OLPC begins advertising push
Last night marked a new era for the One Laptop per Child group: it has started to advertise its low-cost, green and white machine on television. The 30 second ad ran during House on Fox. It was shot in South Africa and tells the story of Zimi, a child in South Africa, who has one of the XO laptops.
I was given a preview of the ad last night at an event with Nicholas Negroponte. Unfortunately the session was off the record, because it was one of the most honest chats I have ever heard with him. During the session he showed us a second ad. It shows images of child prostitutes, a young boy down a mine and a child soldier letting go with an AK-47. Text near the end states: children are fast learners, “let’s give them the right tools”. It is much more provocative, evoking the days of Benetton’s controversial adverts. As yet, it has not run on TV or appeared on YouTube.
In the meantime, a competition has been launched on Daily Motion for people to come up with their own. The winner will win a TV spot.
This push is an attempt to boost sales through OLPC’s Give One Get One (G1G1) scheme, which allows a person in the US or Europe to buy one machine for themselves and another for a school child in a developing nation. Laptops will be donated to countries such as Haiti and Rwanda.
It is a complete departure from Negroponte’s original vision of selling the laptops in lots of one million or more to governments. However, if successful it is potentially a more powerful way of getting the machines out to kids as OLPC controls which countries get the machines and can ensure that distribution follows the organisations five guiding principles. Supposedly, not all countries have been willing to adopt these, hence the appearance of Windows XP on the machines.
Following distributon problems associated with 2007′s G1G1 push, OLPC has teamed up with Amazon to get the laptops out to people this year. Although they only went on sale on Monday, some people have already received their orders. If you fancy getting hold of one of the rugged, little devices, you can order one or even hundreds here. Or, you can wait until 2010 for the XO2.
