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Toyota makes a WoW commercial: "I AM THE LAW GIVA!"
Goose!
That's me, honeyShow me the way home, honeyRegistered User regular
That's me, honeyShow me the way home, honeyRegistered User regular
I saw this commercial a few moments ago and I thought "wow, I have to share this with someone." I thought it was hilarious, but I am a simple man. Anyway, its for the new Toyota Tacoma, and it's set in the WoW universe.
Anyway, here it is (if you haven't seen it):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_622w_ttiU
Anyway, here it is (if you haven't seen it):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_622w_ttiU
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i fusked ur mothr lol
I worded that poorly (I hadn't had my coffee yet.) But it's interesting to see how the rest of the world views gamers, and how they portray them when doing commercials like this. Or for that matter, every time someone decides to cater to the "X-Treme (TM) Gamer Culture", which I don't think even exists at this point (except possibly in the coke-addled minds of their marketing executives.)
It always seems really sad to me, like they go to these great lengths to connect with the "gamer culture" and expend all this extra effort without realizing that the vast majority of us are normal people with jobs who happen to kill dragons (or, in my case, rob the Skyway City bank) when they get home from work in the evening. Or, at the very least, the 21-30 demographic with disposable income they're aiming at does (I can almost guarantee they're not trying to sell that big truck to the 14 year-old undead rogue with a learner's permit.)
Or maybe I'm just getting really old and out of touch with my generation. You damned kids.
Thats what I was thinking as well. As for the "pandering to gaming culture thing" we do it to ourselves, yea we have jobs, kids blah blah blah.. we talk shit we are loud and we make videos of us being loud and obnoxious, of course maybe you and your friends online read Tolstov and sip tea while debating philosphy while in vent, but I doubt it.
I still like a Japanese Coke ad more.
You don't know how bad I want them.
The arrows or the Japanese coke girls(that sounds bad)?
not anymore
See comments for witty (and relevant) joke.
Anyway, I don't get this post at all:
Considering that the 'gamer' demographic, as in, the average age of gamers is right smack dab in that single people with lots of disposable income sweet spot. I don't think they're trying to appear 'hardcore' or 'extreme' so much as using a pop culture reference to sell their product. Or are you just mad that they're appropriating things you feel don't belong to them?
No, I have no problem with WoW-themed commercials, nor do I have a problem with the things I'm interested in becoming mainstream. It just seems like such a waste... they went to all the trouble of acquiring the rights to use the WoW engine for a commercial, and then used writers whose entire experience with WoW players was watching the Leroy Jenkins video over and over again. I mean, the basic skeleton of the thing was ok (the truck itself actually made me chuckle), but the dialog was horrific. I played for damn near two years, and the only time I actually heard people talk like that was when they were making fun of Leroy Jenkins.
Which shouldn't really annoy me, I understand, but it still does. They're trying to reach out and identify with the MMO culture here, and the people they got to write the damn thing honestly can't tell the difference between gross, overplayed cliches and their target market. Which, to me, is as annoying as those stupid Blockbuster "Hardcore Gamer" magazine ads they did a few years ago where they showed all those spikey-haired rejects striking karate poses with their XBox controllers while receiving Mountain Dew intraveneously. In both cases they're saying "this is what we think you guys are... we don't really give enough of a fuck to actually find out. Now buy our damned product."
Still, it's always the way when advertisers try to imitate a non-mainstream culture.
I guess that means despite its popularity, WOW still isn't mainstream - I guess a videogame will never be allowed to in English-speaking culture.
(hugely OT, but that's one of the nice things about living in Japan - you can talk about a game without people going 'geek').
I don't think that's true. There are products I wouldn't buy because the adverts were so irritating. And if I think about it, there are lots of unimportant supermarket moments when I pick up another brand of oven cleaner or whatever because I didn't like the advert.
It's become a bit of a cliche when talking about ads to say 'well if you talk about it they win', but that hasn't been my personal experience. It's probably something account managers in ad companies say to justify their fees, but apparently they're a little dishonest....
That's the thing, though... WoW is probably the most mainstream MMO out there right now. I was amazed when I first started playing; I'd hear people I never would have pegged as WoW players talking about the fucking Horde, or mage builds, or running Onyxia. We're talking people who hadn't even touched a video game before WoW: girlfriends/boyfriends of players, spouses, parents, grandparents, jocks, academics, etc... I don't think any MMO had that kind of mass appeal before WoW... maybe City of Heroes, although that had a fraction of WoW's subscribers. It's pretty much a part of popular culture now, and the only thing keeping it from being truly "mainstream" is people creating these stereotypes.
I had a similar reaction to the South Park WoW episode. It was funny enough at the time... I actually thought it was pretty tame by South Park standards, but whatever. Predictably, a few of the more hardcore players on the server bitched about how it was flagrantly inaccurate, and how could that guy gank Alliance players, and why was there a human hunter, but there's really no helping some people. What did bother me was talking to someone a few days later, and having him tell me that the South Park episode was "just like WoW, and ohmigod you guys are exactly like that, and didn't that bother you at all?" The dude hadn't ever played... hadn't ever even been in the same room with the game, but he'd already decided that we were all "just like South Park" and destined to become acne-ridden, obese, bedpan-using social outcasts because we played the WoW. This coming from someone who spent every night sitting on his couch playing Halo on Live... essentially doing the exact same thing that we were doing, for probably a lot longer.
