• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, October 15, 2007

It's not easy working in the I.T. department -- but it's all too easy to mock and stereotype techies in movies and TV shows. Intel launched two Web films late this summer hoping to add humor to an otherwise unglamorous (to most) industry.

Produced, directed and written by Christopher Guest (director of comic movies like "Best in Show"), "Everything Has Changed" and "Set I.T. Managers Free" promote Intel's vPro and Centrino Pro, products that allow IT users to service PCs remotely and securely.

The online-only films star Dan Finnerty, lead singer of cover band the Dan Band, and up and coming rocker Rob Giles, singing about how I.T. managers used to work until upgrades came along.

Created by McCann Erickson and MRM Worldwide, the films use I.T. lingo average folk probably never heard of, such as PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair), an inside name for incompetent non-techies.

Outdated OS and system threats were the only lingo I could decipher on my own, although I should have known that "Trying to send Melissa home and riding the Trojan horse goodbye" were sly references to famous computer viruses of the past. Wasn't Melissa named after a stripper?

This isn't the first time that a technology company used humor in a consumer campaign. Symantec created its own adverband called RockDotRock that sang only about protecting users from phishing scams.

Fortify Software, another security software solutions provider, launched a Web site and print campaign that revolved around the imaginary country of Hackistan, a nation where security risks are plotted.