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Video Game Advertising Reaches New Lows
Anonymous Coward writes "The Guardian is reporting that Acclaim is attempting to purchase advertising space on gravestones of the recently departed in order to promote its new game ShadowMan 2. This certainly takes the encroachment of commercial messages on public space to new levels." I understand RockStar is looking for a molotov cocktail partner...
Well, ok, maybe they said they wanted to buy space on graves, but let's face it, it wouldn't happen (unless Eminem's mum died I guess). It's just good publicity - hey they've just pulled in a few thousand nerds if nothing else!!
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3
:^)
And, as mentioned in their news for the comic, this itself is old news. They've since taken up the cause of promoting a Irish lad who has been waiting in line for Turok 2. Why? Only the boy himself could know, apparantly.
Ryan Fenton
Last posted to Slashdot in March. Same article.
I dunno, the way I see it, the person willing to sell billboard space on a grave is really the one commiting any form of 'wrong'.
When I die, if my family can make money off of my gravestone, I say have at it. If it were against my wishes, and my family did it anyway, I'd be mad at them instead of being mad at the company that wanted that spot.
Nobody blames the RIAA when somebody 'sells out'.
"Derp de derp."
That's just disrespectful. First of all it's disrespectful to the dead person. Secondly it's disrespectful to the person coming to view their loved one's grave. They're going to remember someone and have a quiet moment to themselves, not shop for a video game.
I for one will just not buy this game... I don't like companies that are this disprespectful and irreverant. Yeah, you need to promote your game and what not, but there are limits of decency...
The phrase "pop-up advertising" could take on an all-new meaning...
This news is from March and Slashdot has already posted it. Chris, please take the whopping three or four seconds of your time to make sure that you aren't making a double post by using Slashdot's handy search feature next time. And while you're at it, maybe you should remove this news post. This is common knowledge among gamers and anyone who has come across a site like Slashdot or Kuro5hin in the past few months. The comments will be nothing more than flames.
"When it's dead"
~Ahem~ Ok. I'll go home now.
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They have been talking about this for at least two years. I seem to remember them talking about the same thing for one of the Resident of Evil games. This is obviously just a publicity stunt where they will do maybe 5 or 10 to get themselves in the media and get exposure for their lame game without having to pay. The company should just learn from its mistakes. The last time they tried this they didn't make it into a single newspaper except for one or two articles online, and I doubt if it will work this time. Maybe if they are lucky they will make it on Larry King Live or Crossfire with Wolf Blitzer, as this is the kind of thing that could potentially drive up ratings a notch. I wouldn't take it too seriously.
Maybe they'll license the afterlife and turn it into a shitty 2d platform-jumping game?
.. but the advertising is already working. I doubt they'll even get it on headstones. Someone will make enough fuss to prevent it. But all the while, guess what, they're getting free advertising off this fuss. Now everyone on Slashdot knows about the game. People reading the news will know, eventually more people will go, "Hey did you hear about Acclaim, they're trying to advertise video games on graves."
Thats the advertising they want, they could care less about having a little plaque on a grave. Seriously, how many people are going to see that headstone other than family members and grounds keepers? The pay off is in the shock and hype. We're feeding it right now.
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
I can't believe the number of sites that have fallen for this. The amount of game players that'll see an ad in some corner of a graveyard is rather miniscule compared to the amount of people who'll read about all the hubub on thier favorite geek or regular news site. When Acclaim backs off the idea as they were planning to do all along we'll all know all the initimate gory details of Shadow Man 2 because we've read dozens of articles about their "despicable advertising plan", now who here can say they knew there was a Shadow Man 1? Not me.
Bad publicity is better than no publicity at all.
No one has yet to volunteer and the firm said payments would be calculated with regard to the exposure potential of any particular headstone.
in my will I'll request the largest damn headstone next to Samuel L. Jackson's BMF headstone
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
This has less to do with the video game company and more to do with advertising in general. In order to get heard above the increasing din of pitches and advertising, companies are resorting to ever-increasing and controversial tactics.
Today I sat through 13 *previews* and 8 ads in the movie theatre. More than 35 minutes of captivity in the theatre alone. Now the broadcasters want to devote the lower quarter of my screen to advertising, I caught a cable station (TNN) doing pop-ups for American Express and Time-Warner cable just won't leave me alone about their AOL high-speed access.
The issue is that the guilty parties have to make more money each quarter to keep Wall Street off their backs. Wall Street better get ready for a consumer revolt, because I'm getting tired of it all.
