My Take on the Dead Space 2 Marketing Campaign

Primary Ignition writes:
"My problem with the marketing of Dead Space 2 is that is makes the industry seem very juvenile. Why would anyone be shocked that mothers who aren’t familiar with video games would be offended by a game as graphic as this one? Maybe I’m reading too much into this, as the marketing is designed to amuse older gamers, but to me it comes across as appealing to younger gamers."

[Octo1]

I watched this and though I did snicker when I saw the reactions, this ad or type of ad does more bad than good for the game.
You bet that any mom or dad that sees this will be more on the watch to see if their kids will be playing Dead Space 2.
Poor under age suckers. Hooray for being of legal age!!

PS
The shock value may also make parents more aware of what their kids should and shouldn't be playing, but I doubt it.

[RememberThe357]

They had to think of that when brainstorming the ads to begin with. Seems they just decided the the positives of the ads outweighed the negatives.

The ad is unique and gets your attention. If they went the traditional rout and just showed it being scary it might get lost in as white noise. I just can't bring myself to agree with the author.

The ad is supposed to be humorous, and to take it seriously only shows that the author has missed the entire point of it.

[longcat]

When will EA stop this shit?

I though they would at least wait 1 year after that whole taliban stunt in medal of honour before they did something this stupid.

Thanks for setting us back once more in the quest to be taken as a serious medium guys.

[BakedGoods]

I think a lot of people HERE need to grow up.

Applause to RememberThe357.

@PEDROBEAR's a good example. That MoH 'controversy' was a bunch of 'juvenile' cry-babys who use their emotions to take words like 'Taliban' out of media.

Anyone who's complaining about these commercials is doing the same thing. Lame.

I personally thought the Dead Space ones were hilarious, relevant and clever.

[jeseth]

Considering that I've had people mention that commercial that have no interest in gaming I would say the ad is very effective.

I think everyone in here is fooling themselves if they really think it will affect on sales. All this will do is raise awareness and result in more sales. Parents irresponsibly buy little kids violent and vulgar games all the time...how many times have you seen adults buying their kids COD, Gears of War, God of War, etc.

Don't be so ignorant. Any press, is good press. The fact that this message board has comments is a tribute to the commercial being effective.

[N311V]

Couldn't have said it better myself, bubbles to you.

[Elven6]

It sounds like they might be working towards unifying homebrew development by getting feedback from homebrew devs on Windows Phone 7? Kind of like an Windows Marketplace or App Store but without the restrictions (cost mainly) for "bedroom devs".

[Elven6]

Agh! How did this end up here? I suck at managing tabs. No way to edit the comment either. :(

[writersblock]

I think the ad was basically targetted at people who can buy their own games, kind of to say "you're mom wouldnt let you have it. You're a badass now though, you can buy it"

But that takes away about 1/3 of their audience which is underage

[Ducky]

I was wondering who it was targeted at too.

If it was the mature gamers, then there's many games that my mom would hate much more than DeadSpace.
DS mostly offers gore, and virtual gore are that... it just isn't anything that serious compared to say, GTA, Mafia or even Kane&Lynch.
It kinda felt like an insult...

Most moms wouldn't want their children playing any M-rated game... so, what's the ad's point? O.o

The first DeadSpace's trailer was awesome...

[Coolmanrico]

The only game my mom like is Pac-Man. She think alot of games are way too violent,even the less mature one. That why I usually went to my father when it came to games. The only mature game I ever got her to play was GTA III and she played so politely, lol."

[DERKADER]

This ad reminds me of old toy ads from the early 90's where they would try and gross the moms out by how disgusting something was.

[JohnApocalypse]

I thought they made it this ad to stick out of the market. Besides what time are they allowed to air this ad anyway?

[Ducky]

Saw it on TV during an NHL game. =/

[AKS]

It seems like a very short-sighted advertizing campaign in that it will be used in the future by politicians and other people attempting to attack gaming as "evidence" that publishers market mature content to children. Many in the media already believe gaming is primarily for children and a negative influence, and they will eventually use this campaign against gaming. It doesn't matter if this was EA's intent; those opposed to gaming will interpret it that way and use it to attack.

[bigboss911]

the people that are complaining about this totally missed the point. Go watch it again. Every women looked to be at the very least 40 to 45. Not very many women of that age have children under 18. (not saying that its not possible) Its kinda a throw back to when you were young and you mom was always like "what is the point?" "why are you fighting them?" "don't you want to go outside?", its supposed to be funny, not serious.

[JD_Shadow]

You're giving society WAY too much credit there.

[jurahsik]

People look way to into things.

[bobrea]

I also think this is a really stupid marketing campaign.