Who's the Loser?
A couple of days ago, a friend pointed me to www.youtube.com, where there was a parody video, apparently produced by Autodesk at their One Team Conference. It was set to the song Loser, by Beck, parodying SolidWorks with the refrain "I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me?"
It seemed like a really low-brow kind of thing to do, but given what I've seen come out of Autodesk marketing in the last six months or so, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was an official Autodesk piece.
I sent an email to Carl Bass, Autodesk's CEO, and asked him about it. Here's my email, and his response:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carl Bass
> Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 1:04 PM
> To: Evan Yares
> Subject: Re: Loser video
>
> Evan,
>
> I have no idea what you're talking about.
>
> Carl
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Evan Yares
> To: Carl Bass
> Sent: Wed May 31 12:53:52 2006
> Subject: Loser video
>
> Carl --
>
> What's the story on the "Loser" attack video?
>
> Do you believe that this sort of thing will actually endear
> you to the several hundred thousand Autodesk customers who
> also use SolidWorks?
>
> Evan
>
Considering that Carl was featured in the video, I was surprised at his answer -- but to be sure, I sent him a link to the video. In rather short order, the video was gone from youtube -- apparently at the request of its copyright holder, Autodesk.
There are some copyright issues with the video, not the least of which is the likely unlicensed use of Beck's music (I've actually asked the Autodesk legal department if they obtained the proper license rights, but haven't yet heard back from them.) I'm not going to post the video, because of the copyright issues, however, under the fair-use provisions of copyright law, I can post some stills from the video, and relate the story-line:
As he opens the door, we see that he's a SolidWorks user:
Next, cut to the airport, and the hotel -- so we know we're at the Las Vegas MGM Grand hotel:
Here, the LUser tries to talk to a woman:
And gets rudely shoved away:
The LUser goes into the Casino, and finds that other LUsers are hiding about, trying not to be discovered:
He tries to hit-on another woman, and gets rejected again:
Here the LUsers make a run for it, apparently trying to avoid being caught:
He just doesn't get it, trying to hit-on another woman, and getting shoved away again:
Apparently, the LUser is also an Autodesk reseller (otherwise, why would he be at the One Team Conference?) I am pretty sure that SolidWorks did not send anyone to the One Team Conference (that's not their style.)
Here, the LUsers dance to the refrain "I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me?"
The LUsers are apparently hiding, they're so embarrased to be seen:
Here, the LUser begs a woman for something, but she shoves him away:
Now, the LUser has decided to end it all, and starts to climb out the window of his hotel room, to jump to his death.
Finally, we discover who is behind the LUser masks. Recognize any faces?
I'll help you with this next person. It is Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, making an obscene gesture:
And this is none other than former Autodesk CEO, and now executive Chairman, Carol Bartz.
I'm not going to pass judgement on whether this sort of overt attack on a competitor is appropriate or not. I think everyone has to decide that sort of thing for themselves. But I will say that this is not the sort of behaviour I'd expect from a high-class company. Ask any editor or analyst if they think that anyone at SolidWorks would do something like this, and you'll get an emphatic "no way."
Evan Yares
in The CAD Industry
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37 Comments
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Response: The Future of Press ReleasesI want to point to a few valuable posts from "my CAD friends" about press releases and company reputation. These are folks who've been doing this a long time and are well respected. I urge you marketing folks to take heed.First up, an analysis by Rach
Reader Comments (37)
McDonalds or Burger King? Or maybe even Jack in the Box...
There frnch fries are better anyway.
Is this the sort of behaviour I'd expect from a high-class company? I might not expect it or they might not be high class but they do it all the time.
You've got so many frames here, why didn't you just show the whole video sans sound to avoid the copyright issue with Beck? It's a really lame video and I'm almost positive that the "actors" are salesmen. Not exactly the brains and taste of the organization. The marketing stuff I've seen, both the ads and the presentation they put on at N.A.B., have been pretty good. I think this must be sales meeting rah-rah crap. Don't know why the senior execs would be in it, tho.
marc
Evan Replies:
Sorry... I was lazy. I could have cropped and resized the images, to save room. I didn't post it as a video, sans sound, because that still might have run afoul of fair use, vis-a-vis Autodesk's copyright. The problem with the fair use doctrine is that it is not presumptive. If Autodesk sued me for copyright violation, I'd have to *prove* fair use, and that could cost me a lot of money. By showing stills only, I provide a stronger defense for my use being fair.
(Imagine James Bond using something like a `join' command to force his shot to strike the target.)
These usually don't get any exposure outside of the meeting attendees, and are just meant to make one feel good to be working with a top notch product or tool.
This one disparages people using SW much more than the product itself. Why stoop so low?
Isn't the Inventor product catching up in the feature battles fast enough?
Bad enough that it was let out to the public, worse that Autodesk principles participated in making it.
However, this was internal marketing material, it was designed to rally the home crowd, and, while it's not the high-road, neither is getting your undies in a twist over it.
Now, that 10-question psuedo-survey Autodesk ran a few months ago. That was low.
At SolidWorks World 2006 earlier this year, SolidWorks management did a take-off on The Dating Game, complete with repeated sexual references -- such as parts fitting together well.
The SW wasn't done in the secrecy of a meeting of salesmen, but in the open in front of thousands of users and invited media. Doesn't make it any better, and I would ahve expected better.
Maybe there's no good marketing ideas left, so CAD vendors are descending into the gutter -- kind of like television.
Many companies poduce videos like this one, some in good taste and some in not so good taste, yet never intended to reach the public eye. At the conference where this video likely would have been released, its a big rah rah event designed to give their people confidence against their competitors. The only thing I'd be disappointed in is that instead of just playing it once during one of their large, group get togethers someone there decided that its a good thing to distribute in this format. THAT's a major no-no and either an employee mistake or a major human resources/marketing blunder.
Since you are the president of the Open Design Alliance don't you have better things to do than ask the Autodesk legal department if they obtained the proper license rights for using Beck's music in a parody video? What kind of loser writes this stuff?
Evan Replies:
Yes, I suppose I do have better things to do than asking Autodesk's legal department such things. But I was rather curious, as Autodesk makes its living from intellectual property licensing.
Related to your question -- Don't you have better things to do than post inflammatory comments under multiple pseudonyms (Microcan't, DWF it Good, Joey cadd, and Real DWG)? All of your messages have originated from an IP address at one of the most famous architectural firms in the world. I'm going to let them know about this, as I can't imagine that they'd condone such trolling.