3 ms·

I remember seeing ads for this around my neighborhood that were essentially baffling. Very trendy, but with zero communication about what go90 actually purporte

by chasing 10y ago

I remember seeing ads for this around my neighborhood that were essentially baffling. Very trendy, but with zero communication about what go90 actually purported to do. Google "go90 ads" and you'll see what I mean. Bright colors and slogans like "To watch, cut & share all the awesome" and "Brace yourself, entertainment is coming" which mean, effectively, nothing. ("Ooh, I love entertainment. Along with content it's one of my favorite things to experience.") Also, "go90" is a terrible name.

ChiliDogSwirl 10y ago
When it showed up on my phone one day (probably after an update), I thought it was some kind of malware and removed it. It looked like the kind of crap I removed off windows xp computers back when I did tech support.
niftich 10y ago
If I recall the first TV ad they did was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjLYPMmZfwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjLYPMmZfwY, which is the only one I saw -- but I saw it a lot on late-night television; probably Comedy Central or Adult Swim. The ads were problematic in the sense that they were essentially context-free, and while "us millennials" are enticed by shows we want to stream, we're also very cautious and skeptical of heavily advertised services at a late hour. In me, the garish palette of the ads and the name evoked MTV-style advertising of the mid-1990s, when I was much younger, and bombarded with sketchy ads for polyphonic ringtones, J2ME games, and other services for brick cellphones on late-night television: an association that made me more wary than anything else, especially since the offered content appeared decidedly second-tier.
- chasing 10y ago
  I don't generally think Hacker News is the place to post memes, but this ad is the marketing embodiment of this "30 Rock" clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ele_dj3ud38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ele_dj3ud38
smitherfield 10y ago
> Also, "go90" is a terrible name. I think it's supposed to be 1337-5p34k. (Still terrible).
- space_ghost 10y ago
  I didn't understand the name until I watched one of the T.V. ads that someone linked to in this discussion. It appears to be a reference to the act of rotating a smart phone 90 degrees so as to watch 16:9 video in full-screen. "Going 90," in other words.
  - smitherfield 10y ago
    In that case they could've just as well called it "fetch."

by chasing 10y ago

ChiliDogSwirl 10y ago

When it showed up on my phone one day (probably after an update), I thought it was some kind of malware and removed it. It looked like the kind of crap I removed off windows xp computers back when I did tech support.

niftich 10y ago

If I recall the first TV ad they did was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjLYPMmZfwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjLYPMmZfwY, which is the only one I saw -- but I saw it a lot on late-night television; probably Comedy Central or Adult Swim. The ads were problematic in the sense that they were essentially context-free, and while "us millennials" are enticed by shows we want to stream, we're also very cautious and skeptical of heavily advertised services at a late hour. In me, the garish palette of the ads and the name evoked MTV-style advertising of the mid-1990s, when I was much younger, and bombarded with sketchy ads for polyphonic ringtones, J2ME games, and other services for brick cellphones on late-night television: an association that made me more wary than anything else, especially since the offered content appeared decidedly second-tier.

chasing 10y ago
I don't generally think Hacker News is the place to post memes, but this ad is the marketing embodiment of this "30 Rock" clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ele_dj3ud38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ele_dj3ud38

smitherfield 10y ago

> Also, "go90" is a terrible name. I think it's supposed to be 1337-5p34k. (Still terrible).

space_ghost 10y ago
I didn't understand the name until I watched one of the T.V. ads that someone linked to in this discussion. It appears to be a reference to the act of rotating a smart phone 90 degrees so as to watch 16:9 video in full-screen. "Going 90," in other words.
- smitherfield 10y ago
  In that case they could've just as well called it "fetch."