Ask.com Commercial: Now on YouTube

Do they actually pay the VP of Marketing at Ask.com for this type of crap? I could do it for free If this their strategy to beat Google, Google has not nothing to worry about!

If you actually go to Ask.com and search for the terms in the video “Chicks with swords” the results are not very exciting!

Excellent commercial! It’s a man’s world and IAC knows what most men are looking for on the Internet.

Totally makes sense. As I understand it “Chicks with Swords” is like the third or forth most searched for phrase online.

its pretty cool that you guys over at TC leak all this info, while this ad is nothing special just that fact that it is here before its on TV is awesome.

Digg’d - haha, chicks with swords. Classic… maybe.

I think they should fire their marketing VP

Ask.com / Ask may be one of the best search engine names possible, but their design, application and advertising just sucks. Did they hire monkeys to do their advertising? If so, they were definitely not the monkeys orbiting space.

Oh poopikins - my comment was completely removed (even the part referring the content of the ad) by the TC staff. Reminds me of Cartman from back in the day:

“Respect mah authoritah”

or Rocky I:

“Don’t question why the man does what the man does, just know that the man does it!”

Baffle ‘em with bullshit. I guess they’re hoping that shiny beats smart, which is strange given their intellectual-ish “the algorithm” campaign. Maybe this is a sign that ppl don’t care about “the algorithm.”

I like the ad; it’s a grand production that makes me think, “Is there really is a meaning in it”? There might be or there might not, the main points are achieved, Were all talking about the ad.

lame.

I actually like the ad. When comparing the search engine promotion to Google, MSN, and Yahoo!, none of them really do anything fun. The only thing fun Google does are the April Fools pranks and quite frankly, those weren’t that funny. When seeing how many billions of dollars Google is spending on a regular basis, you would think that they could come up with something funnier than Google Romance.

ask xena is the new ask jeeves

chicks w/ swords? that is so completely awesome. can they run this ad on TV though? seems pretty porn-ish.

i saw their new site on scoble and was actually really impressed with the UI. not sure advertising on TC is the target market though.

“can they run this ad on TV though? seems pretty porn-ish.”

Gosh, please tell me you are joking!! If you are serious, I’m not sure what kind of porn you been watching.

Whatever said and done….ask.com is coming back..from the trenches..that is amazing.

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I don’t need a web search need an ad. Its good attempt though. Good competition and another tough competitor in search race.

I was actually laughing like a maniac the whole time I watched that… thought it was hilariously stupid.

I happen to think the ad is brilliant. Daring, even. Who else is trying to sex up technology in this way?

And it is so simple. We’re hit over the head with a single message: the guy found what he was looking for using Ask.com. The girls, music, pizzazz surrounding that statement are just gravy to help the message come home.

This is why creative professionals should continue to take care of the advertising. A geek would never dare such a thing.

I agree w/ those that found the ad to be good. Between this and the “algorithm” ad I’m guessing I’ll use Ask as my backup engine despite having the yahoo search bar….

I think I actually feel less inclined to use ask after their recent ad campaigns! Definitely lame! The earlier ones as well, use us, not cos we are better, but cos it kinda sucks that google has a monopoly… yeah it does but their still better!:s

I could see a mention of this in a future version of “20+ years of high tech marketing disasters”.

This is a great ad and I’m a big fan of Ask.com’s recent advertising campaigns. Everyone’s talking about them; whether that’s in a good or bad light who cares, job done… Their new interface rocks and they’re getting tons of free PR from blogs like this. God speed Ask, the Internet needs you…

Ask used their own search engine to find their ad agency,

’nuff said.

In the previous [Ask.com Commercial] post I noticed you referred to “half-dressed women”…

…you must be a glass is half empty kind of guy as I would say these are “half-naked women”

Wow! That sucks!

maybe it was made so stupid on purpose, since it really draws attention and spreads as an example of “omg ad”. but still, though i know that there’s nothing like ‘bad publicity’, i would hesitate to gain it this way.

