Complaints about unknowledgeable and rude sales representatives were made public. But the customer-service team that was then operating Dell’s direct sales was often criticized by consumers. Its $70 million ‘‘Be Direct’’ worldwide campaign of 1998 emphasized the advantages of Dell’s direct-to-customer business philosophy. During the shift Dell used larger and larger advertising campaigns to promote its products and its direct sales approach. Dell’s concentration remained on direct sales even as it moved away from relying solely on its mail-order catalog to reach customers. In subsequent years the two continued to battle for the number one spot. It lost that spot to Hewlett-Packard in 2002 but regained it within a year. Within a decade Dell had become the largest seller of personal computers in the United States. Sales climbed dramatically, giving even the century-old IBM something to worry about. In 1987 PCs Limited changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation, and in 1992 Fortune magazine listed Dell as one of the world’s 500 largest companies. Consumers were attracted by the low prices, so much so that the company grossed $6 million in its first year of business. In 1985 the company developed its own computer, the Turbo PC, which was advertised for direct sale in national computer magazines.
In the 1980s Dell began rebuilding and selling computers from his University of Texas at Austin dorm room, naming his company PCs Limited. “But as God is my witness, if these bats don’t get away from me I’m going to burn this city down.Michael Dell began working with computers at age 15, when he took apart a brand-new Apple computer to see if he could rebuild it.
When those cops framed me and my lawyer grabbed my hand and started smacking me in the head with it, I ignored his ‘dude, stop hitting yourself’ taunts.” The other day, when that guy threw a rock at me and shouted, ‘dude, you’re getting pummeled with rocks,’ I just laughed it off. Now homeless and unable to even get work in Old Navy commercials, Curtis remains upbeat. “That,” Curtis deadpanned, “was when I hit rock bottom.” Curtis took work wherever he could find it, including a forgetful three weeks as Rosie O’Donnell’s personal assistant. New acting gigs were impossible to come by. His girlfriend, dog, and cat all left him in a span of a few weeks. “We framed that boy good.”Īfter the arrest, Dell dropped Curtis as its spokesman. “It’s true,” responded arresting officer Frank Stallone.
“I was in my apartment taking a nap when some cops knocked down my front door, threw a bag of weed at me and shouted, ‘no we will not sell you marijuana!’”Īdded Curtis, as he rummaged through a nearby garbage can, “I was framed.” Cops, lawyers, and media members banded together in an effort to rid society of “Steven.” On February 9, 2003, Curtis was arrested for attempting to buy a small bag of marijuana. That decision ultimately led to Benjamin Curtis’ downfall. Once we saw all the money coming in, we thought, ‘what the heck…let’s make it so that people cannot take two steps without hearing Steven’s voice.’” “The entire ‘Steven’ ad campaign was an inside joke,” admitted Michael Dell, founder and chairman of Dell Computers. In spite of the public’s animosity towards Curtis’ character, sales of Dell Computers skyrocketed. Shoes, rocks, sticks, whatever was handy.” “Whenever I went outside, people would throw things at me. “Boy, people hated that character,” Curtis acknowledged as he swatted away vampire bats only he could see. His catchphrase, “Dude, you’re gettin’ a Dell!”, annoyed consumers world wide. He played the fictional character Steven, a chipper and super-annoying teenager who went around informing prospective buyers of all the perks of owning a Dell. However, life was not always this way for Curtis.įrom 2000 to 2003, Curtis was the spokesman for Dell Computers. Wake up at noon, talk to his invisible friend Charlie, shout obscenities at passerbys, ask those same passerbys for loose change or a hot meal, check his MySpace for comments, and repeat. The daily routine for Benjamin Curtis these days is a mundane one.
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