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Juniper gives the boot to its humorous but creepy ad cartoons

By Brad Reese on Mon, 03/02/09 - 12:05pm.

Ad cartoon for Juniper Networks

Lauren FlahertyThankfully, in the opinion of yours truly, it appears that new Juniper Networks Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer - Lauren Flaherty has given the boot to Juniper's humorous but creepy ad cartoons. The ads ran for an unusually long time, for the past five years. Although I personally found the ads humorous, the illustration style of Juniper's cartoonist - Kevin Pope, left me with a kinda-sorta "weird creepy feeling" after the chuckles subsided.

Why? Well to me anyways, the toon characters that were illustrated within the Juniper ads always struck me as grotesque, hideous or repulsive.

To me, the ads were kinda of how a Juniper ad would look if it'd been under the direction of famed Hollywood grotesque film noir producer Tim Burton.

But please don't despair if you're a die-hard fan of Pope's illustration style, because he's moved on from the Juniper gig to a much more rewarding endeavor, illustrating this extremely romantic Valentine's Day Card:

Kevin Pope Valentine's Day Card

Urine guaranteed to set your sweeties heart and/or bladder aflutter*
*An improvisation added by yours truly!

Remarkably or unremarkably, depending on your point of view, Kevin Pope's cartoon illustrations have now totally vanished from the Juniper Networks website.

Goshdarnit !

Nevertheless don't panic my young grasshoppers, because luckily below for your viewing pleasure, you can now rekindle your pent-up nostalgia for the happy times of yesteryear, those fabulous and glorious days of the Juniper Networks ad cartoons...

Wheel

Wheel

Caveman on Ice

Caveman on Ice

Hesitant to Change

Hesitant to Change

Outdated Router

Outdated Router

Cubicle

Cubicle

Litter Box

Litter Box

Chopsticks

Chopsticks

Wallpaper

Wallpaper

Upgrade Chart

Upgrade Chart

New Dance Step

New Dance Step

Suggestion Box

Suggestion Box

Saddle Up

Saddle Up

Pick Again

Pick Again

Company Pool

Company Pool

Data Center Map

Data Center Map

Right Flight Plan

Right Flight Plan

Cable Guy

Cable Guy

Times of Disaster

Times of Disaster

Chicken

Chicken


Am I being too harsh about the attractiveness of the toon characters that were illustrated within Kevin Pope's Juniper ad cartoons?

Brad Reese
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Those adds suck.

0

I agree those were really ugly creepy ads.

Juniper toons

0

This is too funny. This was brought up in our most recent company wide meeting. Actually, the CMO said that she IS NOT responsible for the toons getting the boot. I, myself, am happy to see them go. While they may be humorous in and of themselves, the toon theme permeates Juniper's marketing and tech material and I find it a bit unprofessional looking.

As to your Tim Burton comparison, I disagree. They are not nearly dark enough. I am a huge fan of his work and I just don't see the similarities.

I am glad to see it go.

Thanks for covering this.

Craig

My suggestion for a professional looking Juniper toon campaign!

0

Hi Craig,

Thank you very much for your input and the "skinny" on what's going on with Juniper marketing!

Please excuse my butting into the marketing affairs of Juniper as I'm not trying to badger you guys, however, I soitenly want to make you guys aware of my suggestion for a professional looking Juniper toon campaign:


All I'm saying is that if Juniper marketing is really, really serious about going with a professional toon look, then this gets my ace, #1, top vote!

Sincerely,

Brad Reese
BradReese.Com Cisco Refurbished

You won't see the humour

0

You won't see the humour unless you work with both vendors' equipment. More effective marketing is to just link to real life testimoy:

https://puck.nether.net/pipermail/juniper-nsp/2009-February/012591.html

Mad Magazine inspired

0

I thought the ads were cute but couldn't quite reconcile them to the stuffed-suit procurement types who'd have to decide between Cisco and Juniper. They're a mostly humorless band of parasites.

good

0

Hehe, some of them were really good. Especially the one with the caveman in melting ice. :)

Where you stand depends on where you sit

0

Having always (since 2000) been with companies that competed with Juniper, I always hated the attention the cartoons got and agree they were a little creepy. That said, I did think the campaign was bold, inventive and irreverent, everything that Juniper wanted to be seen as at the time, and so give them kudos for putting their money and strategy where their mouth was. As an aside, as she clearly wasn't their target audience, Juniper's canvas bags were always the ONE item my wife DEMANDED I bring back from trade shows (she still uses them at both the beach and the grocery. That got to be a little problematic when I was at Cisco, but hey, domestic tranquility is job one.

Wilson Craig
Director, PR
Brocade

Icons

0

How about taking this to the next step and trashing those stupid Visio icons as well?? The ones that look like they were drawn by a 4 year old.

Progress?

0

Surely the best reply to Juniper's campaign would have been a 'toon showing a game console (plug in a cartrige, switch it on and play a game) with a real computer (set it up to do exactly what you need doing) ?

They make such a big deal out of the ability to configure Cisco stuff while neglecting the fact that the configurability is the whole *point*.

There are so many technological devices where it's put forward as beneficial that clueless people can set them up and use them. This is true, they can, but only to do the very simplest of things..

Griffin

BAH!

0

I like them.
Lighten up.
Juniper is the future..

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