Mid-Week Blog: The Wrong Kind of Ad Campaigns

The Ad Campaigns

So today I want to talk about an issue that I might get a little flack for, that issue being the ad campaigns behind Bulletstorm and Dead Space 2, both of which are being conducted by EA. In case you haven’t yet seen these campaigns you can find the Bulletstorm trailers here, here, here and here, and the Dead Space 2 viral site here. It seems that almost all people who’ve seen this marketing have become divided into two camps on the issue; the people in camp 1 think this kind of advertising is puerile, immature, and asinine, while the people in camp 2 think the people in camp 1 take themselves too seriously and are stuck-up and pretentious, although from both sides of the debate, even here on Giant Bomb, it seems the argument has all too often descended into a back-and-forth stream of insults.

Uh... Hey Cliff.

Personally, I think the Dead Space 2 campaign is worse than the Bulletstorm one but I don’t like either, and if this was just an issue about everyone’s personal tastes it would be fine, but these campaigns are part of some larger issues. We are consumers of one of the largest and fastest growing entertainment industries there is and yet the way two of the biggest games of early 2010 are being represented is with masturbation jokes, vomiting action figures, and “moms” getting pranked. If this kind of humour was part of the games themselves it would be a different issue; games are made by people who are aiming to develop a piece of entertainment in itself, but advertising campaigns are created to represent products and to put a certain image of a product in the minds of as many people as possible.
 

The Negative Image

To anyone looking from the outside inward this kind of publicity doesn’t make the industry look good, and this is the area in which I think Dead Space 2’s campaign really stands out as more potentially damaging than Bulletstorm’s, because while they are both immature and potentially offensive, there are a lot of ignorant people around who still think video games are the past-time of children and when there are things like the ‘Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2’ ads floating around it doesn’t really help us convince them that they’re not. In fact with the Dead Space 2 campaign it was like EA were trying to ensure some infuriated parents would find it and write angry anti-video game articles which EA could ride on the publicity of.

 I don't feel very good for anybody right now.

You might be wondering why we should care what anyone thinks of video games and really this goes back to what I said about the stigma surrounding games in a previous blog. A lot of people responded to my piece saying that I had all these supposed solutions to the negative stigma that surrounds games but that they believed it was just a case of waiting for the older generations to die off and the younger ones (who are more accepting of video games) to take their place. My response to this is now as it was then; yes, I believe that a significant amount of change will come in time, but I also believe the more we sit back and allow these kinds of prejudices to surround the industry then the more it’s going to hold the industry back. It means less people will buy games, it means a less diverse audience which ultimately will contribute to games being less original (in gameplay, aesthetics and narrative), and it means games are less willing to explore controversial subjects. In short I believe if each one of us wants to see video games more advanced as an entertainment medium, as well as a larger quantity of high quality games before we die, then we need to remain aware of society’s perception of video games and do whatever we rightfully can to improve their image.
 

The Wrong Message

The other major problem with these ad campaigns is that the more people laugh, applaud, and generally refrain from speaking out against them, the more EA and publishers in general are sent the message that what game consumers want is dim-witted, childish entertainment, and while I think there is room for just breaking out and being grotesque and silly in games, I’m worried about that the public reaction to these campaigns is going to send them the completely wrong message. Immaturity and visceral shock are not something we want in copious amounts.
 

Duder, It's Over

So, there are my thoughts on the matter. If you’re going to comment keep it constructive, keep it civil, but I look forward to hearing from you. Good luck, have Batman.

-Gamer_152