At the AltaVista relaunch yesterday in New York City there was pop star Lauryn Hill, a pianist, an opera singer, two male dancers, three guys rhythmically banging dustbins dressed in gas masks, a boys’ gospel choir (even the cynical press clapped them) and then a few dozen actors prancing around the stage supposedly representing every facet of America society. The lead character spewed forth aphorisms and platitudes no doubt gleaned from her travels on the web. We had such gems as computers, like people, are no longer beige, and if men gave birth to children there would be no more wars.
She concluded with where did we come from, where are we going? That last double-barreled rhetorical question neatly sums up the marketing strategy of AltaVista for the first four years of its life as it was passed between parents and foster parents, seemingly directionless. Now its tagline is smart is beautiful and the ads feature famous people that apparently fit both those categories: Pamela Anderson-Lee and Gary Kasparov. We’ll leave it up to you to make your own mind up as to which one is which.