Chrisd, I'm afraid Taco beat you to this story by 4 months!
Here's the march 15 slashdot article for those that haven't heard/read the story before.
Gravestones Advertising Video Games?
from the Guardian article...
Game publicity plan raises grave concerns
Mark Oliver
Friday March 15, 2002
4 months! nice... I bet you thought we wouldn't remember - HA! take that
You think that's bad?
Try this!
(Mostly work safe -- strange for rotten.com)
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I'll sell them some advance space. Or someone else's... or... how long before someone noticed, anyway? Anyone know what they're paying?
As I was driving along recently, I noticed there was no advertising in roadside gutters. All that bare concrete screaming for attention. Looks like Acclaim now has achieved that, metaphorically.
Slashdot: Where nerds gather to pool their ignorance
R I P
This poor bastard was shot
by his girlfriend for playing
one too many games of counterstrike
But imagine how much esteem could be garnered from your surviving geek friends and family if you were to declare in your last will and testament that you wanted to bear a Lara Croft, Max Payne, or Blizzard billboard on your tombstone.
You could even go Times Square style, and have the billboard itself be a LCD that promotes the latest death-centric title from your favorite software production house, changing with the market. If your friends are like mine, they might even give a truely emotional send off by hacking the display, just because they care :)
In any case, it will certainly make graveyards an even more attractive target for late night trespassers.
"You can't dissect him, predict him, which of course means he's not a lunatic at all."
i cant believe you guys fell for this.
... its a shame that in the majority, games are rewarded with mainstream publicity only when they are offensive or go for outlandish publicity stunts like this, instead of being innovative and well designed.
a company releases a second grade tomb-raider-but-with-dead-people ripoff, destined to disappear into the archives of me-too crap gaming, and to try and save themselves on the way down, they come up with something that will offend all the right people and get them all sorts of publicity even in places where gamers really arent part of the target market.
they could have saved themselves the trouble and just gave the lead character a massive pair of boobs.
read the article if you have to, see it for the cheap publicity stunt that it is, move on, and hope that this game doesnt become more popular than it deserves
acclaim want to make you their bitch. maybe it worked.
erm... *everyone* knows that carrot-top does CALL-ATT commercials. does that mean i will ever use that service? hell no. on principle, i might add.
it's not really "free advertising", it's more like "free bad publicity"...
p.s. i have to say, though, i did see ONE funny carrot-top commercial. incedentally the little f*ker wasn't in it (thank god). it was a Spaceghost commercial where he was supposed to interview carrot-top etc. catch it on the cartoon channel sometimes.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
What happens when the game is out of date? Imagine walking thru a cemetary in 30 years, and seeing ads on Gravestones for 'Mary Kate and Ashley: Sweet 16' or 'Ecco The Dolphin'
It's bad enough in modern day, when actual bill boards get outdated, (IE bill boards for Politicians still up months after the end of the election, or Movies which are already past the cheap seats)
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
The campaign was halted, according to the spokesman, when death struck the royal household. gIt became inappropriate after the death of the Queen Mother,h he says. So, at least for the time being, we can all rest in peace.
Moderation Totals: Irrelevant=8, Creative=4, Interesting=6, Hilarious=6, Assnine=13, Underrated=21, Snot [slashdot.org]=4 Total=62
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I can see advertising some long-lived product, like coca-cola, or a company on a tombstone, but seriously...I doubt more than 1 in 10 games has anyone still caring about it a year after release. And after 5 years, it's probably 1 in 100. I hope they plan to swap ads.
Oh, and nevermind that hardly anyone would see the things. And most of those people probably don't play video games.
I guess this news story was the REAL advertisement, then.
You know, I'll bet that kid who commited suicide after an Everquest binge was sponsored by... Nevermind. That was too easy ;)
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Is there anyone awake at the editorial helm? Hello?
Bugger the headstones -- this story is so old it's six foot under itself.
A.
I always knew advertising was for the damned
To make a pun demonstrates the highest understanding of a language
Maybe you're not influenced to buy anything from carrot-top or the gravestone stunt, but you're probably not that all interested in the actual content (the game itself, and er.. call-att). After the initial shock (disgusted or not) of the gravestones, people who are slightly interested in acclaim's games or just video games in general would take a quick peek at the actual game: you know, why the hell not since we've already perused the article. I gaurantee that the media attention drew in a substantial amount of people who wouldn't have been exposed to the game in the first place, which would be my number one priority if I were in acclaim's marketing.
The best place for advertising would be on the dollar bills themselves.
