I will be offline until June 23. I'm saving your message regarding "$SUBJECT"
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Best, Mark

This from The Register...

"It's like being stuck in a bad relationship!" says one 'Mark Frauenfelder'. But you only need to take one look at the boy to know that not only is he probably he an expert on the subject, but he's the kind of twitchy, self-loathing bore from whom women flee.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/25750.html

congrats Mark!

I mentioned your fame on my blog as well.

http://www.grrl.com/blog.html

As Austin Powers would say, "Nerd Alert!!!"

Get yourself in front of a mirror, dude.

Saw your ad last night. Your famous! The Windows LAN administrator ad has a lot more sting though. I thought it was a law that writer/illustrators had to use Apples.

Whoa! I saw one of the ads during the NBA playoffs, then came into the bedroom to check out the web. I was reading this site and my wife came in and said, "Hey, do you know a Mark Frau..frahfeld...he was just on tv." I had told her about the commercials and that I "knew" one of the "actors" and she saw it before I did because I was reading BoingBoing. Oh the bitter irony. At least I didn't have to watch Drew Carey, although the Nets loss was somewhat painful to witness.

Toot, Toot like the wind, Mark F.! Hey, whatever happened to Carla? She used to be all over the net.

I'll be watching Drew Carey tonight, in hopes of catching Mark's appearance.

Congratulations, Mark!

P.S. Separated at birth?

Will they be doing a follow-up testimonial ad on your old i-book anytime soon ;-)

i used to get a good laugh in my training classes when i'd say that adobe illustrator (or other bloatware) was "more confusing than my last relationship ..."

but mark's line is way better. patrick is right: agencies try to get that sort of copy all the time, but when you try hard for something creative, you usually get crap instead. bravo mark.

I beg your pardon, _I_ said he needed an agent.

But now that I think of it, a publicist might be handier. Although friends' experiences with publicists are...varied.

Did you really S.W.I.T.C.H?

I notice that, of all the various testimonials, it was from Mark's that Apple (or their ad agency) took their "pull quote" about how using his PC was like being stuck in a bad relationship. The New York Times piece on the ad campaign quotes that line, too.

It's an excellent line. Ad agencies spend tens of thousands of dollars looking for lines that memorable.

Is there an AVI?

The Quicktime downloader doesn't seem to want to work with a proxy.

So if Linux users can't see it, MS users behind a proxy can't see it, where are all these people going to switch from?

Mark Frauenfelder: welcome to bankable geek cred!

I'm busting a gut here - that is too cool!

If you were to get an agent like buddy says I'll bet it wouldn't be hard to get some more commercial/tv work now. Who knows after a couple more acting gigs you might even land a movie gig - like as Christopher Walken's 'evil hacker sidekick' or something.

Good stuff!

Why hello.. you need to get a photo gallery up. It'll do you some good. The one photo is nice but we need more ;)

(Sorry for my randomness. Kickass commercial, btw)

i can't watch it because i'm on the linux.

I signed a SAG contract and got paid some decent up front $.

Edited by author 06-10-2002 10:16 PM
Over on Metafilter, they're debating whether Mark Frauenfelder is a real person or not:

Which is an improvement over the tired OS wars the makes up the rest of the thread. Suprised to hear myself say this (given how many of those flame wars I've started on vrious mailing lists) but aren't we all really beyond that sort of discussion by now?

Great ad, Mark, no jokes. But please tell me you scored more than a lousy peripheral. If so, you need an agent.

> Apple Marketing Droid

If they get paid more than a t-shirt iron-on maker, I'm ready to sign up.

Over on Metafilter, they're debating whether Mark Frauenfelder is a real person or not:

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/17705#288116

I wonder how his daughter will cope with learning that her daddy is a "Apple Marketing Droid."

Edited by author 06-10-2002 07:37 PM
Gee Mark, suffer those slings and arrows, baby! BAH! Just ignore them. They reel in shock. Bravo for your courage to even consider switching... going against that HUGE status quo, and welcome to the coolest, most rock solid computing experience in the world.

Poor Mark, he gets a break with an Apple ad and then gets called a bad actor. Good job, I hope you take your anxious regular guy 'act' on the road soon!

Thanks MrBaliHai -- I've been practicing it 24/7 my entire life. Glad it's paid off!

