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Worst marketing campaigns in the history of gaming (or: wtf Sony!?)

A

Atomski

Member
Kikujiro said:
Yeah, I really don't get the hate (maybe they are too "hipster" for GAF), but some of those Sony ads are amazing, and during the PS/PS2 era they worked great.
I personally love the alien/girl speech.
Click to expand...

Freakin hipsters..

The alien chick doesn't even make sense.
 
S

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Atomski said:
Freakin hipsters..
Click to expand...
mrsoil4a.png
 
C

C4Lukins

Junior Member
Jive Turkey said:
How can you possibly come to this conclusion? Did you even look at the video I posted?

I mean this is like saying Spaceballs being similar to Star Wars was merely a coincidence.
Click to expand...


As I stated earlier it was not marketed on stations aimed at the demographic that would even get that sort of joke. That commercial was aired on pre-teen networks that would not even get the satire that you assume it is referencing. And even if we were to assume that they were marketing to older gamers who understood the reference to 80's gaming commercials, would that have even been a good idea? Compared to the epic, we all stand in our place wearing a particular outfit in order to make a giant Mario face that can be viewed from space, it was not an impressive move.
 
P

Palette Swap

Member
Viral marketing failures can be great too.

I remember when a guy made a stupid, clumsy Borderlands viral marketing attempt on GAF.
In my case, the attempt utterly defeated its own purpose and made me buy the game waaay later than I would have without it, and for waaaay cheaper.
The irony is that what convinced me in the end to buy the game was a great, genuine word of mouth.

To a lesser extent, review embargos and exclusivities given to 90+ reviews can have the same adverse effects. I remember losing faith in Arkham Asylum when its publisher tried to strongarm reviewers by lifting the embargo only for 90+ reviews or some such nonsense.
 
O

OrangeGrayBlue

Member
C4Lukins said:
As I stated earlier it was not marketed on stations aimed at the demographic that would even get that sort of joke. That commercial was aired on pre-teen networks that would not even get the satire that you assume it is referencing. And even if we were to assume that they were marketing to older gamers who understood the reference to 80's gaming commercials, would that have even been a good idea? Compared to the epic, we all stand in our place wearing a particular outfit in order to make a giant Mario face that can be viewed from space, it was not an impressive move.
Click to expand...

I was 11 or 12 when that commercial aired and I understood that it wasn't serious...
 
G

GodfatherX

Member
didnt the failure of the ps3 ads, and sub sequential launch cause a lot of Sony PR people to be replaced, including Sheila?
 
N

Night_Trekker

Member
OrangeGrayBlue said:
I don't believe for a fraction of a second that she is wowed or amazed. Or that any couple buys a wardrobe that matches their living room.
Click to expand...

I'll bet they weren't watching anything at all and they just spliced the footage together later.
 
P

PetriP-TNT

Member
I hate all the "family fun time" ads that Microsoft and especially Nintendo are constantly doing. Not saying that Sonys ads were any better but at least they are mostly gameplay
 
D

Dead Man Typing

Member
Who are these people that are uploading entire commercial runs to youtube? What a strange trip down memory lane to find the ad I was looking for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVRyzPzKNA8#t=1m45
Sega Europe advertising the Dreamcast without any game footage, instead focussing on online multiplayer even though there weren't any online games available at launch, and wouldn't be any for almost a year after that.

Also:

2mdru44.jpg


What a waste of cash this was. It wouldn't have been a bad idea if there was actually a half decent football (soccer) game on the Dreamcast! This may have made some football fans curious about the Dreamcast, but when those people went into a shop and saw Fifa 2000 was only on Playstation, what do you think they bought?
 
C

Corto

Member
ymmv said:
The thing about this advert is that graphically it is a gem. It looks amazing. Unfortunately, though, it gets caught up in a lot of shallow claims about it being racist or whatnot.
Click to expand...


ymmv said:
And that's because no one showed the other posters from that campaign.

psp_white_foto1.jpg


This was in fact one of Sony's better ad campaigns. I also liked ones for the the European PSP. But the PS2/PS3 ads were some of the worst I've ever had to sit through. It made you feel bad about owning a Playstation. The Playstation became a household name in Europe despite those ads (but I'm afraid the enormous sales made the Sony marketing team believe their worthless ads were actually responsible.)
Click to expand...

