Advocacy Group Angry That Moms Hate Dead Space 2

[Mr Companion]

I actually agree here, the ad wouldn't appeal to anybody other than under 18's, because 18 year olds don't give a shit whether their parents approve. This is a blatant attempts to appeal to little pillocks.

 

[centaurpoop]

the advert is funny but i see why this would be appealing to the wannabe rebel kids though with that being said it is just an advert . that doesn't mean people will buy it just because of the advert but influence them into thinking about it.

 

[Lord Kloo]

Does it really matter that they are perhaps inadvertently appealing to an underage group? Surely being underage the parents will buy the game for them because you need ID to buy a game of 16/17/18 or over so they can't buy it legally..

Perhaps we should just be tighter on lax stores who don't enquire about age..

Besides anyone over the age minimum for these games doesn't have to give a damn what their parents think..

 

[Danpascooch]

ractices by making ads that are "irresistible" to kids.

Vance disagrees, replying to Stayer with: "Just because a product desires to be seen as 'cool' or 'edgy' does not in and of itself necessitate that it is directed at children." EA spokeswoman Amanda Taggart also revealed that the company works hard to ensure it follows ESRB rules, and had the campaign approved before it aired.

Then who is it supposed to appeal to? Adults who buy whatever the hell they want with their money and don't care too much what their mother's think about it? While I doubt its aimed at children, but it is aimed at an age group thats below the game's rating.

Common Sense Media is in a unique position because of the fact that it praises violent games for their strengths while ensuring that parents know they're not for kids. I can see where the organization is coming from with the Dead Space 2 campaign, but I have a feeling it forgot one key point: Everyone has a mother. There's no way it can be proven that EA was targeting a segment of consumers younger than 16 when plenty of people 17 and older also have a mom.

They also have money, and can buy whatever they want, and don't care much if their mother's don't like it. Making this marketing campaign rather pointless to them. Sure most 17-19 year olds will rely on their parents, but thats a really specific age group to target.

Everyone over the age of 17 has enough disposable income to buy any game whether or not it looks good? That's great news! I actually thought that people over 17 had to make decisions regarding what to spend their money on, but now that I know that all marketing is irrelevant to people over 17 because they have enough money to just buy everything, I'm going to go to the mall and buy out a couple pet stores and make all the pets fight eachother!

Were you born with a silver spoon in your mouth while on a pony while in a jacuzzi large enough to fit you and the aforementioned pony?

Of course marketing to adults isn't "irrelevant" and this ad is obviously meant to be targeted at people younger than what the game is rated.

I WOULD agree with the advocacy group if I agreed with the rating system, but since I don't, I don't think the ad is a problem. I also don't think they're going to get anywhere legally, because although the target of this ad is obvious, it's not actually provable.


EDIT: Reading over your post again, I seem to have misunderstood it, so I'm adding this edit. I'm keeping the original text intact though, because personally I thought it was one of my more hilarious rants.

 

[samsonguy920]

I hate to be the one to say it but.... the advocacy group is right. That's exactly who the ad is targeting.

You aren't alone. That "mom study" was immature and moronic.

 

[Formica Archonis]

I hate to be the one to say it but.... the advocacy group is right. That's exactly who the ad is targeting.

Of course it was, it was demographic pandering of the cheapest sort. Because the reaction of most of the adults who see the ads would be something like "So my mother wouldn't like the game. Yeah, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't like my porn collection either, that's why I live on my own and pay my own rent/mortgage."

Kids who see it on the other hand will think they're really putting one over on Mom if they get their hands on it.

 

[Danpascooch]

I can see where this advocacy group is coming from, but I don't agree with it.

After all, kids are allowed to play this game as long as they have a parent buy it, so who cares if the ad targets kids?

If the kid finds some way to buy the game and play it without the parent ever noticing, it's the parents fault.

Also, it's not like this ad has zero appeal to people over 18, I'm 19 (alright fine, I'm 8 days from being 19) and I don't live at home anymore and I thought it was HILARIOUS. If anything it made me want to buy the game a bit more out of respect that they were willing to screw with these conservative-as-shit mothers.

 

[Senaro]

I'm 21 and my mom hates Dead Space 2.

 

[CitySquirrel]

I hate to be the one to say it but.... the advocacy group is right. That's exactly who the ad is targeting.

Zigactly. By the time people are the proper age for this game they are for more likely to thinking "yeah, so?" The advertisement seems to be appealing to teenage rebellion. But I'm tempted to believe that the marketing people are just stupid enough to misjudge the maturity of the average adult gamer.

Edit:

"So my mother wouldn't like the game. Yeah, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't like my porn collection either, that's why I live on my own and pay my own rent/mortgage."

I laughed at that. Well done.

 

[RA92]

Did it occur to anyone that EA was just trying to take a fresh approach to advertisement and not particularly trying to appeal to a demography?

Was it funny? Really up to your personal opinion. But condemning something purely through your personal taste? Just because you find it immature, it's suddenly aimed at a younger demography? I'm 18+, and still find well-done juvenile jokes [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_6ItxioUco] humorous. Why should I be starved of my enjoyment purely because of someone else's opinion? Even when it is (through ERSB) clearly aimed at me?

 

[Thegreatoz]

What idiotic accusations... I don't get, where it happens? In USA perhaps?

Have you seen the adds? They are clearly marketing towards people who would care if their mothers hated the game i.e. people who aren't allowed to get it. Yea, most people over 17 still have mothers who probably would hate the game, but they don't care.

 

[joshthor]

i gotta say the advocacy group is right. while everyone has a mother (even orphans biologically) people over 18 wont really care if their mothers are upset. if they are, they need to put down the video games and move out already.

 

[Terminate421]

Actually, the advertisement was meant for one thing. Humor.

Can't people take a joke nowadays?

 

[Double A]

Common Sense Media? Get some common sense.

I hate these kinds of people.

 

[RoBi3.0]

Does it really matter that they are perhaps inadvertently appealing to an underage group? Surely being underage the parents will buy the game for them because you need ID to buy a game of 16/17/18 or over so they can't buy it legally..

Perhaps we should just be tighter on lax stores who don't enquire about age..

Besides anyone over the age minimum for these games doesn't have to give a damn what their parents think..

This is very very wrong, for two reasons. One it is not illegal for a kid to buy an M rated game(in the USA anyway). Reputable stores tend to follow ESRB guidelines and not sell game to kids under the age rateing, but that is very far from it being illegal.

Second, it IS illegal for kids to buy tobacco and it is also illegal to market tobacco to kids. It is also against ESRB guidelines to market games to kids under the age rating.

Furthermore if video games want to be taken seriously as an art, they need to start acting responsibly about how they market their games/present themselves. This ad campaign does nothing to demonstrate that the video game industry is able to self regulate responsibly.

I as a gamer and a parent would rather be given the tools to decide what is right for me and mine instead of having the government waste their time and my tax dollars doing it for me.

 

[MaVeN1337]

Totally didn't see this coming -_-

Fuck EA for promoting Dead Space 2 like that.

And fuck everyone else for being so politically correct.

 

[GiantRaven]

Personally I find the portrayal of an extremely negative stereotype of videogaming much worse than the perceived aiming towards under 17s (although that's bad as well).