date]"

Sure, but that's just lending you a computer at that point, unless they expect you to cover the depreciation cost or something when returning it.

That's exactly how those things normally work.

"Education incentives" at companies can be similar.

For instance, maybe they pay for your trip to AWS Re:Invent and a couple of cert fees ($X,000.00) with the agreement you stay for a year or two. As long as you stay for the year or two, you don't own them any money. If you leave before then, they send you a prorated bill or take it out of your last paycheck.

The idea is that companies don't want to train you on their dime for you to use that training to immediately take a new job somewhere else (or worse, a competitor).

Re: Gateway 2000's hilariously bad ads in the 90s (Part II)

#63

Post by bink »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #56
raldi wrote: post #14

“These are the worst ads I’ve ever seen.” “But you have seen them.”

Agreed. They are good ads if we're still discussing them. This is one of those critics that assumes the current times are the 'correct taste' and anything foreign to their taste is poorly done, even when it resulted in sales.

I think there's "bad" in the sense that it didn't accomplish the goal of selling a product (maybe not the case here) and "bad" in the sense that it made many readers cringe or was seen as stupid/tacky. I'm seeing more of the latter in these ads.

Re: Gateway 2000's hilariously bad ads in the 90s (Part II)

#64

Post by thaumasiotes »

to11mtm wrote: post #15
addaon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They would also give you a PC in agreement for continued employment for N years. Do you mean that in exchange for accepting a PC, he had to agree to a multiple-year enforced contract? Is the right to leave a company even a right that one can sign away in the US? Would people really do that for a few thousand dollars? That seems shockingly close to indentured servitude... "we'll pay two months of your rent up front,…

There's actually a mortgage company that does worse; They call it the 'People Promise', and it sounds like a bonus, but; 1. It's actually a loan. 2. If you leave or are terminated at any point for the period, you have to pay back the ENTIRE loan amount. 3. Because it's a loan, if you -do- survive employment through the term, guess what, you now have to pay tax on the 'forgiven loan'. 4. If you don't take it, you don'…

> They call it the 'People Promise', and it sounds like a bonus, but

> Because it's a loan, if you -do- survive employment through the term, guess what, you now have to pay tax on the 'forgiven loan'.

Did you have a point to make here? Do you think you don't have to pay income taxes on bonuses?

Re: Gateway 2000's hilariously bad ads in the 90s (Part II)

#65

Post by t-writescode »

bink wrote: post #63
1970-01-01 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. They are good ads if we're still discussing them. This is one of those critics that assumes the current times are the 'correct taste' and anything foreign to their taste is poorly done, even when it resulted in sales.

I think there's "bad" in the sense that it didn't accomplish the goal of selling a product (maybe not the case here) and "bad" in the sense that it made many readers cringe or was seen as stupid/tacky. I'm seeing more of the latter in these ads.

Young people cringe too much. Personality is good. Why does everyone want to find themselves on a safe, but boring, ranking system?

(I know why. It’s way safer and we’re in dangerous times. Conservative personalities grow in times of pain. It still makes me sad.)

Re: Gateway 2000's hilariously bad ads in the 90s (Part II)

#66

Post by userbinator »

I seem to remember computer ads in 90s had lots of rural and farming-related elements; I wonder if that was an attempt to appeal to the part of the population that probably had the least idea what a computer was. At that time I also recall some jokes about "the farmer in the Dell".

Re: Gateway 2000's hilariously bad ads in the 90s (Part II)

#67

Post by jeffbee »

grubbs wrote: post #20

I think it was around the late 90s - but my hometown actually had a Gateway retail store where you could tinker with a lot of their products.

When they opened retail outlets it was the beginning of the end. That was the peak of their growth rate and the moment when Dell really started to go after them.

Re: Gateway 2000's hilariously bad ads in the 90s (Part II)

#68

Post by sgarland »

quickthrowman wrote: post #36
sgarland wrote: post #5

> And you won’t get to brag that you own a computer from Iowa. South Dakota. Gateway was HQ’d in North Sioux City, SD. There is also a South Sioux City, NE, though to my knowledge no computer manufacturers have had a presence there. My dad worked at Gateway in the mid-late ‘90s and early ‘00s. Employee perks were pretty decent for the time; for example, he could borrow a laptop to play with and learn on at home — we…

Gateway was located in Sioux City, IA before they moved to South Dakota in 1990: https://medium.com/@madmedic11671/behind-the-spots-the-story... Sioux City is near a tripoint where Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska located in the Missouri River floodplain so it is natural they would have operations in two states at some point in its history. I just drove through here and spent a weekend in the area, Ponca State Park (…

I had forgotten about their start being in Iowa!

I moved to Nebraska (just outside Ponca, actually) in 1996, so I missed that part of their history. Moved away in 2004.

Agreed that Ponca State Park is delightful. I spent many a summer day there as a kid.

Re: Gateway 2000's hilariously bad ads in the 90s (Part II)

#69

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

fenestella wrote: post #50

The cow-print branding was a masterclass in building an approachable identity for a commodity business, but these specific spreads really highlight how weird 90s tech marketing was. I'd forgotten they tried to lean so hard into the 'cowboy' persona for a PC builder. It's wild to see how much margin they must have had to afford these multi-page glossy inserts in every issue of PC Magazine.

It wasn't just PC Magazine, it was every PC magazine.

They must have negotiated some hefty discounts, because page rates were astronomical.

Even so - the incredible thing about PC magazines was that they were read by people who wanted to buy PCs, so the ROI on that kind of niche targeted ad spend was always worthy.

Re: Gateway 2000's hilariously bad ads in the 90s (Part II)

#70

Post by sgarland »

addaon wrote: post #10
sgarland wrote: post #5

> And you won’t get to brag that you own a computer from Iowa. South Dakota. Gateway was HQ’d in North Sioux City, SD. There is also a South Sioux City, NE, though to my knowledge no computer manufacturers have had a presence there. My dad worked at Gateway in the mid-late ‘90s and early ‘00s. Employee perks were pretty decent for the time; for example, he could borrow a laptop to play with and learn on at home — we…

> They would also give you a PC in agreement for continued employment for N years. Do you mean that in exchange for accepting a PC, he had to agree to a multiple-year enforced contract? Is the right to leave a company even a right that one can sign away in the US? Would people really do that for a few thousand dollars? That seems shockingly close to indentured servitude... "we'll pay two months of your rent up front,…

No, as others explained, it was “you owe us $X if you quit before $DATE.” IIRC, they had a few models to choose from, with different amounts of time required. The Pentium III was, I think, a 3 year commitment; a Celeron was I think 2 years.
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