No, they are terrible. Visually stunning, graphically powerful but the sub text that underlines their imagery is just plain offensive. Even with the second image that doesn't "excuse" or validate the first. Anyone seeing that image for the first time must have a first reaction of disgust. You can rationalize the meaning, and the use of power4ful imagery in a shock and awe marketing tactic. But that poster disgusts me. It's stupid, it's offensive and I'm sure it did more harm to the brand than good. So it was even ineffective in its most important objective.
 
D

Davidion

Member
Corto said:
No, they are terrible. Visually stunning, graphically powerful but the sub text that underlines their imagery is just plain offensive. Even with the second image that doesn't "excuse" or validate the first. Anyone seeing that image for the first time must have a first reaction of disgust. You can rationalize the meaning, and the use of power4ful imagery in a shock and awe marketing tactic. But that poster disgusts me. It's stupid, it's offensive and I'm sure it did more harm to the brand than good. So it was even ineffective in its most important objective.
Click to expand...

I feel like it has great visual impact as well and it doesn't quite offend me as much as it did you. However, campaigns don't run in a vacuum and it's obvious that they either overlooked the cultural significance or grossly failed at trying to generate publicity via controversy.

Sony's ads/campaigns (at least the overwhelming majority of the ones noted in this thread) have been quirky at best and just plain useless at worst. The goal of any good campaign is to actually raise awareness about the product and move units, not just to generate unproductive (this being the key word here) controversy over the ads' existence.
 
M

Maleficence

Member
Corto said:
No, they are terrible. Visually stunning, graphically powerful but the sub text that underlines their imagery is just plain offensive. Even with the second image that doesn't "excuse" or validate the first. Anyone seeing that image for the first time must have a first reaction of disgust. You can rationalize the meaning, and the use of power4ful imagery in a shock and awe marketing tactic. But that poster disgusts me. It's stupid, it's offensive and I'm sure it did more harm to the brand than good. So it was even ineffective in its most important objective.
Click to expand...

What's the subtext that's offensive?

The images were all created together I imagine, seeing the image that sparked controversy without the context of the others is ignorant. Cry racism all you want, doesn't make it racist.

Are you suggesting they should only have shown the posters which had the black lady being aggressive? Personally, if I was black, I would be more annoyed at the constant need to protect black people from anything which could cause offense out of context.
 
F

Flying_Phoenix

Banned
Corto said:
No, they are terrible. Visually stunning, graphically powerful but the sub text that underlines their imagery is just plain offensive. Even with the second image that doesn't "excuse" or validate the first. Anyone seeing that image for the first time must have a first reaction of disgust. You can rationalize the meaning, and the use of power4ful imagery in a shock and awe marketing tactic. But that poster disgusts me. It's stupid, it's offensive and I'm sure it did more harm to the brand than good. So it was even ineffective in its most important objective.
Click to expand...

Not to mention that the black woman seems more like an animal or peseant while the white woman is dressed prestigous or at least obviously a higher class. To me that is whats realy offensive.

I realize what Sony was going for but they just missed the mark.

Maleficence said:
Are you suggesting they should only have shown the posters which had the black lady being aggressive? Personally, if I was black, I would be more annoyed at the constant need to protect black people from anything which could cause offense out of context.
Click to expand...

Did you even read his post or what he quoted?
 
M

mrpoopy

Member
That viral marketer that obviously copy-pasted whatever documentation he was given and left all the registered trademark symbols intact: Playstation®3
 
C

Corto

Member
Maleficence said:
What's the subtext that's offensive?

The images were all created together I imagine, seeing the image that sparked controversy without the context of the others is ignorant. Cry racism all you want, doesn't make it racist.

