Sun Microsystems is well known for being quietly-spoken and polite. So it comes as quite a shock to us at Register Towers to hear that some of their latest server adverts have been rejected by "top business publications" as just too controversial.

Sun has had many enemies over the years but current Number One is Dell.

So the psy-ops copywriters went to work. Four examples of textual subtlety on Sun's website include, "100% more bitchin than Dell", "Now that's what we call an ass-whoopin", "Rhymes with hell" and for those who find these slogans a bit too esoteric the simple, "Benchmark studies prove that Dell sucks."

To reduce the chance of confusion all the slogans are in large, capital letters.

Yesterday Sun hired a plane to fly over Dell's headquarters dragging a banner which read: "Sun's got a x64 server. WATCH OUT DELL."

The website also includes some rather quieter adverts which have been accepted. One reads: "Given how hot and slow our competior's servers are, it's no surprise their name RHYMES WITH HELL".

Now we are just simple hacks at the Reg not clever enough to work in marketing, except playing our small role in viral campaigns like this one, but isn't it bad practice to use your marketing budget to publicise a competing company?

You can see the apparently rejected adverts here.®

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• Dell turns to Sun in battle against, er, Sun (27 September 2005)
• Sun puts a plus on UltraSPARC servers (23 September 2005)
• Exclusive Sun's Niagara: speeds and feeds emerge (9 September 2005)
• Sun has at least 1GHz of Niagara Viagra (7 September 2005)
• Sun tries to tempt thousands with reworked partner program (7 September 2005)
• Server start-up says Dell is too hot to be cheap (29 August 2005)