Advocacy Group Angry That Moms Hate Dead Space 2

[Kyogissun]

Wow, another group taking this advertising campaign way too seriously.

God forbid anyone try 'anything' different in terms of marketing these days.

You know what? Props to visceral. They did this campaign right. Not only has it got a 'fuckton' of people bitching and moaning over what is otherwise somewhat of a 'trollish' sales pitch for a vidya gayum, it's garnered some outside attention and brought in the necessatry sales.

And guys, let's realize something, if a mother sees this campaign, lets her child buy the game and then proceeds to freak out after seeing said content, it only proves further that parents think they are completely without liability for monitoring their kids and want everyone else to do it for them.

tl;dr Advocacy group is overreacting like everyone else on the internet is and Visceral is probably falling out of their chairs from laughter because of people taking things way too seriously.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Intentionally or not, it comes off as directed at children.

Even setting that issue aside, the ad campaign is immature and detrimental to all of the effort everyone else is putting in trying to fight these stereotypes against games and gamers.

I was completely taken aback when I saw the slogan for the first time; it feels like we're back in 1999.

Good for them. Seriously, I think, for the most part, Common Sense Media is one of the more reasonable and awesome groups out there for that. Rare groups like them, Reviews4Parents, and... well like I said, they're rare. Point is, they understand and respect the medium to a degree while also helping parents be careful what they allow their kids to play. And EA was way out of line with that ad campaign; it's degrading, demeaning, and patronizing. They're treating mature gamers like rebellious teenage brats. Anyone and everyone is right to act against them for this.

Honestly, I think the age requirement for games like this in America should be lowered. We can have sex at 16 but god forbid we shoot virtual aliens. My 7 year old sister played DS2 and had fun just stomping corpses, if parents actually parented, we wouldn't have these groups or these ad campaigns.

First, the ad campaign is tasteless, immature, and stupid regardless of your stance on age for gaming. The "if parents actually parented" comment is also fairly dumb. Parents have a lot of things to deal with, things will slip through the cracks, and absolute big-brother parenting is probably extremely detrimental to children anyway. Also, I am extremely doubtful that there are very many 7 year olds who should be playing DS2. Perhaps I'm misreading a sarcastic remark, but if your sister actually had fun "stomping corpses" in DS2, the people trying to restrict the age are right on the mark. As gamers, we typically like to speak against the "games desensitize people" and "violent/sexual/etc games can negatively affect a person's personality", but there's no reasonable way to make the same argument when you're talking about young children playing these games.

The maturity of the ad campaign is irrelevant. I'm also not being sarcastic, I provide for my sister. I don't seem to have any trouble being a parent, we've come from a broken home and have experienced MUCH worse than shooting virtual shit in a video game. I guess I have a different view on things because I was never sheltered from reality when I was a child, hell, spongebob is worse that any 17+ game in my opinion.

I can understand that some children are in very different circumstances. Still, I'm really not sure that I personally find DS2 to be appropriate for any 7-year-old. Though again I don't know the situation, so I'm not about to criticize your parenting on some forum on the internet. I'm really curious about the Spongebob comment though - that's pretty fucking harmless media. I honestly can't think of anything bad to say about Spongebob beyond the fact that it lost some creative steam after a while. I don't want to clutter this up with off-topic discussion, but I'd be really interested to hear your comparison of Spongebob to DS2 if you want to shoot me a PM.

Wow, another group taking this advertising campaign way too seriously.

God forbid anyone try 'anything' different in terms of marketing these days.

You know what? Props to visceral. They did this campaign right. Not only has it got a 'fuckton' of people bitching and moaning over what is otherwise somewhat of a 'trollish' sales pitch for a vidya gayum, it's garnered some outside attention and brought in the necessatry sales.

And guys, let's realize something, if a mother sees this campaign, lets her child buy the game and then proceeds to freak out after seeing said content, it only proves further that parents think they are completely without liability for monitoring their kids and want everyone else to do it for them.

tl;dr Advocacy group is overreacting like everyone else on the internet is and Visceral is probably falling out of their chairs from laughter because of people taking things way too seriously.

Executive summary of full response: Gamers used to being the target of baseless criticism by advocacy groups overgeneralize reaction and accidentally condemn reasonable criticism, also seem to think that good parenting involves 24/7 supervision (quick illustration: did any of you ever play a game your parents wouldn't have approved of at a friend's house when you were a kid?).

 

[Noctis_XZ]

Where I am, they NEVER do.

And another real-world scenario:

Fourteen-year-old goes <link=http://store.steampowered.com/app/47780/?snr=1_4_4__13>here, lies about age.

Wherever you're at needs to have all of its Gamestop employees fired then. The sale of M rated games to minors is prolly top five in the list of stuff you absolutely do not do as a Gamestop employee.

