Activision: Kobe Bryant Controversy was "Hypocritical"

[Ironic Pirate]

Thats awesome ad. Though I don't recognise any of the people in it, are some of them celebs or something?

(English person here)

Kobe Bryant is an athlete, and Jimmy Kimmel (the one with the RPG) is a comedian, and I'm pretty sure he has a talk-show of some kind.

I swear a recognize the guy with dual pistols, but I might be wrong.

People need to chill. The ad wasn't saying "everyone could be a soldier" it was saying that there's a certain part of everybody that wants to, and here's this awesome game you could play instead of actually signing up for the military.

 

[Blind Sight]

I still stand by the belief that the worse part of that ad was at 0:32 where the guy who looks like Warren Ellis blows up a truck. You fools, you give Ellis a gun and we're all doomed.

The guy raises some excellent points, and to be honest I think that these guys are literally betting on uninformed controversy to help sell their games.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I see the hypocrisy, but not the controversy. I'm not being smart (well, maybe a little) but seriously, what was wrong with it. The only thing I'm hearing so far is just the by-the-books "video games are violent".

I know that saying this could set the game industry back a bit, but sometimes I just want the devlopers, in this case treyarch, to go all smart-ass and say something like: "Yeah; we were going to make Call Of Duty: Negotiations, but our testers all fell asleep within half an hour of pressing the START buttons."

 

[Karma168]

I don't get it :s what's wrong with the advert?

 

[Altorin]

I don't get it :s what's wrong with the advert?

a couple of soldiers took offense at the idea that "Everyone can be a soldier" (even though that's not actually said anywhere in the ad)

and a couple of celebrities are seen as "endorsing war and violence", namely Kobe Bryant and I'm pretty sure that's Jimmy Kimmel firing off a rocket launcher.

I personally love it.

I do think it's funny that Kobe Bryant is Noobtubing. I think THAT should be the issue at hand. I would love it if Fox News ran that angle "How dare Kobe Bryant sink to such low tactics."

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg

did I miss even bigger news then this though?

 

[BrunDeign]

ESPN, I love ya, but you just got BURNED! Whatcha gonna do about it brother?

 

[mjc0961]

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg

did I miss even bigger news then this though?

That's all I can think of too. I tried reading the rest of the article but the only thought in my brain right now is "What happened to Kotick?!"

I am so very confused right now.

EDIT: Okay I think I get it now after some heavy Googling... Kotick is the CEO of Activision Blizzard, and this Eric guy is CEO of Activision Publishing because "Activision Publishing" and "Blizzard Entertainment" are somehow separate from Activison Blizzard? Confusing shit.

 

[matrix3509]

You have to consider the source. ESPN was the same network that ran Lebron James' "The Decision". An hour long "event" which culminated in Lebron giving Cleveland the finger. I'm not really sure they have an actual leg to stand on here. And the move worked great for Kobe. As it made him more popular, while Lebron is currently the most hated man in sports now that George Steinbrenner is dead.

Thank You! God I can't stand those douches on ESPN. I swear to God they are equivalent to tabloid writers in terms of journalistic integrity.

 

[ImprovizoR]

Extending the controversy? I guess Black Ops didn't sell as well as Activision had hoped. As for the ad, it has Jimmy Kimmel with an RPG, so that's awesome.

 

[poiuppx]

Totally in agreement with Hirshberg here. ESPN should shut the hell up and get back to filling airtime with sports. Anything NOT an actual sporting event or ACTUAL sports news doesn't damn well belong on a network whose SOLE STATED PURPOSE is sports.

/And don't get me started on the lack of music on MTV
//Get off my lawn!

 

[Alpha Maeko]

Hypocritical, indeed.

 

[antipunt]

Yeah it is a little hypocritical. But people always love a witch-hunt.

 

[Altorin]

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg

did I miss even bigger news then this though?

That's all I can think of too. I tried reading the rest of the article but the only thought in my brain right now is "What happened to Kotick?!"

I am so very confused right now.

EDIT: Okay I think I get it now after some heavy Googling... Kotick is the CEO of Activision Blizzard, and this Eric guy is CEO of Activision Publishing because "Activision Publishing" and "Blizzard Entertainment" are somehow separate from Activison Blizzard? Confusing shit.

it makes sense, but saying "Activision CEO" when you mean "Activision Publishing CEO" is a slight but important distinction.

 

[Something Amyss]

Uh, there's nothing wrong with the ad.

From the music, to the "proud n00b" on Jimmy Kimmel's RPG,it's so tongue-in-cheek you're a fool to see it any other way. Obviously, Kobe Bryant (whoever he is) is intelligent enough to see that.

Kobe might be, but dozens of commentators and thousands of people were braying about it. Worst of all, it does seem many of the people who complained about the ad had no problem airing it.

 

[CD-R]

Thats awesome ad. Though I don't recognise any of the people in it, are some of them celebs or something?

(English person here)

Kobe Bryant is an athlete, and Jimmy Kimmel (the one with the RPG) is a comedian, and I'm pretty sure he has a talk-show of some kind.

I swear a recognize the guy with dual pistols, but I might be wrong.

I want to say he's the soup Nazi from Seinfeld but I'm probably wrong.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I remember I had a discussion about this once in a class in college. I was curious if Nike would pull his sponsership like they did for Tiger.

But yeah... between this and the girl who had the fire the gun that got talked about this was just a poorly planned commercial.

 

[MoNKeyYy]

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg

did I miss even bigger news then this though?

No see because this is a legitimate argument issued in a sensible way by someone with sanity >Kim Jong Il Kotick wasn't even allowed within a 500m radius. He doesn't bother with that stuff becuse he's too busy conspiring with Satan and Repulblicans about how to further dick over consumers.

 

[Woodsey]

Uh, there's nothing wrong with the ad.

From the music, to the "proud n00b" on Jimmy Kimmel's RPG,it's so tongue-in-cheek you're a fool to see it any other way. Obviously, Kobe Bryant (whoever he is) is intelligent enough to see that.

Kobe might be, but dozens of commentators and thousands of people were braying about it. Worst of all, it does seem many of the people who complained about the ad had no problem airing it.

That'll be because they're making bare dollar from it.

 

[Something Amyss]

That'll be because they're making bare dollar from it.

I'm aware they're making money off of it. But to lambaste the company and claim it morally reprehensible while running with it for any reason is ridiculous and hypocritical.