Speaking of the Pentium 4, the early reviews citing its lackluster performance in office-type applications may well have given the new chip a black eye in terms of public image. Sure, there will always be uninformed shoppers who only see that 4 is bigger than 3-- er, III-- and 1.5 ("That's one and a half, right?") GHz is bigger than 1 GHz, and will then just plunk down the cash for the "better" processor. But with a big-ticket item like a P4 system, most of the customers are probably doing at least a little homework before slapping down the plastic. If that homework reveals that a cheaper Pentium III might well be faster for most tasks, well, the P4 might not exactly fly off the shelves.

So how is Intel planning to fight this PR problem? Simple: by enlisting the help of a turnaround king. Remember back in 1996 and 1997 when Apple was in such bad shape, most people thought the company had already gone out of business? Back then the Apple logo was like a warning sign to consumers. These days, though, the Apple brand is far closer to the ideal of being a mark of quality, innovation, and ease of use-- and arguably, what kicked off its recovery was the debut of the "Think different" ad campaign. Well, get this: according to a TechWeb article kindly pointed out to us by faithful viewer Simone Bianconcini, Intel has gone ahead and hired Ken Segall (the man other than Steve behind Apple's Emmy-winning ad campaign) to produce print and TV ads for the Pentium 4. In other words, the company's hired a Big Gun to figure out how to hawk its Big Chips.

If Segall was able to pull Apple out of its PR death spiral, then putting a happy face on Intel's new processor should be a cakewalk by comparison. (Then again, presumably this time around he won't have Steve's help.) Don't expect a "Think Pentium" ad campaign anytime soon, though; apparently everything's still in the planning stage right now, and the P4 ads aren't expected to run until this spring. Until then we've all got a few more months of Pentium III ads featuring blue men behaving in strange and occasionally self-destructive ways. But hey, even we have to admit that the existing Pentium III ads (which, just like "Think different," don't say a single thing about the product they're pushing) are marginally more entertaining than Apple's latest commercials. Especially when taking into account the fact that, as many faithful viewers have pointed out, Blue Man Group uses Macs to run its phenomenally successful stage show...