Advocacy Group Angry That Moms Hate Dead Space 2

[Saerain]

Can't say that I can find an ethical reason to care about who an ad campaign appears to 'target.' It's a poor marketing decision, certainly, but I don't understand how it endangers anything but EA's return on their marketing investment.

 

[kouriichi]

So we should go ahead and sue nascar, because many children that watch it think that driving fast is awesome.

Seriously. Children are impressionable. Go back to fighting smoking or alcohaul! Something that is accually ruining lives!

 

[Nouw]

I think it was hilarious and one of the best ads I've ever seen.

They have good points but to me it's just one big joke to make people buy the game.

Let me draw an analogy:

Tobacco companies have been prevented from using cartoon animals to promote cigarettes for a number of years now. This doesn't mean that adults don't like cartoon animals. It means that children find cartoon animals more appealing.

So, who's EA really targeting with this ad? The 17-34 age demographic who cares less about what their mothers think? Or the mid-teenager who's chafing under his parent's "restrictive" rules while "becoming an adult"?

That's a great analogy, and probably one of the reasons why I think EA and Visceral were being mean spirited with this.

Honestly, while I can chuckle a bit at the ridiculousness of the scenario, I just don't think it was dignified of EA or Visceral with the campaign. Fine, (most) everyone has a mother, but the advertisement gave off a distinct juvenile feel directed more to 14 year olds. So, to the majority extent, I have to side with Common Sense Media.

That and it doesn't really help our case with "Video Games are nothing but violent murder simulators for the immature man child!"

But wouldn't that be the problem of the people generalizing that if there's 1 case of it, every other game is the same? So we tolerate ignorance now >.>

It seems that at this point whatever can be said has been said about the ad campaign, but I will say this:
To anybody who simultaneously thinks this is a hilarious/cool ad campaign, and also thinks it's unfair that games aren't regarded as art, well, is it really that hard to see why?
You'd never see a horror flick advertising "Your mom is gonna hate this movie!"
Or a novel saying "5 out of 5 moms puked when they saw this book."

It's a childish ad campaign, and the only reason it's so successful is because EA dumped more money than god has into it. You can't turn around without seeing it, so it's really no wonder why it has people talking.

1 bone to pick with, 'can't turn around without seeing it.'

I will ask my classmates tomorrow about this ad campaign, chances are most if not all of them don't know.

 

[Raithnor]

I personally thought that "Your Mom will hate this game" is a pretty lame idea for a marketing campaign.

They're much better off talking about the original innovative gameplay and story.

Oh wait...

 

[Thousand Tides]

It's targeting people who disagree with their mothers. My mom and grandma argue all the time. So meh.

 

[Nouw]

Just another point I realized, these people are basically complaining about the parents not doing their job. Oh wait, they're blaming the video game devs for advertising towards young 'uns. How do they exactly get these games? Do they steal their parent's credit cards or drive themselves to the nearest Games Stop? No, they ask their parents.

I doubt they're rebellious enough to actually do the things needed to buy that game.

EA, call it the Campaign to see how many parents buy it for their kids.

 

[DanDeFool]

The relationship between a mother and child is most expressed under the age of 18, as that is the average age where most people start changing from dependents to independents. It is obviously easier to understand how this would be a MORE appealing marketing campaign towards someone who is 15 or 16 years old than to someone who is 21 or 22 years old.

Agreed. I mean, if the ad really is targeted at the over-17s and particularly adults, what are they really trying to say?

"Ha ha! You're a loser who still lives at home, and doubly so because you still care what she thinks about the kind of entertainment you enjoy!"

Usually the anti-game outrage is complete BS, but in this case I think Common Sense Media has a point. Whether or not sanctions are in order is another story.

 

[Cousin_IT]

If you're 17+ & still think something is edgy & cool because your mum doesn't like it, you're not old enough for this game.

 

[D Moness]

I dunno, I'm in my mid-thirties and I thought the ads were funny. I really don't think it matters whether you have to consider what your mum would think, the ads were just meant to be tongue-in-cheek.

A little over 30 here and i thought the ads were silly, juvenile but a little funny.
Also the add did what it suppose to do. Everybody and their mom is talking about the add/game.
That is all advertising is about getting people to notice it, talk about it and in the end buy it.

 

[Treblaine]

However, in one of your previous posts, you claimed that young teens are more likely to try to please their parents. And that, quite frankly, is hilarious. If that were true, then yes, there wouldn't be a problem with the campaign. However, by far the vast majority of young teens are looking for ways to give the middle finger to their parents, in which case the campaign IS misguided.

Also, I'm not talking about 16-17 age groups. I'm talking about the 12-14 age group.

That's my dispute here, I'm not saying 12-16 year olds are utterly deferential to their parents but they are certainly MORE contrarian as they get older! You'd agree with that right? Who bows more to their parents will and whim just before they leave for college?