I mean, they're buying the government anyway - why not be honest about it?
. This sig unintentionally left blank. I meant to put something here, but I'm busy.
My new monitor is made obsolete already.
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
We think hospitals will love this idea, so we've patented it. This signals a sea-change in American maternity wards. Five years from now all newborns will be sporting ads on their foreheads by default. If a parent is sufficiently opposed to the idea, they can pay $5 to deprive their child of this opportunity to participate in capitalism at its finest.
You know, it's OK for the British to ridicule Americans for our butchering of the language they invented, but when they butcher it it's just sad.
cause I loved destroying the pepsi-golem on level 3. It gave me the mountain dew key which unlocked the doritos-door... you get the hidden points if you ride the camel past the marlboro to meet Benson by the Hedges. Unfortunately my Palm Pilot cannot defeat my Playstation2, though I still have to level-up my Gamecube, where it incubates as a Pokemon, then emerges as an x-box.
Was this supposed to be part of the all new Mid Year Slashback feature, covering highlights of last 6 months?
As I stood weeping over my mothers grave, there appeared a shadow. We looked but all we could see was the shadow. Was it a ghost? We soon found out it was the Shadow Man 2. AAAAAHHHHH!
It looks like Shadow Man 2 has gone 6 feet under.
As in March 2002...
U TF -8&q=%2B%22acclaim%22%2B%22tombstone%22%2B%22adver tising%22
/., but jeeze, 4 months?!?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=
Yeesh, I know there's a delay between when stories are suggested to
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Who's lower, Acclaim for proposing this fake marketing blitz several months ago, or Slashdot for providing them with the free publicity it was designed to attract not once, but twice?
Not only is whoever posted this guilty of redundancy, he's also been scammed - a full 5 months after everybody else figured it out. D'oh! I guess what they say about nerds lacking a certain street common sense is true, eh?
The article sayeth: "any attempt to advertise on headstones would require planning permission from local authorities whether the land was public or private.... Mr Carrington said: "It is illegal to put any advertising up outdoors without planning permission...."" [emphasis mine.]
Probably right too. *sigh*.
This may be a redundant comment, but this entire story is redundant anyhow. What the fuck is up with the moderation around here, anyhow? When they changed the Karma system anything that mentioned it was off-topic. It's some kind of anti-meta-comment bias... Anyway, if there was justice, chrisd should be getting like 500 redundant mods (now that's BAD KARMA)...
Old news.
I'll be more than happy to sell them space in advance. Once I'm dead I don't really care what's written on some stupid piece of granite sunk in the dirt above my casket. My wife and kids might think differently, but hey... it;s my frigging death. Sheesh, get a life, family.
So just send me the check. I got a vacation coming up and I could use the extra bucks.
This story died way back in March - why not slap an ad for crush course on its tombstone?
I really hate signatures, but go to my website.
I'll take one of those ads on my headstone in a heartbeat. Rather, lack of heartbeat.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
This happened three months ago, but I still haven't seen a copy of the game or heard anyone talk about it. This publicity stunt is so contrived and stupid that it is probably barely better than no publicity at all.
The entire world probably reacted the same way I did - they thought, "Wow, the game must be baaa-aaaad if Acclaim is having to pull a trick this cheap to sell any copies" and proceeded on with their lives.
I like a little advertising, it can enhance the realism. But it's very easy to take it too far (see MAC and Me for a good example of when a movie takes it too far), or to pander to the company.
Imagine how cool it would be to drive the weinermobile in GTA3, but Oscar Mayer probably would make it so you couldn't run over pedestrians in it.
Move on. The publicity from the suggestion is doing more than the actual advertising.
I thought Slashdot gets news before anybody else does!
*Looks at logo `News for Nerds. Stuff that matters, now.'*
People discover the meaning of life between getting piss drunk and the following hangover.
Gosh, people like this are the very reason the company has to advertise its game so viciously! :)
People discover the meaning of life between getting piss drunk and the following hangover.
Ok, I'll stop being really morbid now.
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
must not have worked - I can't even tell you what the game's name is without scrolling back up to the top of the window.
I got into a conversation about advertising limits and as an absurd, extreme case someone suggested Coke agreeing to pay for a new born's college education in exchange for tatooing their logo on the inside and outside of the baby's eye lids. Why waste every blink?
What frightens me is that at the time it was meant as a joke, but I could almost see people considering this. A life time of walking subliminal ads and a gauranteed lifetime customer.
