It's just amazing how much bad advertising Sony alone has brought about in the last few years. It's like their entire marketing department consisted of aliens from the 10th dimension who had no idea what human beings liked and what repulsed them. At least they've learned from mistakes since then, though, at least somewhat.
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
There were those Forsaken ads that ran for like two years, that showed an entirely naked woman with a tattoo on her hip standing in front of a blighted landscape and absolutely nothing about the game.
There was also another Sony of Europe one that for the Playstation's birthday or something, they had a guy with kind of a smug smile on his face wearing a crown of thorns with the triangle, square, circle and X made out of the branches/thorns.
Kinda went over about as well as a turd in a punch bowl. I think it was either in Italy or Spain as well so they REALLY didn't care for it.
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KageraImitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered Userregular
There were those Forsaken ads that ran for like two years, that showed an entirely naked woman with a tattoo on her hip standing in front of a blighted landscape and absolutely nothing about the game.
There was also another Sony of Europe one that for the Playstation's birthday or something, they had a guy with kind of a smug smile on his face wearing a crown of thorns with the triangle, square, circle and X made out of the branches/thorns.
Kinda went over about as well as a turd in a punch bowl. I think it was either in Italy or Spain as well so they REALLY didn't care for it.
Don't forget the God of War party where they slaughtered a goat, while having topless girls feeding guests grapes.
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Magus`The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered Userregular
There were those Forsaken ads that ran for like two years, that showed an entirely naked woman with a tattoo on her hip standing in front of a blighted landscape and absolutely nothing about the game.
There was also another Sony of Europe one that for the Playstation's birthday or something, they had a guy with kind of a smug smile on his face wearing a crown of thorns with the triangle, square, circle and X made out of the branches/thorns.
Kinda went over about as well as a turd in a punch bowl. I think it was either in Italy or Spain as well so they REALLY didn't care for it.
Don't forget the God of War party where they slaughtered a goat, while having topless girls feeding guests grapes.
this is like one of those jokes where, somewhere in there it's kind of funny and it conveys a particular message, but you just can't get the specifics of it right
and then you say fuck it and go with the rough draft
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NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
Sony went through a period of marketing with just... really awful commercials like that. The goat thing, the black and white psp adds, the fucking horrible baby
I mean it was just terrible, and they probably paid millions for it
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
I don't think these were widely regarded as offensive, but they left a bad taste in my mouth: crossing over video games with quite visceral real-world injury seemed like it completely misunderstood the idea of the whole medium.
Whereas the MS fingerguns and Call of Duty ad seemed like they kind of lampshaded the whole absurdity and fantasy fulfillment, and well, fun, of video games.
I don't find ads offensive that are depictions of the game honestly. What do people think you're going to do in a game called "Move into the Fight"? Just because you don't have an ad of someone punching someone else doesn't make the game not about punching someone else. Same as the Hitman ad, the people they're marketing Hitman to will respond to that kind of ad, because that's what you do in Hitman. The PSP ones I only find offensive in the sense that someone was either too dumb to realize how those ads would be taken, or thought they were going to be "edgy" and sneak one by everyone else.
I was kind of dumbfounded by the criticism for that Hitman ad. I would have understood it, though disagreed, if the criticism had simply been that the woman was wearing too few clothes, or that the depiction of violence was too graphic.
But the criticism, IIRC, was that it seemed to condone violence against women.
No shit. It's a game where you kill people. For money. Obviously they are going to encourage you to (strictly within the game, of course) commit heinous acts of violence against people who may be women. But why does it matter? Why is the moral outrage reserved for women being targeted? I'd think that if the idea of a game having you shoot people (Who are almost all scumbags to some degree, but that is neither here nor there) is terribly offensive to you, it should be terribly offensive to you regardless of the genders of the victims.
I don't find ads offensive that are depictions of the game honestly. What do people think you're going to do in a game called "Move into the Fight"? Just because you don't have an ad of someone punching someone else doesn't make the game not about punching someone else. Same as the Hitman ad, the people they're marketing Hitman to will respond to that kind of ad, because that's what you do in Hitman. The PSP ones I only find offensive in the sense that someone was either too dumb to realize how those ads would be taken, or thought they were going to be "edgy" and sneak one by everyone else.
I was kind of dumbfounded by the criticism for that Hitman ad. I would have understood it, though disagreed, if the criticism had simply been that the woman was wearing too few clothes, or that the depiction of violence was too graphic.
But the criticism, IIRC, was that it seemed to condone violence against women.
