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Virtua Tennis Pigeons Divebomb Wimbledon
Thanks to several readers for pointing to a GameSpot story indicating Acclaim will use spray-painted homing pigeons to advertise Virtua Tennis 2 at this year's Wimbledon tennis tournament. According to Acclaim's marketing director, Larry Sparks, "The Virtua Tennis 2 pigeon marketing campaign is highly targeted as it brings awareness of the game directly to tennis enthusiasts.. the Wimbledon tournament is famous for the occasional descent by pigeons onto Centre Court, but our advertising pigeons are trained to go straight for the fans and flap their logos in front of them." Acclaim are sadly infamous for other desperately outlandish publicity stunts, such as getting proud parents to name their baby Turok and trying to place videogame adverts on gravestones.
Tennis Fans at Wimbledon?
Husband: What's that pink and white stuff on your shoulder honey?
Wife: Eeeeeeeekkkk... It's pigeon crap with paint flakes in it!
Hey stop stealing our bandwidth for our ip over carrier pigeons!
/. Heroics - 99.999%
People are really going to buy your products when you send filthy birds to fly in potential customers faces and take a shit on their head.
Why don't you feed them non-digestable pellets with the Acclaim logo on them too.
Maybe this isn't too likely, but hey, it could happen. And honestly, couldn't they just be paying the game's staff more?
where they said they'd pay any fines you got speeding on the day of release
I went through some speed cameras at a fair lick but it wasn't my lucky day. I was looking forward to the incredulous looks I would get but it never happened.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Thanks, Slashback for this new addition to my vocabulary! It's a worthy complement to "vulterant" and an endless stream of Taco-isms.
Anyway, I don't believe this is any more real than the gravestone stunt.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
"The Wimbledon tournament is famous for the occasional descent by pigeons onto Centre Court, but our advertising pigeons are trained to go straight for the fans and give them a little present."
... I thought Turkeys could fly!
"Derp de derp."
Yes, we know pigeons work for Google too.
In short, I don't think they should be doing this. Maybe the SPCA or PETA should be supervising this.
I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
In fact, I think maybe it is not true, but some crazy, wacked out advertising genius/demento thinks up all these bizarre advertising schemes, then releases that Acclaim will be using them, just to get the free bad press that goes with them...all the while, they have no intention of ever actually pulling these shenanigans.
Pure genius...free pub.
Apparently getting a good ranking in GameSpy's "25 dumbest moments in gaming" just goaded them on.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Since a good percentage of you probably weren't even born yet when the show that this reference came from aired:
e p007
http://epguides.com/WKRPinCincinnati/guide.shtml#
This is not at all tasteful.
1. It's acceptable if a bird or two comes by and decides to do whatever during the event, on its own volition. It's something you have to live with when playing outdoors.
2. This is clearly, clearly, an intentional act that may or maynot disrupt the event.
3. Couldn't a rented plane be just as effective without taking what was once a wild animal and training it to do something that it naturally wouldn't do? No, I'm not a fan of circuses either. It'd be tasteful too. Hell, do one of those neat sky writting things.
4. Companies do "normal" advertising targeted at events. I.e. you don't see ads for tampons at hockey events but you'll see golf equipt ads during golf events. Hrm...
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ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
Before tasteless pigeon stunt: nobody heard of Virtua Tennis 2.
After tasteless pigeon stunt: lots of people have heard of their game.
Unfortunately, this is likely to be negative publicity. Yes, it's worth a minor laugh but will it really make people want to buy the game? Most likely not. Probably will turn a bunch of people off from buying it.
Thoughts on stocks, markets and trading
Not that Acclaim "will use spray-painted homing pigeons to advertise Virtua Tennis 2," but that no one got the joke.
They're obviously not going to spray paint birds "trained to go straight for the fans and flap their logos in front of them." The idea is so ridiculous, so hilarious, and can't possibly be true. Yet we still have some people saying the idea is stupid and this and that...JOKES PEOPLE.
Acclaims marketing department rules. End of story.
Did they even go through with their last two so-called "campaigns." As far as I can tell Acclaim's marketing strategy is to come up with outlandish stunts just to get in the news. I haven't see any evidence of them following through.
Here's my idea for a marketing strategy: go to resturants and replace the straws with ones the Acclaim logo. The trick is the straws don't work. The message is "Acclaim doesn't suck!" Unfortuately, Acclaim probably can't afford the money and effort that would need to be used to make their games not suck.
I had the original virtua tennis (for sega saturn i believe? i forgot, i lost it years ago), and it was the only worthwhile tennis game i've played on a console ever.It offered pretty much perfect control, with very simple controls. In addition, the feel of it matched real tennis quite well (well as well as any game can be expected). From the reviews I've seen virtua tennis 2 is simply an updated version of this perfect game. Which is exactly what was needed, as I don't think you see the original around much, and graphics can always be improved.
Photos.
No, their advertising schemes aren't to name people Turok, deface tombstones, or divebomb Wimbledon.
They are still using the same old marketing scheme - get people talking about them by pretending to have a really weird marketing scheme.
It's meta marketing.
AP - Wimbledon
A flock of angry homing pigeons descended upon
unsuspecting tennis fans today at centre court.
Why were the pigeons angry you ask? Apparently
some asshat company spray painted them. The
company then trained them to home in on the tennis
fans. Many fans had to have the beaks of these
angry pigeons surgically removed from their eye.
Obviously they are still having big problems with the geniuses in marketing.
I can already see how PETA would protest this stunt: Scores of women show up to Wimbledon wearing nothing but spraypainted slogans such as, "Spraypainting pigeons is cruel." and "Brand me, not animals!"
...Or just a marathon session of "Truth or Dare"?
â¦on these pigeon packets, or this thing could turn out like a Hitchcock film.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Should have known it was Acclaim. These are the same guys that brought you such marketing gems as having people officially change their name to Turok as a contest...
Oh let's not forget BMXXX, where girl bikers get topless. Ugh.
So yeah, painting poor birds is definitely not out of character for these guys.
sounds like an idea to me ... id be much more interested in the ads if they were spray painted onto naked chicks ...
This sounds like something that would have been in Jennifer Government, a book by Max Berry. The book is set in a world where capitalism has run totally amuck. And is centered on an outlandish marketing scheme where Nike has orchestrates some killings to heighten "street cred" for their new line of shoes. It is a good read, so is Syrup by the same author.
I gotta say, when some of my friends organized a wet T-shirt contest with the proceeds benefitting some ecofeminist organization, a lot of people showed up.
Burnout & Burnout 2 are great games
& tbh I would't care about the increased premium for one speeding ticket, jeesh. It would have been worth it to get the souvenir
maybe this is worth repeating : "you only live once, make the most of it"
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
And you can even sort of play Jennifer Government. But I agree. When reading the book I had to think about Acclaim U.K's marketing philosophy more than once.
Hank! White!