I don't think we'll ever see how far the advertisers are willing to go, we'll only see how far we're willing to let them.
Atari recently announced the release of a new video game console it refers to as the Atari 7800!
I know... there was no shadowman 1! They just started with 2, becuase it sounds cooler. Afterall, if they made a 2, 1 must have been good, and so 2 will be even better......
people that want to be cremated ? What about their families deprived of the money that other families DO get because one of their dear departed decided to even take up valuable space AFTER his/her life ??? :
Indeed valuable... they're getting money for blocking the way for something useful put there iso rotting bodies with a leisure suite larry add above it.
Just imagine the poor children
"little johnny is not getting one of those new ad^H^H nike-shirts for his birthday", "why not?", "his grandma was 'cremated'... isn't that awful? selfish old hag"
In marketing, there's no such thing as bad publicity!
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
This certainly takes the encroachment of commercial messages on public space to new levels."
I'd say it plumbs new depths, but clearly it's a stunt to advertise for that game, wassitcalled now...? Er..I've already forgotten what they were advertising.
I think my short attention span is an evolved self defence mechanism against all the advertising exposure I'm subjected to!
Are the advertising agencies on crack? or are the /. admins? probably both. Is this a fake? damn right.
1. how many people visit a grave yard each day?
2. how many of those people will actually _see_ the grave stone with the advert on it?
3. out of those, how many will notice the advert, unless its very colourful and not just engraved in the stone? (I dont think they'd get away with that)
4. out of the people that notice the advert how many will a) give a f*ck, b) actually play video games, c) not be pissed off enough at the capitalist marketing technique to buy it, d) will have already seen it possibly because its on their relatives gravestone, or e) will have seen it already on a bill-board on the way to the graveyard.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Anyone remember the name of the company that did this, or tried to do this already? I know there was an outrage in.....England, I believe over a company purchasing advertising space on headstones. And it was a gaming company also. Anyone remember who that was??
Man, the way they were looking years ago, Acclaim could've rented out space on THEIR gravestone!
:D
*ba-rump-bump!
This seems like some spin to drum up "controversy", but hell, with Funeral Costs as high as they are in the US at least, if some ppl could re-coup some cash, I'm sure they would.
Remember, this is the country where ppl would name their children after dot coms and radio call letters! LOL
Note to Acclaim: continue to stay away from cookie cutter Movie License games and you will survive!
Sehr geehrter Toilettenbenutzer!
Googled this because it sounded familiar. Someone tried to publish it on K5 (http://www.kuro5hin.org/poll/1016650972_LbdXJFhi) in late March, just a couple days after some of the online gaming sites caught it. More recently, according to Media Life Magazine (http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2002/jun02/j un24/3_wed/news5wednesday.html), the program was ended after the death of the Queen Mum. Apparently "deadvertising" suddenly becomes tacky when a centenarian on the public dole kicks it.
He told me they would not be doing this. This was after the last Slashdot story at the last GDC (a day before the game was widely distributed). The Guardian doesn't mention any names so unless someone finds where Acclaim said this I'll file this under "how accurate is the Guardian?"
But this is old news- like 2 months old... What gives?
OrionRobots.co.uk - Robots From sol
If I recall correctly, this company used this same stunt to gain publicity for ShadowMan 1. Perhaps they didn't create enough of a stir last time, I want to try again.
Shockwave Flash movies are the greatest thing to happen to non-sequitur humor since Japan.
A spokeswoman for the company, which bills the game as a "journey to the Deathside", said: "It's a dark, gory type of game and we thought it was appropriate to raise advertising to a new level."
I agree with her that it's a new level, but I don't think they'd be raising it to that new level.
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
Secondly, who's going to see them anyway? I'm sure some poor old lady wouldn't agree to having "OUT NOW" scrawled into her deceased husband's gravestone.
Any mega companies out there, take my advice - stick to posters and TV ads :)
Lester Moore .44
Shot in the head with a
No Les, no more.
Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake
Stepped on the gas instead of the brake
The latest Disney licensed character's need something to make them happy. Unscramble the letters to find out what they need! : HAPYP MAEL.
Taking "Disney licensed characters" to mean "Disney's Pinocchio" (yes, Pinocchio was around long before Disney; that's why I'm specifying a likeness), and "HAPYP MAEL" to descramble to "HAPPY LAME", you get this picture and this story. I have to wonder what kind of Tool thinks this stuff up.
Will I retire or break 10K?
The day Microsoft creates a product that doesn't suck, it will be known as the Microsoft Vaccuum Cleaner!