No shit. It's a game where you kill people. For money. Obviously they are going to encourage you to (strictly within the game, of course) commit heinous acts of violence against people who may be women. But why does it matter? Why is the moral outrage reserved for women being targeted? I'd think that if the idea of a game having you shoot people (Who are almost all scumbags to some degree, but that is neither here nor there) is terribly offensive to you, it should be terribly offensive to you regardless of the genders of the victims.
And here I thought this would be a thread about how game ads pander to the lowest stereotypical common denominator with a barrage of OMG BOOBS AND GUNS and how that insults our intelligence as both gamers and men. Nuts.
I don't find ads offensive that are depictions of the game honestly. What do people think you're going to do in a game called "Move into the Fight"? Just because you don't have an ad of someone punching someone else doesn't make the game not about punching someone else. Same as the Hitman ad, the people they're marketing Hitman to will respond to that kind of ad, because that's what you do in Hitman. The PSP ones I only find offensive in the sense that someone was either too dumb to realize how those ads would be taken, or thought they were going to be "edgy" and sneak one by everyone else.
I was kind of dumbfounded by the criticism for that Hitman ad. I would have understood it, though disagreed, if the criticism had simply been that the woman was wearing too few clothes, or that the depiction of violence was too graphic.
But the criticism, IIRC, was that it seemed to condone violence against women.
No shit. It's a game where you kill people. For money. Obviously they are going to encourage you to (strictly within the game, of course) commit heinous acts of violence against people who may be women. But why does it matter? Why is the moral outrage reserved for women being targeted? I'd think that if the idea of a game having you shoot people (Who are almost all scumbags to some degree, but that is neither here nor there) is terribly offensive to you, it should be terribly offensive to you regardless of the genders of the victims.
I found the Call of Duty one with all the corporate drone types fighting it out in a far too realistic battlefield to be mildly disturbing
The fact that they never showed anyone being shot--just people shooting in various directions, and a helicopter exploding--kind of highlights how disturbing the commercial is if you think about it.
I was impressed with the small unit tactics of the girl with the shotgun and her two friends when they knock down that door, though.
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Rigorous Scholarship
this is like one of those jokes where, somewhere in there it's kind of funny and it conveys a particular message, but you just can't get the specifics of it right
and then you say fuck it and go with the rough draft
I'm confused. Are you saying this ad is offensive or not?
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PAFC Top 10 Finisher in Seasons 1 and 3. 2nd in Seasons 4 and 5. Final 4 in Season 6.
this is like one of those jokes where, somewhere in there it's kind of funny and it conveys a particular message, but you just can't get the specifics of it right
and then you say fuck it and go with the rough draft
I'm confused. Are you saying this ad is offensive or not?
I think the dude was saying it's just a poor ad, but you could consider it offensive to women.
I'm not a fan of the new Sony line with white guy in a suit I don't care about acting kind of like a smug douche bag, but they're still such a huge step over "creepy baby going to kill me in my sleep" that Sony had tried previously.
I'm fairly certain that's why people were so enamored with that smug guy in the tie. It's not some sort of satanic, possessed baby that will chew your eyeballs out.
Let's not forget the rape-y Juiced commercial from a couple years back. I just saw it again, and it still disgusts me.
Is that the one mentioned earlier where they use their controllers to make a woman's breasts bigger and strip her naked?
Because yeah, that commercial was pretty fucking disgusting on multiple levels.
Yep, that's the one.
For those that don't know, it's basically two stoner shitheads sitting in a car, which apparently has a game console with TV in it, customizing some car in the game. They notice a girl on the street has her shirt color changing to the same color as the car in game, so they try removing pieces of the car, which results in her skirt getting shorter. A huge rape-tastic grin spreads across their faces, and they turn furiously to the game and start stripping everything from the car, resulting in her standing there on the street in nothing but a pair of panties.
It's just so fucking revolting. If I could meet the person that made that ad, I would punch that fucker in the face. 100% no hyperbole.
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KageraImitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered Userregular
edited December 2010
I don't...
was it like an internet ad?
Because you can't show breasts on US TV.
So like...where the hell would it have ever aired?
Sega got all kinds of racy near the late Saturn / pre-Dreamcast era. I also remember that weird one Burning Rangers (Saturn) that was nothing more than a scorched fire fighter sitting in a kiddie pool.
I'm confused by the inclusion of the CoD : BO add in the thread. I always took it to be an ad about the cross-demographic appeal of video games(which they are exaggerating in their case I'm sure). Not knowing about the celebs they showed in particular I know there are some celebrities that are pretty big video game fans. Maybe trying to move away from the obsessive 20 year old male slacker, as the default 'FPS player' image.
