Video game commercials

One general idea of commercials is to show attractive people using the product, thus suggesting that you can be like them if you use it. I’ve seen two commercials that betray this concept, like some kind of big betraying thing that betrays alot. You know the thing. One commercial is for some fighting game, possibly Dead or Alive. It shows two young men (I won’t unfairly characterize them) talking about why they like the game (“pixel-shaded bump mapping… hehe”), spliced with game footage of scantily-clad women thrashing each other. Finally, one guy says “She kicks high.” Draw your own conclusions, but I don’t want to be like him. The second commercial is for Blockbuster video game rentals. It has a slovely oaf running around to inform people that Blockbuster has more games or something. He eats a chip off of another person’s shirt. So… I know video games are not traditionally associated with the beautiful people, but wouldn’t their makers want to distance themselves from that image? Not necessarily show Sam Jackson enjoying Luigi’s Mansion, but at least not show the geeks? They don’t ask phone sex operators to recommend you switch to Sprint.

Another general idea is to make your commercial memorable, causing people to think of your product when they think of your commercial, which, if you’ve done it right, is often. The first commercial you mention is one that I’ve seen, and it’s pretty funny, hence people will remember it. The advertisers, however, made a mistake in making their commercial funny, but failing to associate it with their product very closely. To illustrate, neither you nor I can remember what game it’s supposed to be advertising. I can’t comment on the second commercial, as I haven’t seen it.

Well, look at their audience. People who are completely hung up on “looking beautiful” aren’t going to buy video games. They have to appeal to people who are fun-loving, a little on the kooky, young-at-heart side.

Welcome to Post-Postmodernism and the Age of Irony. True or not, advertisers assume that the ‘Gen Xers’ (or whatever we’re calling them these days) have a highly developed sense of irony and see past the traditional advertising bulls**t. They’ve come up with a lot of unique advertising methods to appeal directly to them. Discarding the “I want to be like them” old saw is one of them.