Are you suggesting they should only have shown the posters which had the black lady being aggressive? Personally, if I was black, I would be more annoyed at the constant need to protect black people from anything which could cause offense out of context.
Click to expand...

That would be perhaps even more offensive. And believe me I'm not a politically correct nut, quite the contrary. But I'm an advocate of just good plain good sense and those images are not good sense, quite the contrary, if anything they are the product of bad judgement and poor planning.
 
V

Vicetrailia

Member
Flying_Phoenix said:
Not to mention that the black woman seems more like an animal or peseant while the white woman is dressed prestigous or at least obviously a higher class. To me that is whats realy offensive.

I realize what Sony was going for but they just missed the mark.?
Click to expand...


Common dude look at this photo

psp_white_foto1.jpg


What are you talking about? You don't see any of that.
 
A

afternoon delight

Member
Holy fuck Sony.

I'm sure Sega is just as offensive with its nineties shticks, but for the modern age, Sony is disgusting in a who the fuck ever paid for any of this sense.
 
T

The Super Bob

Member
Some of the Sony ones are genuinely fucked up. Nintendo and SEGA have had their fair share as well though.

Not to mention the shit Microsoft pumps out for the 360 and Kinect.
 
M

Maleficence

Member
ssolitare said:
Common dude look at this photo

psp_white_foto1.jpg


What are you talking about? You don't see any of that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's really grasping at straws now. The black woman looks no more animalistic than the white one, and her dress in no way indicates anything like hat he drew from it.

I'd still like an explanation as to how the whole campaign was racist.
 
U

UraMallas

Member
Amir0x said:
Ah yes, that was "bad" but I think it looped around and became "good" over time. I mean, scratch and sniff that smells like vomit? And then using that to market the damn game? It's show-stoppingly brilliant.
Click to expand...
The fact that I still remember those ads vividly, with their stinky scratch-and-sniff circles, has got to count for something.
 
B

BreakyBoy

o_O @_@ O_o
exwallst said:
Makes me think, what are generally considered to be the best sellers despite horrible marketing? And the best sellers only because of terrific marketing?
Click to expand...

I'll say it because no one else will.

Final Fantasy VII

Sure, it was one of the fastest selling games of all time. It also had an unusually high return rate.*

I mean, it sold me on the system, and thanks to Symphony of the Night and Mega Man X4, returning it didn't even cross my mind. However, for the uniformed that thought the commercial was indicative of the graphical quality, I can't blame them for running back to the store once the opening cinematic segued into this janky mess:

qtGwol.jpg


* Ah, the days when you could return a non-used game to Gamestop.
 
Y

ymmv

Banned
Maleficence said:
Yeah, that's really grasping at straws now. The black woman looks no more animalistic than the white one, and her dress in no way indicates anything like hat he drew from it.

I'd still like an explanation as to how the whole campaign was racist.
Click to expand...

Racism is in the eye of the beholder. If you want to see racism, it's easy to be offended by a lot of things.
 
F

Flying_Phoenix

Banned
ssolitare said:
Common dude look at this photo

psp_white_foto1.jpg


What are you talking about? You don't see any of that.
Click to expand...

I've already explained. The black woman is clearly dressed less prestigous than the white woman with more unkempt hair. I mean this is clearly displayed in the picture. You talk about it like high art, yet it doesn't seem like you observe it.

This is pretty obvious and makes sense as Sony was trying to market the white PSP as much more fashionable and in.

ymmv said:
Racism is in the eye of the beholder. If you want to see racism, it's easy to be offended by a lot of things.
Click to expand...

Oh God no, not the "it's only racist because I want to see it!" argument. I don't know what else to say I'm not the only one who sees it this way. Hell a majority of Gaf would agree with me.

Corto said:
That would be perhaps even more offensive. And believe me I'm not a politically correct nut, quite the contrary. But I'm an advocate of just good plain good sense and those images are not good sense, quite the contrary, if anything they are the product of bad judgement and poor planning.
Click to expand...

