In 2008, the first I’m a PC ad aired, opening with Sean Siler doing an impression of John Hodgman portraying a PC, and continuing with montage of people proudly announcing, “I’m a PC!” Accompanying the first four people to appear on screen are email addresses. The addresses are live (or at least they were when the campaign launched), and if you write to them, you get an autoresponse. I’ve heard that the most popular of the four email addresses in terms of incoming volume was not Sean Siler’s, nor was it the one belonging to Bill Gates. Rather, the most messages arrived from people trying to contact the young woman in the server room. And it wasn’t even close. We’re talking a factor of like 5.[citation needed] As it happens, she is a developer on the shell team, and by an astonishing coincidence, her office number at the time was 1337. Sadly, that one second of fame took its toll on my colleague, who now deeply wishes for the permanent destruction of that brief clip of her saying “I’m a PC.”
And no, I won’t forward your email to her.
0 comments