Activision, Documentaries Are Not Ads: An Open Letter

[Something Amyss]

I didn't know about this up until now. I also missed the Black Ops documentary...Or "documentary."

This came off as a heartfelt piece, and I think it benefited for that. I don't always read Critical Intel, but I'm glad I read this one.

 

[RandV80]

Wow, so I guess CoD is expanding into Private Military Contractors as the big bad now and made a misleading documentary to back it up? Now that's just getting silly!

I'm not educated on the matter or anything but it seems to me that in order for something like this to actually work you'd need a society where people are more loyal to their corporate employer than they are to their country, neighbour, and fellow man, or in other words pure corporate Feudalism. It could work for a dystopian future setting, but while corporate influence is worrisome today we aren't anywhere near that level yet.

 

[ritchards]

I've seen plenty of "journalism" pieces which are basically adverts. Worse when they are just adpress put out by a company and happily published without consideration.

But that graph... *shudder* what was up with the bottom of that graph? Are the bottom parts just hidden, or are the bars not starting at the same horizontal line?

 

[Darkprophet232]

The documentary is using the common form it's this article that's twisting it.

If they're using the common form then the entire graph and calling GS4 the third largest private company are both lies. In case you didn't get the point, Robert Rath was trying to find a definition of Private Company that squared with what the ad-umentary was claiming (please don't give the advertisement the undeserved title of documentary). That he still was unable to do so speaks volumes of how misleading the advertisement was.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

I actually know a guy who worked for a variety security contractors, including security work in the Middle East and some local stuff. He said that his job was mainly just to stand around and guard equipment when he was over seas, but according to him, the salary was worth it. But apparently his most lucrative (and interesting) jobs were guarding rich people and their kids here in the states. According to him, he even did a stint guarding the Gates kids awhile back.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I can safely say that Critical Intel is the best thing on The Escapist. I love a lot of other content here, but the level of thought, passion, and information in these columns is astounding.

It really is too bad that Activision would so little effort into this since there are such great examples of advertising through documentaries. The Extra Credits Rome series you mentioned is superb and I wish more publishers would do it properly like that.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Kudos to you for the excellently researched column. The rise of 'native advertising' has raised a lot of concerns which you've covered quite succinctly in this piece.

 

[WWmelb]

What really threw me in the is "Trailer" thing, is how or why there was footage from panasonic showing off the prototype for their mech suit thingy in there...

What relevance did this possibly have to anything? Are Panasonic a PMC now? It really was just to try and say "OMG LOOK AT THIS< THE PMC'S HAVE ROBOTS NOW THAT WILL FUCK YOU UP"

Yeah, the mech suit that can currently lift a 60kg bag while standing stationary lol.

Damn good article though. Thanks again RR!

 

[Jupiter065]

Good article, the division between paid ad and actual journalism is rapidly disappearing, with even more progressive places like Huffington Post routinely printing Corporate-PR-written, paid ads without labeling them as such.

For more examples, see everything written by Devin Connors [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/articles/Devin%20Connors] on this very site...

Care to back that accusation up with anything other than meaningless bile?

Nothing more than knowing when I'm being sold something.
I mean, I may be wrong, but if you're not getting paid for his overly glowing, hype filled reviews of things that don't exists yet (but soon will so pre-order now!), then you should be.

 

[Giest4life]

I think Mr. Path does not understand that Advertisements and Documentaries are on a continuum, not a discrete scale. There is no clear distinction between documentaries and advertisements.
Also, on an unrelated note: journalistic integrity is a myth not unlike chivalry. Depending on time and geography, journalists have followed a vastly different "code of ethics".

 

[gargantual]

I think Mr. Path does not understand that Advertisements and Documentaries are on a continuum, not a discrete scale. There is no clear distinction between documentaries and advertisements.
Also, on an unrelated note: journalistic integrity is a myth not unlike chivalry. Depending on time and geography, journalists have followed a vastly different "code of ethics".