You've got that "deer in the headlights" look down pat!

That's such an awesome ad! They really captured your true Markness!

Edited by author 06-10-2002 04:43 PM
I hear ya, Stef, but I just dropped in on "Google" for just
a sec, and I tracked somebody down who I haven't heard from
in 17 YEARS-- all in a matter of SECONDS! I can't help it!
I'm hooked already!! The 'Net rocks!!! And please, someone
get Mark & Carla's blessing/permission, & bring back the
'bOING!

Cary: Welcome aboard, but be sure to get outside now and then. I have a friend who stayed on-line so much he forgot how to walk on dirt.

Hehe, yer bringing back memories of early 90's strolls down the (old) Drag near UT campus Austin, to captain Quackenbush's where I'd light up a clove and unfurl the new Mondo 2000 and bOINGbOing issue I just bought at Europa books in the Dobie.

And Gorgar, you're right: the Amiga reigns supreme!
And by the way, I'm 39, this is my VERY FIRST internet
experience, and who better to do it with but one of the
co-creators of the greatest literary entity ever conceived--
"bOINGbOING"!! This is fun! I've only been on fo only a
few minutes, & already I understand why people get addicted
to this stuff so easily!! Hello, everybody!!!

Why do you all have the expression of someone who walked into a room where some else farted?

Hey, DaveFaris: Don'tcha know looks count for everything?

That's great, Mark! How much did they pay you for that?

Apple v. Mac Holy War notwithstanding, I don't have much respect for people (like another Mac switcher, Liza) who buy a Mac because it "looks prettier." But otherwise, whatever.

Anyway, great ad, Mark!

Mark & Carla rule!!
Oh yeah: Nice ad, too...

wow. sexy.

yes, especially the teeth.

Boy, I wish my teeth looked as nice as Mark's.

Don't worry about me, Yofal, I'm just a bitter old Amiga user. (snickers erupt in back of room)

So is Mark a recent "switcher"? Or is he relating his experiences of long ago. He's hanging around with some serious Macheads now...

And Gorgar is getting rather defensive. Not sure why...

Mark. Try not to take this the wrong way, but in that picture you look like Jack Burton (Kurt Russel) in Big Trouble in Little China. More specifically the scene where he goes to see the White Tiger incognito.
In any case...congrats.

From Metafilter:

Metafilter | Comments on 17705

Anyone else notice the bizarre homogeneity of the people in the new Apple commercials? Doesn't take a genius to figure out their target demographic...
posted by krunk at 10:20 AM PST on June 10


Anyone else notice that those "testimonial" pictures on the Apple Switch page really look like actors--bad ones at that. They all appear to be trying too hard to look ordinary. Creepy.
posted by mooncrow at 10:24 AM PST on June 10

"Interrotron?" Wow, sounds like something General Fong would strap Buck Rogers into make him spill the location of the Underground City.

One of my serious hard-boiled CS friends recently switched to Mac on the strength of OS X. It really does look damn cool, and it's got Unixy underpinnings, so why not?

Andrew, how long has Mac = Unix?
Not nearly as long as the Mac hype.
Like I said, *now* Macs can multitask.
*Now* they may actually live up to the hype.
And Intel clones can run a lot of OS's besides Windows.
And it was Dan Ackroyd that you paraphrased.

Edited by author 06-10-2002 02:40 PM
That was cool! We should have streaming video of all Boingers.

[stupid comment about hair deleted in post production]

to paraphrase bill murray ... gorgar, you ignorant slut. macs run unix. intel clones run windows. 'nuff said.

The TV ad can be seen today on major cable networks like ESPN, CNBC, Comedy Central and Fox News and will appear this week on ABC's Boston 24/7 and The Drew Carey Show, as well as NBC's ER and NBA Finals broadcasts.

Print ads are in this week's issues of Time and Newsweek, and will appear this month in a number of other major magazines.

And the Interrotron was a blast!

Well congrats Mark, but I'd like to see one of these mythical Macs that "just work". At least they actually multitask now.

How was being probed by the INTERROTRON?

Windows machines aren't that bad you wimp.

Are these ads running now?

I happen to know that Mark is not "real"...so it's still an open issue in my book.

we were just discussing weather or not these were actual "real people" I guess that's settled.