Sorta reminds me of the scene in fight club where hes walking into random businesses, and is constantly running into people with black-eyes or broken noses from various walks of life.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
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There was also another Sony of Europe one that for the Playstation's birthday or something, they had a guy with kind of a smug smile on his face wearing a crown of thorns with the triangle, square, circle and X made out of the branches/thorns.
Kinda went over about as well as a turd in a punch bowl. I think it was either in Italy or Spain as well so they REALLY didn't care for it.
[vidurl=
Don't forget the God of War party where they slaughtered a goat, while having topless girls feeding guests grapes.
When in Rome..
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
Earthworm Jim's "Get your worm out for the birds" caused a stir back in the day.
Ad: Buy our game! There are LESBIANS in it!
Me: Okay, but what's the game about? I mean how do you...
Ad: LESBIANS!
this is like one of those jokes where, somewhere in there it's kind of funny and it conveys a particular message, but you just can't get the specifics of it right
and then you say fuck it and go with the rough draft
On the black screen
Inspired by Spaced, you mean.
what
the
fuck
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Playstation has the weirdest ads. Admittedly none of the others are quite as weird as that.
But this one is still quite odd
I mean it was just terrible, and they probably paid millions for it
They were p bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qUECCA3qMA
And surprise surprise, this ad campaign didn't stop there!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgciDwjSmOs
I'm not sure if they're offensive, but they are terrible.
They aren't the squirrels of which I spoke.
My squirrels were CGI and in a park. Clearly the Sony continued the campaign in a bizarre fashion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RavivOtBvHk
I don't think these were widely regarded as offensive, but they left a bad taste in my mouth: crossing over video games with quite visceral real-world injury seemed like it completely misunderstood the idea of the whole medium.
Whereas the MS fingerguns and Call of Duty ad seemed like they kind of lampshaded the whole absurdity and fantasy fulfillment, and well, fun, of video games.
Is that the one mentioned earlier where they use their controllers to make a woman's breasts bigger and strip her naked?
Because yeah, that commercial was pretty fucking disgusting on multiple levels.
I was kind of dumbfounded by the criticism for that Hitman ad. I would have understood it, though disagreed, if the criticism had simply been that the woman was wearing too few clothes, or that the depiction of violence was too graphic.
But the criticism, IIRC, was that it seemed to condone violence against women.
No shit. It's a game where you kill people. For money. Obviously they are going to encourage you to (strictly within the game, of course) commit heinous acts of violence against people who may be women. But why does it matter? Why is the moral outrage reserved for women being targeted? I'd think that if the idea of a game having you shoot people (Who are almost all scumbags to some degree, but that is neither here nor there) is terribly offensive to you, it should be terribly offensive to you regardless of the genders of the victims.
It's pretty comparable to the start of Sin City.
I've never seen that.
Rigorous Scholarship
I'm confused. Are you saying this ad is offensive or not?
The setting of that ad makes me think she's a mutant or alien/human hybrid being interviewed in some secret government facility. It's unsettling.
Rigorous Scholarship
I think the dude was saying it's just a poor ad, but you could consider it offensive to women.
I'm fairly certain that's why people were so enamored with that smug guy in the tie. It's not some sort of satanic, possessed baby that will chew your eyeballs out.
But he does make me chuckle every now and then
They still haven't topped "Regional Manager of War" though
Spaced has David Bowie and Trent Reznor to thank (from 1997).
Behold!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slKNd22GGaQ
Yep, that's the one.
For those that don't know, it's basically two stoner shitheads sitting in a car, which apparently has a game console with TV in it, customizing some car in the game. They notice a girl on the street has her shirt color changing to the same color as the car in game, so they try removing pieces of the car, which results in her skirt getting shorter. A huge rape-tastic grin spreads across their faces, and they turn furiously to the game and start stripping everything from the car, resulting in her standing there on the street in nothing but a pair of panties.
It's just so fucking revolting. If I could meet the person that made that ad, I would punch that fucker in the face. 100% no hyperbole.
was it like an internet ad?
Because you can't show breasts on US TV.
So like...where the hell would it have ever aired?
FYI to those who can watch youtube at work: Probably want to skip that one.
[Edit] Since reading threads backwards isn't standard practice, Kag you might want to mention that.
Jee-sus. What in the hell was their angle there?
Juiced: If we made it any cooler, you could use it to restrain, strip, and humiliate women in public!
Sega got all kinds of racy near the late Saturn / pre-Dreamcast era. I also remember that weird one Burning Rangers (Saturn) that was nothing more than a scorched fire fighter sitting in a kiddie pool.
Sorta reminds me of the scene in fight club where hes walking into random businesses, and is constantly running into people with black-eyes or broken noses from various walks of life.
This ad convinced me that what people find offensive and what should be offensive have nothing to do with each other.
I love this ad.