This shit. There is a difference between forming tough skin and an open mind, and having common sense. You rarely see me on the "politically correct" side but these images are just clearly over the line. The reaction they drew and received alone proves this. I can't believe I'm even having this argument.
 
Y

ymmv

Banned
Flying_Phoenix said:
I've already explained. The black woman is clearly dressed less prestigous than the white woman with more unkempt hair.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? She's wearing a dress and high heels.
 
T

Takao

Banned
Flying_Phoenix said:
Yes compared to the rockstar persona of the girl in white. Thank you for proving my point.
Click to expand...

Do you read what you type? I've never seen a "rockstar persona" called "prestigous".

I still think the ads are in slightly bad taste, even if they're very striking, but come on man.
 
NekoFever

NekoFever

Member
Virgin Interactive used to try to get its UK campaigns banned because of the publicity that would ensue. Eventually it had 13 consecutive campaigns pulled.

One for the first Command & Conquer:

JxVAB.jpg


When that got a shitload of complaints, they covered up Jacques Chirac with a white sticker because of complaints from the French embassy and then reissued it otherwise completely unchanged.

Then, when the game broke a million sales, the billboard was a picture of Hitler saluting the Nuremberg Rally with the tagline 'Thanks a million'.
 
J

Jive Turkey

Unconfirmed Member
C4Lukins said:
As I stated earlier it was not marketed on stations aimed at the demographic that would even get that sort of joke. That commercial was aired on pre-teen networks that would not even get the satire that you assume it is referencing. And even if we were to assume that they were marketing to older gamers who understood the reference to 80's gaming commercials, would that have even been a good idea? Compared to the epic, we all stand in our place wearing a particular outfit in order to make a giant Mario face that can be viewed from space, it was not an impressive move.
Click to expand...
Just becase it missed its mark doesn't mean the joke wasn't intentional. I find it ironic that people used that commercial as proof that Nintendo doesn't get it when in reality the people who didn't get it were the ones making those claims.

If you watch any Woodsy the Owl PSAs like the one I posted earlier and still claim the people behind the Sunshine ad weren't fully aware of what they were doing then you're just being intentionally stupid.
 
C

Castor Krieg

Banned
Corto said:
No, they are terrible. Visually stunning, graphically powerful but the sub text that underlines their imagery is just plain offensive. Even with the second image that doesn't "excuse" or validate the first. Anyone seeing that image for the first time must have a first reaction of disgust. You can rationalize the meaning, and the use of power4ful imagery in a shock and awe marketing tactic. But that poster disgusts me. It's stupid, it's offensive and I'm sure it did more harm to the brand than good. So it was even ineffective in its most important objective.
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, not all of us have a stick up our ass. I can live my life without constantly thinking about racial inequality.

Flying_Phoenix said:
I've already explained. The black woman is clearly dressed less prestigous than the white woman with more unkempt hair. I mean this is clearly displayed in the picture.
Click to expand...

I hope I will never meet you in person. Ok, I will try to argue with your racial obsesssion: black woman is dressed in black, white woman in white. Dressing black woman in white and white woman in black doesn't make sense. As for hair - this is one of many varied hairstyles used by BLACK WOMEN.

Flying_Phoenix said:
Hell a majority of Gaf would agree with me.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, the invincible "we are the majority!" tagline with no proof to back it up.
 
K

krioto

Member
Flying_Phoenix said:
Yes compared to the rockstar persona of the girl in white. Thank you for proving my point.
Click to expand...

Jeez - I'm really glad I do not see what you see - must be tough...
 
P

Psychotext

Member
Maleficence said:
I thought we'd decided it wasn't a PSP phone? Surprised to see you calling it that tbh, or maybe that was the only way to make that not OT :p
Click to expand...
I have no idea, I've not been keeping up with it.

Either way, it's still pretty clearly being marketed as a gaming device (watch the advert).
 
J

Jintor

Member
Jesus christ, what the fuck was wrong with Sony's marketing department

Also AllIWantForChristmas is the only one that pops readily to mind, tbh
 
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