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

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
What is this I don't even...
9717.jpg
 
Pretty much every ad Sony has done in the last 5 years. They go from having awesome shit like the PS9 to crying babies and Marcus. WHere the fuck did they go wrong?
 

Zeliard

Member
RoboPlato said:

This was the most ill-advised piece of games marketing ever. Turned the entire industry's press and its consumers against one man and his company. Daikatana went through a horrific development process and ended up expectedly poor, but people pounced on it with sheer glee due to its marketing, both before and after release.

It's a shame, since John Romero is probably the greatest level designer in the history of FPS, as well as a highly innovative and influential multiplayer designer. He and Carmack made magic together. But now Romero is remembered by some mostly for his hubris instead of his significant contributions to gaming, and he has nobody to blame but himself. One of the most visible and unfortunate downfalls in the history of the industry.
 

exwallst

Member
Makes me think, what are generally considered to be the best sellers despite horrible marketing? And the best sellers only because of terrific marketing?
 

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
I only read the first page so forgive me if someone has mentioned it but Acclaim did a promo for Burnout 2 where they would pay your speeding ticket should you get one on the way to the store when you picked up the game. I am pretty sure it was in the UK.
 

v0yce

Member
You guys suck. I love the Sony avant garde stuff.

Crying baby? Awesome
White is coming? Awesome
Thumb Penis (I'd never seen this before)? Awesome
David Lynch? Awesome

Those PSP squirrels are truly awful though.
 

Jive Turkey

Unconfirmed Member
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?
The latter would be pretty impossible to prove. Even if the game is terrible and sold amazingly well that doesn't mean the ad campaign was responsible.
 

Freshmaker

I am Korean.
The_Technomancer said:
I'm sold. *Runs off to buy box of Greek alpha bits*

Stupidity aside, I think the worst ad was the one for a PS tunnel shooter. It featured a man who's cut off his eyelids with a razor blade.

Come to think of it, Bust-A-Move 2 on the Saturn's cover also featured a guy in a Clockwork Orange style predicament. Very odd choice for a game featuring cartoon dinosaurs dancing around.

http://www.segaretro.org/File:BustAMove2_Saturn_US_Box_Front.jpg

Also Earthbound's scratch n' sniff magazine inserts. I never wanted to touch the game after scratching that dot ONCE.
 
It seems to me that Sony hired the 90s era Sega marketing team to create the advertising campaigns for the PSP and PS3. Its the only possible explanation.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
haters gonna hate, but damn I loved Nintendo's 1994 Play It Loud campaign. Taking basic Nintendo games and giving them a surreal twist of credible edgy. It was genius because it coincided with the Nintendo generation reaching teenage and avoided the identity crisis of playing games like Yoshi's Island.
 
I thought the squirrels were the worst.

Then I remembered the annoying psp guy.

Hey buy this shit that dumbasses love then they will come harrass you everywhere! SIGN ME UP

Also the one with the football player where he's just causally hanging out in the "PLAYSTATIONSTOP"
 

Freshmaker

I am Korean.
Anticitizen One said:
It seems to me that Sony hired the 90s era Sega marketing team to create the advertising campaigns for the PSP and PS3. Its the only possible explanation.
"We really liked what you did with Ice Cube. Make it happen with our new system!"
 

Grayman

Member
Anticitizen One said:
It seems to me that Sony hired the 90s era Sega marketing team to create the advertising campaigns for the PSP and PS3. Its the only possible explanation.
the SEGA scream was awesome!
 
AniHawk said:
Yeah, that dampened the mood of the ad. I think there was another line that was "Willst thou soar?" "Or willst thou suck?" that felt similarly misplaced.

Yeah, I was never a huge fan of those... the ads were fine without them. Meh.
 

ymmv

Banned
gerg 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.

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.)

BTW No one remembers "This is Living" anymore?

l-PlayStation3-logo.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8olTtLAdW6A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psd8oVToS8k&feature=related

What a load of crap.
 

Jive Turkey

Unconfirmed Member
AniHawk said:
Yeah, that dampened the mood of the ad. I think there was another line that was "Willst thou soar?" "Or willst thou suck?" that felt similarly misplaced.
Yeah that's the one I remember. So out of place.
 