Also If a parent is dumb enough to not only let a child have completely unrestricted access to Steam but also their credit card then that's their problem, not EA's.

It seems to me that there are people here who are just trying to make excuses for EA and that Dead Space 2 ad and defy all things logical.

This has nothing to do with how funny the commercial was or wasn't, how you do or don't think children are affected by what they see in a video game, or how it's just a video game and everyone needs to stop thinking about it so much.

I'll say it again.. there are RULES, plain and simple. The argument Common Sense Media is trying to make is that this ad is overly appealing to those under 17 years of age and is therefor breaking the RULES because the game is rated M(17+).

It has absolutely nothing to do with the game itself. And the excuses being made are actually the funny thing out of all of this. Are there people truly that dense who believe that ad was not intended for children in a sense..

All I can say is that if it wasn't than that means EA thinks you are truly stupid and little things like your mother will hate it will drive you to buy their game. Cause let's face it.. that's what ads are made for. To make you want to purchase the item contained within.

If you honestly think any ad is simply meant to be funny without trying to pry your money from your wallet you absolutely have no concept of why commercials are there in the first place..

You brought up rules...but ummm...the news post clearly states that EA broke no rules. The ad campaign was signed off on by the ESRB. The advocacy group says that EA violated an ESRB rule. The two cant both be right and considerin the ad was approved, I kinda doubt the advocacy group is right.

And ads arent solely meant to make people buy stuff. Well...most of them are. However the idea isn't always simply "buy my product." Other times the idea is simply to spark some controversy and create some buzz about somethin. EA clearly pulled that off with this
ad campaign and got people talkin about Dead Space 2.

I'll take your point under consideration because it is actually a rather reasonable counter argument.. BUT.. than again whose to say the enforcer of the rules can't sometimes make a mistake as well IF they had to sign off with the ESRB for the actual ad. Call me paranoid or stupid but the way this was worded..

"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."

Approved by who? The ESRB or EA? Words can be a tricky thing sometimes.. especially to an idiot like myself. Just look at how a politician uses their words to simply confuse the masses.. company spokespeople can do it as well.

I won't even claim to know how the ESRB operates and if they enforce everything contained within the commercial of a video game but even if they do what I said above still stands.

This is by FAR one of the least worst thing we've seen from one of these types of groups when it comes to video games. It is extremely rational and based on logical rather than fear or the unknown.. it is the opinion of Common Sense that this ad was intended for a much younger audience than should be accepted and in my opinion mostly agreeable.

I'll say it a third time. We should save our HARSH criticism for the groups that really don't have a clue. It's perfectly fine to disagree with them.. but saying they are overreacting and just trying to get attention is not needed just because YOU don't agree with them.

And yes.. commercials are PURELY made to garner money from the audience even if it's purpose is to create publicity, why you ask? Because publicity will give your product more attention and make it known to a far wider audience than you could have possibly reached and get them too to perhaps buy, donate, or whatever the case to their cause.

 

[shintakie10]

Sure. But is this toilet humor?

If they ran an ad with toilet humor ad nauseum, then why not? But I defy you to find a twenty-five year old who bases his buying choices off what his mother disapproves of. Because I can give you quite a few young teens.

I didnt say it was toilet humor, I simply used it as an example. The ad campaign was not meant to tell people that because your mom hates dead space 2 you should buy it. It was a immature campaign aimed at creatin a buzz with the game. Could they have gone another way with it? Sure, but then it wouldnt have had the same draw that this one did (or maybe it would have, who knows).

As for your second point, I dont know any twenty-five year old people who base their buyin decisions off of what their mother disapproves of, but I do know many twenty-five year olds who would buy a game that they knew some conservative jerkoff thought was "offensive" and probably wanted to ban.

Its really not easy to find a place that will sell games to kids that are obviously under age. Every single gamestop has a no-tolerance policy for that and I've seen and known people who have been fired for doin so. Steam requires a credit card which means some kids parents are either neglectful or they have terrible parentin skills.

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

And ads arent solely meant to make people buy stuff. Well...most of them are. However the idea isn't always simply "buy my product." Other times the idea is simply to spark some controversy and create some buzz about somethin. EA clearly pulled that off with this ad campaign and got people talkin about Dead Space.

This is quite possibly the most hilariously dumb thing I've ever read on this site. You're so close to grasping it, yet it slips from your hands. You mention "controversy" and "buzz," yet you miss the point that the only reason to create either is that someone thinks it will get people to buy their product to see what the fuss is all about. You think the people who marketed Snakes on a Plane patted themselves on the back when their movie tanked at the box office, going "Well, at least we got people talking about it"? No, because the whole point was to get people to buy tickets and see the movie. "Buzz" and "controversy" are tools to get people to buy stuff, not goals in and of themselves.

