Forwarded From: Aleph One <aleph1at_private> http://www.feedmag.com/html/feeddaily/98.05.01feeddaily.html > u M A Y 1, 1 9 9 8 WHEN NETWORK GENERAL and McAfee Associates merged last year to form Network Associates, they created the world's largest network security software company. They also created a series of television commercials remarkable for its black comedy and unabashed fear-mongering. One advertisement features a young man, his head shaved and face covered with tattoos, smiling to himself as he taps away at a workstation. Why, he asks rhetorically, do people like him bother to hack into other people's computer systems and mess with their personal files? "For the same reason we pierce our tongues," he cackles, as the camera zeroes in on his wagging perforation. Other Network Associates ads include a disgruntled janitor complaining about executive salaries as he sweeps up near the company server and a cross-legged blonde reminiscent of Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. She wants to know "who's watching your network" while you're watching her. Each commercial ends with a dark, foreboding chord and the materialization of the Network Associates logo, a cross between a biohazard warning and the hammer and sickle. The Network Associates ad campaign highlights an interesting dilemma for the high-tech marketing set. Network-based products and services largely depend on consumers feeling comfortable with the idea of porting their private information and personal belongings from their own hard drives to someone else's server. PlanetAll, Visto, @Backup, any online banking or shopping site -- none of these services work if consumers keep their data stuffed beneath their mattresses. Internet marketers are working overtime trying to figure out how to convince Joe User to trust the network, but, as Network Associates seems to have discovered, it might be easier to get Joe to buy things if you just terrify him. A recent TRUSTe survey concluded that over three-quarters of Web users are concerned about sites monitoring their browsing. Not surprisingly, "trust" has displaced "community" as the Internet marketing buzzword du jour. Last month, Firefly Networks, Inc. hosted a free two-day seminar called Trust '98 to teach businesses how "trust can help you retain customers by building long-term relationships with your brand." The conference was designed to position Firefly as the Internet's most trusted trust brand and show government regulators that the industry is capable of policing itself on privacy issues. A couple of weeks after Trust '98, Firefly was purchased by Microsoft. If the Network Associates ads are a reliable cultural indicator, then the guys selling network security are definitely a step ahead of the guys responsible for selling the network itself. At least their commercials are edgier and more coherent than Sun's and Oracle's. Slowly but surely consumers are being weaned off their clients and herded over to the server side. And now that Microsoft's in the game, it's safe to say that it won't be long before we're buying protection from the very same people we wanted to be protected from in the first place. -- (Aaron Naparstek) -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 12:52:22 PDT