Yeeeah, I see what ur saying but, in the past I think there used to be a hard line between ads and documentaries or even news. Both are meant to inform but one is more about selling a product. The influences of tabloid journalism have poisoned the true purpose of news and docs. To report and let the public do what they will with that info.


you know how people can be anywhere from confused to disgusted at fictional movies and games for mishandling allusions to sensitive real world events and issues? (I thought with PMC focus that CoD would finally move out of the murky 'representational' waters of kill all these brown people in the name of justice, into safer, self-aware waters, where its just the powerful vs. the powerful. But oh well fictions of little issue right)


my point is..Its worse when people holding the banner of being a journalistic source sews false information (whether they meant to or not). Thats why you'll hear news anchors apologizing at times for stuff they misreport, when corrections come into the mailbox.

We've got some volatile minds out there, and we've seen what concentrated propaganda can do to us in the perfect social storms.

So the stuff that's usually raising hairs on these forums such as folks making sexually polarizing fictional games, or paint us as unrepentant murderous tyrant of hundreds who believes they're a savior or even more deceptive gameplay systems. thats hardly much to get ones feathers ruffled about. It comes with the disclaimer of fiction. The educational impact on younger players is very little.

NOW...

Give viewers the WRONG idea, about REAL people, REAL places, and REAL disasters though, and don't encourage things like objectivity, ambivalence, research that's where I gotta draw the line. A mistake the news today is constantly making in our pundit Op-Ed driven world.

We say truth is subjective, but that's just our brains processing what we see. Doesn't change the facts, and their impact upon us. We could all do a little bit more to sow 'facts' and unbiased truth whereever we see confusion is all.

Have a good one homie.

 

[Product Placement]

Wow. This article would actually be good enough to convince me to hire the author, if I were in an influential position in Activision.

 

[Kahani]

Generally a good article, but I have to disagree with this last part:

The rise of military contractors is indeed an emerging trend

There is no rise or emerging trend. Mercenaries have been a huge part of warfare for as long as warfare has existed. For much of human history, they've been by far the dominant part of wars. Ancient Egypt and Greece, Carthage, Rome, Ancient China right up to the Warlord period and the foundation of modern China, the Varangian guard, Swiss guards, the Landsknechts, privateers, ronin, the list is endless. And given that some of these play large parts in various video games it's not like they should be unknown here - Total War, any Paradox grand strategy - Crusader Kings 2 in particular showcasing mercenary companies, Civilisation, Mount and Blade, pretty much any game based on any historical period makes it clear that mercenaries have always been around. About the only time I can think of where mercenaries were a bit less prevalent is the early 20th century, since most people who could have been mercenaries were instead conscripted into national armies in the world wars. But even then there were still mercenaries around, including some particularly famous ones such as the Flying Tigers.

So no, the rise of military contractors is not in any way an emerging trend, it's simply a continuation of how things have been for thousands of years since we first invented war and money and decided to combine the two. The only thing that's new is the use of the term "military contractor".

 

[Mezahmay]

You know, as soon as I saw it was an open letter to Activision, I knew it was going to be bad. For the sake of Vice and 72andSunny, I just hope they were rushed and pressured by Activision to push this advertisement/documentary/trailer out the door as soon as possible and make it as sensational as possible (for a game that hasn't launched yet and its predecessor only launched 6 months ago.) I'd imagine the thought process went something like this: we commission a very sensational video that will get a bunch of headlines knowing we're big enough to weather any negative press because their core CoD audience isn't aware enough to care one way or the other. I'd like to think practices like this and the worse crap Activision has done in the past will eventually blow up in their face, but we all know it won't. Just a blip in the games news radar that will eventually get drowned out by everything else.

 

[yamy]

Great Article. Critical Intel is fast becoming my favourite feature on the Escapist. Well researched, factual, focused on good journalism and always tries to offer insight to game related topics that many people aren't aware of.

Which is more than can be said for the advertisement in question.

 

[josemlopes]

Im not really going to blame Activision on that, its not their thing to do documentaries, Vice on the other hand usually does shit like this so I'll put my money on them (even if its just a build up for the game).

 

[Edith The Hutt]

It probably says something bad about me that this article filled my head with ideas for Shadowrun encounters, right?