All I can say is that if it wasn't than that means EA thinks you are truly stupid and little things like your mother will hate it will drive you to buy their game.

Quoted for truth.

 

[lacktheknack]

Sure. But is this toilet humor?

If they ran an ad with toilet humor ad nauseum, then why not? But I defy you to find a twenty-five year old who bases his buying choices off what his mother disapproves of. Because I can give you quite a few young teens.

I didnt say it was toilet humor, I simply used it as an example. The ad campaign was not meant to tell people that because your mom hates dead space 2 you should buy it. It was a immature campaign aimed at creatin a buzz with the game. Could they have gone another way with it? Sure, but then it wouldnt have had the same draw that this one did (or maybe it would have, who knows).

As for your second point, I dont know any twenty-five year old people who base their buyin decisions off of what their mother disapproves of, but I do know many twenty-five year olds who would buy a game that they knew some conservative jerkoff thought was "offensive" and probably wanted to ban.

Its really not easy to find a place that will sell games to kids that are obviously under age. Every single gamestop has a no-tolerance policy for that and I've seen and known people who have been fired for doin so. Steam requires a credit card which means some kids parents are either neglectful or they have terrible parentin skills.

At the bolded: YES IT WAS. The whole point of a "buzz campaign" is to attract people to BUYING it.

And my last two jabs at the Steam buying possibility:

Me: "Oh look! Here's my mother's credit card information! I'm incredibly short-sighted, and don't care about the consequences, so..."

Or:

Me: "Hey Mom! Can I get that new Tomb Raider game from Steam?
Mom: "Sure. Here's my credit card."
Me:

 

[shintakie10]

And ads arent solely meant to make people buy stuff. Well...most of them are. However the idea isn't always simply "buy my product." Other times the idea is simply to spark some controversy and create some buzz about somethin. EA clearly pulled that off with this ad campaign and got people talkin about Dead Space.

This is quite possibly the most hilariously dumb thing I've ever read on this site. You're so close to grasping it, yet it slips from your hands. You mention "controversy" and "buzz," yet you miss the point that the only reason to create either is that someone thinks it will get people to buy their product to see what the fuss is all about. You think the people who marketed Snakes on a Plane patted themselves on the back when their movie tanked at the box office, going "Well, at least we got people talking about it"? No, because the whole point was to get people to buy tickets and see the movie. "Buzz" and "controversy" are tools to get people to buy stuff, not goals in and of themselves.

I worded my argument poorly and I knew it as soon as I hit post, but I had trouble figurin out a way to say what I actually wanted to say correctly. The basic idea is this. Advertisement is meant to make people buy stuff. However, an ad does not explicitly mean for people to buy it based off of the ad. Those fun puzzle ads are a good example of this. Its impossible to know what the ad is actually for without actually searchin for the product in question. They generate buzz about that product without anyone actually knowin what said product is or what it does. Are those ads meant to get people to buy somethin? Yes. Is the ad itself meant to get people actually buy it? No.

Word of mouth and controversy are probably some of the best advertisement tools available to a company. The two together keep your product on the minds of lots of people and it is free advertisement to boot. Does it always work out? As your Snakes on a Plane reference proves, no it doesnt. However it can and does work other times.

At the bolded: YES IT WAS. The whole point of a "buzz campaign" is to attract people to BUYING it.

And my last two jabs at the Steam buying possibility:

Me: "Oh look! Here's my mother's credit card information! I'm incredibly short-sighted, and don't care about the consequences, so..."

Or:

Me: "Hey Mom! Can I get that new Tomb Raider game from Steam?
Mom: "Sure. Here's my credit card."
Me:

The whole point of a buzz campaign is to get people talkin about it to buy it yes. The ad itself doesnt actually get anyone to buy the game. You rightly pointed out there are very very few people in the age demographic would could actually buy this game who would be attracted to buyin it simply because their mother hates it. However there are many people in that demographic who would find the ad amusin and share it with their friends. Those friends share it with their friends and so on and so on. This gets people talkin about the game, hopefully talkin with people who normally wouldnt look into a game like that. Thats the point of a buzz campaign. You'll hook the person that would normally get it, but the real prize is to get the person who normally wouldn't have known it existed.

 

[Keith Reedy]

I will sum up my feelings on this thread and the ad campaign yo ma hates it crap, I don't care and honestly no one should

 

[Supp]

I found the ads depressingly funny because the only way they'd work is for people to honestly believe that doing something their mothers disapprove of is cool. I mean, who the hell buys into that crap? It seems more like what Hollywood imagines high school students act like than something rational people believe.

God damn, that didn't make any sense.

 

[Carlston]

So they complain its not for kids...

They get a rating saying how old a kid should be for it...

Then they buy it for their kid anyway....


Then they ***** some more.


Yep sounds like normal American parents....glad i'm not the norm.

 

[chif-ii]

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.