C4Lukins

Junior Member
I have always loved Sony's marketing minus the PSP. I realize why things like "creepy baby" were not intelligent marketing decisions, but I thought those early PS3 commercials were fantastic. For someone like me it works, but if you are trying to sell 100 million consoles, not so good.

I remember the Quiznos "I Love the Subs" campaign with the freaky ass gerbils that I found hilarious, but there was an article about how despite it being a very popular campaign it actually turned people off from going to Quiznos. They created a campaign that was clever and funny that did not motivate you to eat. It was funny, interesting and unique, but the ad only increased your gag reflex, it did not motivate you to eat a sub.

On the topic of Mario Sunshine, I do not think that is a self aware commercial. It is not quite as ridiculous as it needed to be in order to be funny. And I never saw that ad on ESPN or Comedy Central, or any audience that would be entertained by the novelty of it. It was directed towards the Nickelodeon audience as I recall. It was an attempt to take the cheesy Nintendo ads of our mid 80's to early 90's youth and replicate for a new generation.
 

Jay Sosa

Member
ZealousD said:

I really like that one, in fact I always liked Sonys ads, sure they sometimes try way too hard and are wacky and weird as fuck, but it's better than say those Wii ads with all the cool kids that wear a scarf indoors playing Mario Kart. Makes me not wanna buy a Wii, and boy does it work.

(Fake) EDIT:

I have always loved Sony's marketing minus the PSP. I realize why things like "creepy baby" were not intelligent marketing decisions, but I thought those early PS3 commercials were fantastic. For someone like me it works, but if you are trying to sell 100 million consoles, not so good.

Yup, my thoughts exactly
 

Jive Turkey

Unconfirmed Member
C4Lukins said:
On the topic of Mario Sunshine, I do not think that is a self aware commercial.
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.
 
Drkirby said:
Yeah, there was also the "Kirby vs Dashing Super Guy" ad for Dreamland 1, but that was pretty good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU6cHCkWqy8

I have to say for the time, the Kirby's Adventure ad is really a great ad at showing off the game in 30 seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozPkEBhFzuw

I don't recall this commercial, but I found it hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN1ZMktS0SU

Wow, never seen those before. It's amazing, even right as far back as Kirby's first game NOA were insecure about the character and were trying to position him as a badass!
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
rhino4evr said:
The entire "Play It Loud" campaign from Nintendo in the mid 90s was really embarrassing. I would never match The butthole surfers as Donkey Kong Country
I dunno. I was 10 or whatever when it was on and I thought it was Nintendo finally growing a pair. I know we're talking about 90s EXTREME but that was the order of the day.


EDIT: Completely beaten by Chittagong.. said it better than I could have.


Chittagong said:
haters gonna hate, but damn I loved Nintendo's 1994 Play It Loud campaign. Taking basic Nintendo games and giving them a surreal twist of credible edgy. It was genius because it coincided with the Nintendo generation reaching teenage and avoided the identity crisis of playing games like Yoshi's Island.
 

BiggNife

Member
In reference to the Yoshi's Island commercial:

Yuripaw said:
What the fuck were they thinking??
Someone on the advertising team was a big fan of Monty Python and the Meaning of Life, I guess.

I remember hating that commercial when I was a kid.
 

Kikujiro

Member
v0yce said:
You guys suck. I love the Sony avant garde stuff.

Crying baby? Awesome
White is coming? Awesome
Thumb Penis (I'd never seen this before)? Awesome
David Lynch? Awesome

Those PSP squirrels are truly awful though.

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.
 

xbhaskarx

Member
EmCeeGramr said:

God shit like that is so embarrassing...

Jazzem said:

I know we're all entitled to our own opinions and all, but these were three of the BEST gaming commercials ever made!

Who is this campaign insulting besides people who prefer Game Boy to Game Gear?
Do you not understand the point of marketing campaigns? It's to convince consumers that your product is cooler and superior to the competing product. These highlight the main advantage Game Gear had over Game Boy: colors other than puke green.
 
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