- can “Chicks with swords” be - the beginning of the end of ASK ?

- Their new search is nice; but - The PR sucks

This has to be *the dumbest* ad I’ve ever seen.

“I got what I was looking for” is probably setting the lowest expectation possible for a search engine. If you’re taking the time to search, you BETTER DAMN WELL get what you’re looking for. And you shouldn’t need a stupid ad with ‘chicks with swords’ to point it out.

And about the ‘chicks with swords’ … is Ask.com saying that’s all the internet’s good for? I mean c’mon — the guy actually *smirks* as he looks at the girl’s ass on the screen.

All I took away from that is, “If you want some kind of weird fetish porn search, Ask.com is the place for you. You’ll get what you’re looking for”.

That is chaos. This commercial definitely doesn’t exude simplicity of search, as I’m sure is one of Ask.com’s biggest intentions. Perfect example of “trying too hard”.

And to build on what Dan Esparza is saying - yes, this sets the bar very low for search engines. It completely misses the mark, too. The apparent target audience of males (who like weird fetish porn) is NOT the market who would respond to the low-tech promise of ‘finding what you’re looking for’. I imagine that would be the grandma sector who scarcely knows how to use a search engine in the first place. When THEY see this ad - they will probably write their senators and schedule a prayer meeting.

. . . I don’t understand why Ask.com took this approach.

this is Ask’s attempt to make noise. they know they are light years behind google not to mention other competitors, so this is their way of doing something bold to grab desperately-needed attention and hopefully capture a portion of the lucrative ‘men that love women brandishing swords’ market (think WoW and EQ)

“the main points are achieved, Were all talking about the ad.”

Indeed. I think it’s actually a very effective ad. You can’t just say, ‘hey we’ve got good search results too’ in a commercial and expect people to give a rip. Nobody’s going to care. You have to do something off the wall that will get people’s attention (which is why they went with arguably the hottest ad agency in the world right now in CP&B - a group that excels at this type of thing.) Taken in that context, this works.

More competition in the search space is a good thing. Google’s great, but not perfect. Plus, there’s a lot of potential cons to the volumes of personal data people seem to gladly surrender to them. I hope Ask does well. That being said, I’ll still rely primarily on Google and Yahoo for most of my searching needs. Those two still seem to be a step above everyone else when it comes to relevant search results.

Does this remind anyone else if the ebay musical ads from a few years ago? Not too original. The only smart aspect about it is that they are positioning themselves to be the prefered search engine for porn.

Hey all.

I’m one of the creatives from Ask’s advertising agency that made this commercial. Really glad a lot of people are digging it so far.

We wanted to show the elation people feel when they get exactly what they wanted in a search. The imagry projected behind the guy and the dancers shows all the different kinds of results that Ask is serving up in one place–blogs, video, pics, links, etc. (We shot the spot for TV and movie theaters…not sure it translates perfectly to web video.) The technology behind Ask has huge potential, and it’s getting better every day. So it’s been really exciting to help them bring their new perspective on search to the people.

There are two more on the way, so stay tuned…

who is the guy singing in the new ask.com “chicks with swords” commercial?

He’s an actor in, based in Prague. I forget his name…

I love the humor! But as someone else mentioned, that search term doesn’t really turn up much. The correct search WAS “Babes with Blades”.

I really liked the commercial. Forget the techy-geeks that we all are, this appeals to all of the folks who will find the tune catchy and log on. Personally, I will continue to use Google and will only use Ask.com in cases where Google can’t find “What I am looking for”, but I really do like this commerical. Kudus, Ask.com!

I believe the actor singing is David Hyde Pierce ( formerly Niles on “Frasier”), who just won a Tony for”Curtains”. I first saw this ad on the TONY awards program, and thought it was purposely placed for that reason—its huge over the top production was just like the grand Broadway musicals.

However, I don’t know the name of the girl who was “lookings” for Kato Kaelin—-I believe she won a Tony too.

At any rate–in my opinion, they are wonderful send-ups of the musical form….

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