How many people over the age of 17 are going to care if their mother hates Dead Space 2? Except for those who still live with their mother or something, small at best.

snipped

So what you're saying is that the goal is to get word of mouth going; that way, people who don't see the ad hear about the product anyway.

 

[dfphetteplace]

I kind of agree with the group, but it may just be me. I thought the commercial was a little stupid. I really don't give a shit if my mom likes or dislikes the games I play or the music I listen to or the movies I watch. At the age of 26, it doesn't mean anything. Most of the stuff I like doesn't appeal to people my own age, let alone her. Even when I was a teenager, I don't think the commercial would have appealed to me, but maybe it would to kids that want to rebel in pointless ways. And though I'm sure my mom wouldn't like this game (the last video game she played was Simon's Quest), I'm sure she would have bought it for me when I was younger.
She didn't seem to care, and guess what? I turned out fine. If teenagers want to shoot some aliens in the face and play a kind of scary game, let 'em. It isn't going to turn them into homicidal maniacs. If a video game is going to do that to your kid, he was already pretty fucked up.

 

[Dash-X]

Their major marketing point is that mothers hate it?

Nope. I can't be convinced that there isn't something wrong with our society -- or at the very least, the guys whose bright idea it was to market it that way.

The advocacy group is dead-on.

 

[bbad89]

Am I the only one who noticed this? EA spokeswoman Amanda TAGGART. TAGGART. HOLY CRAP AYN RAND IS INVADING OUR VIDEO GAMES.

 

[Stevepinto3]

Well it's pretty obvious that anyone 17 and up doesn't give a damn what their mom thinks about the games they play, so yeah, it's definitely pandering to younger teens.

Personally, I'm just more put off by the fact that they have to advertise it as "Your parents won't like it". It's completely anti-progressive for games as a medium to be doing things like this. See also; 90% of everything else EA does.

 

[Treblaine]

Isn't 17+ supposed to be precisely the age when people actively seek to differentiate themselves from their parents? Especially (overbearing) mothers?

Younger kids are far MORE LIKELY to want to appease their parents, older teenagers far less. This group has no case, they are just butthurt their typical disapproval of violent games has now become so predictably against good things it is now a selling point.

It's always "about the children", by god, they hold their children up like human shields against the real world that they seem incapable or unwilling to understand.

BTW, I though the trailer was tacky and cheap, but then again I probably was not the target audience. The real question is CONTEXT, when was this ad shown? Was it shown in the ad-break of a late-night show or on a channel which clearly doesn't target young teens?

 

[FinalHeart95]

I like the ads just cause they seem like a jab at people who think these games are slowly bringing society to its knees.
Unfortunately, EA decided to focus on the "YOUR MOM HATES IT" part. Although I think the ads are brilliant in that they are different, and will probably work (for younger age groups), they are aiming for a lower age group. Common Sense Media is right this time around.

 

[bob1052]

Isn't 17+ supposed to be precisely the age when people actively seek to differentiate themselves from their parents? Especially (overbearing) mothers?

Younger kids are far MORE LIKELY to want to appease their parents, older teenagers far less. This group has no case, they are just butthurt their typical disapproval of violent games has now become so predictably against good things it is now a selling point.

It's always "about the children", by god, they hold their children up like human shields against the real world that they seem incapable or unwilling to understand.

BTW, I though the trailer was tacky and cheap, but then again I probably was not the target audience. The real question is CONTEXT, when was this ad shown? Was it shown in the ad-break of a late-night show or on a channel which clearly doesn't target young teens?

Over 17 is when a lot of kids are moving out to college and becoming completely individual from their parents.

Mid teens (under 17) is when most kids go through their rebel against their parents phase because they are starting to become individual, but still completely dependent by law, regardless of how individual they become.

 

[Thedayrecker]

To be fair it was a stupid slogan to begin with...

EDIT: Does anyone else think "Your mom hates it" would be a good meme?

 

[Noctis_XZ]

While I can't go on to express the exact opinion or thoughts that the members of Common Sense have I can deduce from the article alone that this, and I stress it once again, has literally nothing.. and I mean nothing to do with if killing or stealing in a video game can negatively affect a child. Neither does it have anything to do with the humor you do or do not interpret it to contain. So that kind of talk has no place here really..

It is simply about RULES. Either you believe that the Dead Space 2 ad in question is marketed for a younger audience than the game is intended to be played by or you don't. They believe it does for logical reasons.. so please. If you do disagree do so with logic..

I'm actually really interested in hearing someone speak in defense of the ad without hearing all of this other completely irrelevant talk defending it because it doesn't hold up.

If you can logically justify the use of "Your mother will hate it" other than to attract a younger audience than that's great. There is something to be said in defense of the ad but I'm not sure if anyone brought it up so I'll wait a bit to play devils advocate! XD