Gateway is bullish on Japan, especially on the smaller businesses it is targeting, and the computer maker is counting on a perhaps unlikely character to help make the sale: a mouthless, bespectacled, befuddled -- yet likable -- dweeb named Dilbert.
Creator Scott Adam's long-suffering poster boy for the corporate drone is the star of one of the most popular U.S. comics, and Gateway Japan, the 600-employee subsidiary its U.S. parent launched five years ago, has obtained exclusive rights to use the strip's characters in its marketing.
The strip is cynical while managing a light touch. Bosses are stupid, lazy and/or power mad, and underlings' portrayals are not necessarily much more charitable. Yet the stylistically drawn characters are cute enough for coffee mugs.