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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LAXSaabdude" data-source="post: 685126" data-attributes="member: 5095">New Economy Wistfully Recalled As Tiny Dot-Com Promotional Object Found InDrawerThe Onion, 22  January, 2003<a href="http://www.theonion.com/onion3902/new_economy.html">http://www.theonion.com/onion3902/new_economy.html</a>SAN FRANCISCO< The "New Economy" predicted to make "bricks and mortar"retailers obsolete recalled Monday, when a small dot-com promotional item was discovered in the junk drawer of former dot-commer Eric Noyce.Noyce, 28, an associate vice-president of business development for Pets.comfrom August 1998 to December 2000, came across a small gadget emblazonedwith "antHead.com" while searching for a corkscrew to open a $3 bottle of wine."Holy crap, check this out," said the minimum-wage-earning Noyce as he examined the slick-looking promotional doohickey. "antHead.com. I think Iremember getting this. It was in a goodie bag I got at some launch party.antHead, antHead... What did they do again?"According to roommate Bryan Bollinger, a former Flooz.com tech-supportsupervisor and current delivery driver for Angelo's Pizza, Noyce becamesentimental and introspective while gazing at the useless but expensivelymanufactured trinket."He had this far-away look in his eyes, like he'd been transported back to amore innocent, simpler time," Bollinger said. "I guess we can all relate to that feeling."Bollinger, who has bounced between unemployment and under-employment for two and a half years, then returned to watching TV as Noyce continued to waxnostalgic."Wait a minute," Noyce said. "I remember this antHead thingy having some sort of button that would light up different colors every time you squeezed it. crap, how much do you think something like this would cost to make? Those guys must have spent a fortune on these. It doesn't really do anything, but I remember pulling it out of my launch-party gift bag, thinking it was kind of cool. Sort of."Noyce then tried to squeeze the object to see if it would still light up. Itdid not.Like thousands of other dot-com promotional doodads produced from themid-'90s until the New Economy bubble burst in the winter of 2000-01, theobject was created as a means of "raising awareness and generatingexcitement about the brand." Handed out by the thousands at antHead.com'sextravagant launch party in July 1999, it soon found its way into Noyce'sbedroom junk drawer, along with numerous other equally functionless giveaways from the time, including a FilmZone.com miniature director's chair, a Boo.com yo-yo, and a Kozmo.com glow-in-the-dark floppy flyer. "Wait, I got it!" said Noyce, snapping out of his silence. "antHead! They had this huge pre-launch ad campaign in alternative weeklies across the country, with those mysterious 'teaser' ads that showed the ant-face logo with just the words 'antHead Is Coming.' When they finally launched, the party was held in five cities simultaneously, each one simulcast to the others via live satellite feed on huge video-projection screens. I'm pretty sure Douglas Coupland was the celebrity host."Added Noyce: "I think the antHead site offered either original Shockwave-animated programming, live music webcasts, or both. Or neither." Though neither Noyce nor anyone else in the U.S. can remember, antHead.com went public in August 1999, making its debut on NASDAQ at $17 a share. By April 2000, the stock had risen to a whopping $114 per share, with a market cap of $81 billion.As part of their compensation packages, Noyce and his fellow dot-com employees were often issued stock options, which have come to be known inthe financial world as "pretend Internet money." This pretend money, nowestimated to be of slightly less value than the multi-colored paper bills used in Monopoly, was considered extremely valuable at the time. A great deal of this imaginary wealth was actually used to purchase Time Warner, one of the largest media conglomerates in the world."I remember the food at the antHead launch was great," Noyce said. "They hadceviche and grilled shrimp on skewers and these really great mini-fajita hors d'oeuvres. I just wish I could remember more about the company." According to financial analysts, for many people Noyce's age, the New Economy boom was a mythic, idyllic time in American history."Prosperity seemed to hang from tree boughs like ripe fruit," said Forbes senior writer Peter Kafka, author of What The **** Happened?!?: The New Economy money could have bought, like a washing machine so he wouldn't have to haul his laundry all the way down to the basement of his rathole apartment complex every time he needed to wash his Arby's uniform."LAXSaabdude.</blockquote>

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