A few decades ago the masses believed video games were a waste of time for lackadaisical youths to pacify themselves while ignoring their responsibilities as both kids and young adults. As more and more people started understanding the benefits of gaming so too did the perception of what a video game is and, most importantly, the benefits gaming can bestow on a person’s life changed. Hi, my name is James Bullock and I am a gamer who has spent the better part of my existence testing the laws of physics, exploring the vastness of a world ruined, and been a champion inside various arenas courtesy of digitized worlds both driven by reality and created through pure unbelievable ingenuity unlike anything seen by human eyes. And as a gamer I’ve discovered something else video games provide: life lessons. Today I examine how video games and advertising have not been the best of pals.
Not All Publicity is Good Publicity
Bad publicity can come in all forms including the printed word. Video games and companies responsible for them are definitely not foreign to creating a piece of advertisement that can make a potential consumer ask, “What in the world were they thinking?” “Racism,” isn’t the type of answer one should come up with, but somehow the marketing team trying to promote the Playstation Portable’s new white color offering to complement the original jet-black color design. Instead of keeping things simple, the minds behind this campaign created something utterly embarrassing. A snowy haired White Queen meets Zuul cosplay character clutching the jaw of a dark skinned individual obviously of African descent – apparently casting him down for his lack of…. Lets just stop there. Since the billboard ads were plastered all over Holland, one can assume Sony believed the ad would go over well there and potentially be used across the world. But it didn’t go over well. Not long after the media took hold of the controversial ad, Sony attempted to save face by doing what the company should’ve done in the first place by putting out ads featuring the actual system on display for potential consumers to gaze at and attain the urge of buying said handheld device instead of being drawn to racial injustice.
But racism isn’t the only type of bad advertising we gamers have suffered through. How about accusing gamers for being sexually repressed hermit who instantly correlates gaming with arousal? In the 1990s marketing teams stereotyped gamers as nothing more than a bunch of sexually frustrated, pubescent teens that could only find pleasure in gaming because they couldn’t attract someone human. And when they did find someone worthy of their time, usually their video game addiction got in the way. Sega focused on the prior when promoting its first console, the Genesis, and a peripheral device that would give gamers everywhere a dirty feeling any time they played “Sonic the Hedgehog”. Trying to relate to potential joystick owners as best as possible with sexual innuendos and masturbation puns, the ad is full of head-palming moments (okay, that wasn’t meant to be an innuendo). Below the picture and obvious sexually suggestive caption is another box referencing the gamer, “…pulling and squeezing your knob,” while, “…breathing heavily…” before, “…shooting all over the place….” Sega might as well have hooked up with “Camel” cigarettes and introduced their target audience to the pleasures of smoking after such an exciting, yet exhaustive experience.
As if that isn’t enough bad marketing for you, how about exploiting the dead? The new millennium was over a year old when the announcement of a video game sequel to the comic book adaptation “Shadow Man” was made. Aptly titled “Shadow Man: 2econd Coming” (because a “2” looks and sounds just like a “S” and represents the same numerical order), the people at Acclaim decided what better way to advertise a game about death and spiritual darkness than by placing small billboards on tombstones. The twist – the ads were attached to actual tombstones of occupied graves. Of course people threw a fit having their family members’ burial sites defaced by someone without a conscience. Okay, maybe the, “…without a conscience,” statement was too much. According to Acclaim, they had two good reasons for the unwanted desecration. First was the explanation that since the “Shadow Man” series focused on a, “…journey into the Deathside…” and gravesite promotion was, “…appropriate to raise advertising to a new level.” But nothing topped Acclaim’s greatest plan to help those in need through “Shadow Man” billboards: a plan to pay any in-need family for the space. Simply put, Acclaim offered to pay families for advertising space on a person’s final monument. Of course Acclaim did all of this without any permission from local authorities (both public or private); thus breaking the law and putting themselves in financial danger – something the company would become greatly associated with years later. Guess the spirits Acclaim angered came back to haunt their finances.
No matter what anyone tells you, not all publicity is good publicity. In actuality, bad publicity can kill a product faster than the Virtual Boy can make you sick (curse you, “Wario Land”).
Have you learned any major life lessons from people trying to market to gaming consumers? Leave them in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.