I didn't mean for this to turn into a rant, but it does bother me. People think of gamers (and I use the term "gamer" in the same way that someone would label himself a "model train afficianado" or "car guy") in terms of stereotypes because that's what's portrayed in the media, and the media uses these stereotypes to connect with the "gamer populace" because that's what the public's perception of us is. It's a never-ending cycle, and each new iteration just makes things worse.
It didn't get me to buy a toyota though :P
I think a warlock who summons a truck is pretty badass.
I don't think that's how it is at all. The commercial is not meant to simulate interaction between WoW players. It's an exaggerated use of a popular culture. In this case, MMO gaming. How many commercials have authentic dialog between people in something that only a fraction of the viewing audience knows intimate details about?
They're not advertising JUST to WoW players. They're using WoW as an advertising tool to do something different. It was all about playing TO stereotypes, not being a docu-mercial.
This happened to me as well. Several times. Though not as often as people that asked me if I was playing WoW while I watched that episode. I let it go. They can enjoy their own ignorance. I'll go ahead and base my self worth on something other than their opinions.
I'm 18 and why the fuck do I want to buy a truck just because you attached it to a WoW commercial?
It's like the Nissan Rogue using "Game On" with Labrynth.
It is pathetic and very sad to watch these companies try to target us and fail each time.
I fear Heroes will become the next sad mouthpiece for said attempts.
But I imagine the dialogue would ruin it.
I must say I giggled a little when he mounted up onto a ute.
This sounds so elitist I'm not even sure what to say.
I guess games are too good for advertising. You know, since they have to be totally accurate to be not offensive.
If you look at commercials for other things, old people power chairs, commemorative football gear, porn videos, regardless of what it is, it looks like they sure as hell understand the audience that will buy their product.
It seems in a lot of ways that advertising agencies that are attempting to bring in the "gamer dollar" are trying to figure out exactly what it is that gets us to buy a game, and trying to turn that into what will get us to buy a soda or a car.
The unfortunate aspect of this is that "educated" gamers are buying games based off of product reviews from reputable sources, be it friends or a proven trusted website. So in all reality advertising isn't going to work as well on people like us. We're not going to buy something because it features their product in scenery we recognize. We're going to want to try it out ourselves or have our source tell us it does what it does better than anything else.
Now this especially matters when it comes to cars, I didn't buy a Mini because of the fucking Italian Job, I hadn't even seen the movie when I got mine, I did because I had driven a number of them and had decided that it was the car that I wanted to get. No amount of Minis in WoW based adverts like this one would've gotten me to buy one, in fact, had I seen something like this for a Mini, it might have stopped me from getting one, because the last thing I was is everyone I know saying "Did you just get that because you play WoW and there's a commercial for it?"
TLDR: We're not elitist we just don't want to come off like retards.
"Educated gamers"? "Not elitist"? I'm not sure those two sentiments really work together.
SOME people use product reviews, etc, but that is not a 'gamer' thing. Look at the disdain this board has for the sports franchises like Madden. Just because you see yourself as above the rest of the population because adverts don't work on you doesn't mean that is something that is gamer dependent. Besides, advertising doesn't really work the way you're saying. Advertising is about association and exposure. I don't know of ANY vehicle commercial that made me want to buy a specific vehicle. However, because of that WoW one and the meteor one, when I think trucks, the Tacoma is part of the list. That's what they wanted - to make you remember their brand.
I personally ignore most commercials. They don't influence my purchasing. If I wanted to buy a pick up, it wouldn't be a Toyota Tacoma. But I enjoyed this commercial. I got right up on the screen so I could read the name of the dragon that was being killed (Cindaria or something to that effect). I laughed that they went as far as to actually have the HP bar tick down while the truck was inside.
They used the game I love playing as an advertising tool. They probably are going to sell some trucks because of it. Blizzard certainly made money off of it, and got extra advertising for themselves. And I got to laugh at video games becoming a viable part of the social market in ways that would make a certain Florida lawyer's ball sack tighten.
Kudos all around, imo.
Who says they're trying to get the MMO market?
The Warcraft episode of Southpark is one of the top-ranked downloads on XBL, and it isn't because myself and all of the other Halo-playing, beer-guzzling, supposedly frat boys secretly have a hardon for forest elves. The only reason we like it is because, much like this commercial, it's funny.
WoW is mainstream in the same sense D&D was mainstream 15 years ago - most people didn't play it, but everybody knew about "the nerds rolling dice in their mom's basement" or whatever the stereotype of the time was. Those savy enough to capitalize on it can do very well, and they don't give a damn if they offend the people they imitate/mock.
Gah, now I want to go watch Revenge of the Nerds...Booger ftw.
I meant that a company could take a piece of shit and label it for gamers, and think it would work.
I was commenting on the pathetic attempts at relation, not that there aren't good advertisements.
Hey, if you want to be stereotyped and put in a box, go for it.
I'm not really sure if there's more to read into it - frankly I thought it was very, very entertaining and was glad it had nothing to really do with the actual gameplay, because if it did, a Toyota would've dropped off of Illidan and the commercial would've descended into people bitching about how much DKP it should cost.
I *cringed* when I heard the voice of what could only be a football jock saying "ok I'm equipping my epic axe and explosive arrows", but the rest was pretty funny, and the cringing was only out of sympathy for the poor actor who had to subject himself to saying something like that.
O_o
What does a football jock's voice sound like?
Well the first voice when thinking about it, reminded me of the voice conversation between Cartman and the boys while they played WoW.