That is the basis of my argument that this ad does NOT target young teens as CSM claim, but such a campaign is an immature and low-brow one, but it is not guilty of "corrupting innocent youth" as CSM is trying to claim.

 

[Treblaine]

Simple question: did this get people of 17 years old and over interested enough in Dead Space 2 to google it? Almost certainly.

Did 15-16 year olds also get caught up in the buzz: yes, probably to a certain extent.

Spoiler: sarcasm

Did this get people of 15-16 years old interested enough in Dead Space 2 to google it? Almost certainly.

Did 17 years old and over also get caught up in the buzz: yes, probably to a certain extent.

Your entire post is nothing but falsified facts to attempt to prove a fact based on how many people of each age group would respond.

The fact is, many people who are in their late teens/early twenties are individual adults. They appealed to an immature audience. That means that they appealed to a portion of the older audience, and the ENTIRE younger audience.

The advocacy group (by the way, I share the same feeling about "common sense" as you so I try to avoid calling them by it) is not trying to unfairly create a scenario to punish EA and Visceral, they are just, correctly, pointing out that it does not meet the regulations previously established.

Well I'll admit I was pushing it, I refute your claims that I have falsified anything, I did say "almost" and "probably" and those are my own subjective judgements of the situation. Sorry but there just aren't any statistics available on this very particular issue.

CSM's case is not merely that this ad is tangentially interesting to 13-16 year olds, rather that it TARGETS them! That is something I don't think there is any evidence for, rather evidence to the contrary, the key one being age group indicated by the mothers themselves:


Now I know rule number one in life is you should never ask what a woman's age is but you have to admit those do not look like ladies who have 13 year old children, many of them I wouldn't be surprised if they were fortunate enough to have 13 year old GRANDchildren. So that should be indication enough as far as targeting of the ad campaign.

I cannot agree with regulations that mean any ad campaign to 17+ must also be unappealing to THE ENTIRE under-17 audience! Because that is impossible, 13-16 year olds find the SAME THINGS appealing, the only difference is they "can't handle it" hence parents reasonably prohibit what they can play and most retail outlets abide by that with enforcing ESRB recommendations.

We cannot depend on "appeal" to stop kids playing unsuitable games, that will never work and frankly should never even be attempted:

"The whole principle is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak."
Robert A. Heinlein - On Censorship

 

[pixiejedi]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this ad campaign was rubbish. It annoys me when people feel compelled to buy something because what other people will think of it. It does nothing to demonstrate that the target audience of this game are mature enough see the violence as an asset and not the main draw of the game.

 

[Sephychu]

This makes sense. Nobody over the age of seventeen cares what their respective mothers think of their entertainment choices, and are certainly not going to buy them because their mothers hate them.

However, I also stand differently on whether this game should be allowed to be sold to children below that age, but that's a different kettle of fish.

 

[TheEnglishman]

Of course it's being aimed at children under 17, anyone over 17 doesn't give a damn what their Mothers think of the game cause they're sensible enough to realise that their Mum wont be playing, so who gives a damn. Only children would buy this game simply for bloody violence and to spite their Mum.

And furthermore, only children hear the words "cool" and "edgy" and don't immediatly think "Well you have no idea how people talk now or days, good bye."

Along with the Dante's Inferno advertising, these people do appear to be rather stupid.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-huh? Oh this is true?

Well then...more people to add to the 'idiots of america/gaming' group.

 

[Xanadu84]

Ive read some stuff on Common Sense Media, and honestly...they're pretty good. Sometimes they are a bit in the dark, but for the most part, they are pretty down to earth and reasonable. I can't exactly back them up on this, however. For one, people older then 18 still have parents, and still probably interact with them regularly. And for a freshly released into College teen, or an older gamers pushing 30 whose mom occasionally badgers them about life, this ad has appeal, and it is the primary audience.

More importantly though, is that this argument flies in the face of Common Sense Medias stated goal. They say that they are not interested in controlling what people do for themselves or their kids. They are interested in INFORMING parents about the facts so they can make informed decisions. They shouldn't oppose a teenager playing Dead Space if the parents know what Dead Space is. I see where the red flag comes up, but in the end, doesn't this campaign both try to sell a product, AND inform parents right off the bat that they aren't going to like the excessive violence? In reality, they should want more advertising like this, advertising that spells out to the parents explicitly what the content is.

I can see Common Sense medias concern, but I think that once you stop using common sense, and start actually working through the details of the data, you see that the ad isn't that bad.

Also, I just went to watch the video: those women did not look like women with children in there young teens. Those women looked like grandmothers, with children in there late 20's, early 30's. That pardons EA quite a bit.

 

[Canjul]

This ad campaign is bloody stupid. I mean...it's not funny. Or edgy. The game kicks ass and I loved Dead Space's Lullaby ads. This seems like it's just trying WAY too hard.

 

[duckfi8]

people will seriously sue over anything