It was probably inevitable that at some point, with Dell’s fiscal problems, somebody would find Ben Curtis, aka Steven the Dell Dude, and ask him what he thought would save the company. Likely equally inevitable is Curtis’ answer.
Nonetheless, Bloomberg asked and got precisely what you’d expect:
“I think they’re making a huge mistake and simply need to bring back the Dell Dude!” Curtis wrote to me in an e-mail. “That’s it. That’s all they need to do. If they brought me back, their sales, stock and media presence would skyrocket. That is by FAR the smartest move they could make.”
It’s worth noting that Curtis isn’t saying this because he lives in a trailer. He’s a working actor and producer, on both stage and screen, which considering he’s best known for incredibly annoying computer commercials and getting busted for weed, is arguably quite an achievement.
But it’s hard to argue that his answer isn’t just a wee bit self-serving. After all, it’s a bit hard to believe that all Dell needs to do to reverse its fortunes in a rapidly changing market that’s shifting beneath everybody’s feet is to put this guy back on the air:
Also, if you think those stone-washeds are going to stick with you, Google has plenty of publicity photos of his theater work, where he’s half-naked in bed with another guy for the play Take Me Out. Which, you know, good for him, but we were kind of rooting for him to wind up with the Verizon Guy.