Cisco has come out with a full-page ad in the New York Times that simply makes you scratch your head. That’s the one posted here, but I like the mock up the New York Post did. The NYP version puts two iPhones side by side – Cisco’s and Apple’s – with their respective good points. On the Cisco side, the Iphone has a “retro look” and was trademarked June 2000, which are pretty good pros really. Meanwhile the Apple iPhone has a sleek look, wearing an iPod branding (?) and was unveiled January 9 (of this year, 2007, as everybody knows).
It’s cute, funny and effective but if it were only that simple. A full page NYT ad would’ve cost Cisco tens of thousands of dollars, and considering how litigious companies who are overprotective of their products are, Cisco had to be smart… really smart, you can hardly understand what the real ad is trying to tell you. If you’ve experienced being baffled by the comedy of Dennis Miller or New Yorker cartoons before, you might want force a laugh on this one.
If, however, your unprovoked giggling turned a few heads, you’ve got a legitimate reason behind that laughter. Isn’t the trademark dispute regarding the “iPhone” name still undecided? Well… ?
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