Advocacy Group Angry That Moms Hate Dead Space 2

[Treblaine]

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.

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

There is a difference between:

Mothers hate -> big fuss (buzz) -> people think "hey what's this Dead Space 2 talk? Better check it out"

and

Mothers hate -> reason in itself to buy game

You are making a general/specific obfuscation

"The whole point of a "buzz campaign" is to attract people to BUYING it."

Not DIRECTLY though! The buzz is just enough to get people to type "Dead Space" into google when the first few hits will (if PR dept is doing its job right) will be full of reasons to buy the game. I mean my mother hates loads of things (probably easier to write the things the likes... on a post-it note) that's not reason to buy into it.

This ad is playing off how for the past few years old squares have hysterically gone after every popular game that dares to be any where near as violent as movies have gotten away with for decades. But only the popular ones, No one bitched on Fox News about Velvet Assassin...

 

[Warforger]

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

How is what they're saying wrong? Most kids would love to play a game that their parents hate and a sign to their "maturation" for being so brave. This maybe one of the few times they make sense.

 

[gabe12301]

This makes me want to buy the game more!

New commercial idea: 10 out of 10 advocacy groups hate Dead Space 2.

 

[lacktheknack]

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.

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

There is a difference between:

Mothers hate -> big fuss (buzz) -> people think "hey what's this Dead Space 2 talk? Better check it out"

and

Mothers hate -> reason in itself to buy game

You are making a general/specific obfuscation

"The whole point of a "buzz campaign" is to attract people to BUYING it."

Not DIRECTLY though! The buzz is just enough to get people to type "Dead Space" into google when the first few hits will (if PR dept is doing its job right) will be full of reasons to buy the game. I mean my mother hates loads of things (probably easier to write the things the likes... on a post-it note) that's not reason to buy into it.

This ad is playing off how for the past few years old squares have hysterically gone after every popular game that dares to be any where near as violent as movies have gotten away with for decades. But only the popular ones, No one bitched on Fox News about Velvet Assassin...

I don't see them complaining to FOX News about Dead Space 2 either.

I get the point, but I also get Common Sense Media's point. Your point: They're trying to get general buzz so people will look the game up. CSM's point: The method they've chosen has the side effect of appealing to exactly the wrong audience.

For the record, Common Sense Media loved the game.

 

[lacktheknack]

This makes me want to buy the game more!

New commercial idea: 10 out of 10 advocacy groups hate Dead Space 2.

HAH! The advocacy group in question here gave the game 5/5! Your suggestion has failed!

 

[lacktheknack]

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?

The ad has already sprouted a different meme.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/theyre-not-babies-at-all

 

[lacktheknack]

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.

That's a MUCH more clear position. And it leaves both you and CSM in the right: You think it worked at attracting an older audience, CSM thinks it's too attractive for the younger audience.

Compromise: EA probably should have chosen a different campaign strategy.

 

[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?

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.

No it's 17 and Over, so 17th birthday = free reign. That is easily 2 years living with parents able to buy whatever you like (also not everyone immediately goes to college).

Plus, ESRB remains a mere suggestion, it's not a government censorship agency.

How hard is ANY advertising campaign going to be to target a 17 year old without also appealing to 16 year olds? That's impossible. They have the same interests, privileges, and routine. The only hope is an age-gate behind every ad but who is ever honest with those?

The bottom line is with ESRB's arbitrary definition means that parents simply need to man up, and just discipline their kids. If they don't want their kids playing M-rated games THEN DON'T BUY THOSE FOR THEM! It's that simple, as retail is better at enforcing video game ratings than movie or any other entertainment medium. Forbid them from playing them outright even. If they can't do that they have bigger problems on their plate than mere entertainment consumption.

 

[Noctis_XZ]

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.

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

There is a difference between:

Mothers hate -> big fuss (buzz) -> people think "hey what's this Dead Space 2 talk? Better check it out"

and

Mothers hate -> reason in itself to buy game

You are making a general/specific obfuscation

"The whole point of a "buzz campaign" is to attract people to BUYING it."

Not DIRECTLY though! The buzz is just enough to get people to type "Dead Space" into google when the first few hits will (if PR dept is doing its job right) will be full of reasons to buy the game. I mean my mother hates loads of things (probably easier to write the things the likes... on a post-it note) that's not reason to buy into it.

This ad is playing off how for the past few years old squares have hysterically gone after every popular game that dares to be any where near as violent as movies have gotten away with for decades. But only the popular ones, No one bitched on Fox News about Velvet Assassin...

There is the true counter argument right there. You could argue that the point of EA creating this focus group of CONSERVATIVE mothers, conservative the key word here, was to explicitly put them in a position where they are CONFRONTED with a video game that they would generally not like and complain about but other wise have no idea it even existed if it was not for EA.

You could argue that their intent was to cause a media storm of how this game was the bane of or existence.. which in turn would create so much more publicity for it and attract the few that play games who have not heard about Dead Space to at least become interested in it enough to at least look it up.. and with hope, be interested enough afterwords to play it.

With that being said though the argument still stands that unintentionally perhaps.. maybe like how Unitology had no intention of being perhaps a parody almost of Scientology, the ad seemed to almost strikingly seem to be targeted for a much younger audience.

Ignorance does not excuse you from following the law and neither does intention.. Common Sense is simply trying to call them on that.

Yes.. the ESRB rating system isn't very affective. Yes.. parents who purchase games for their children should become more knowledgeable when it comes to allowing them to play games they find not suitable for them instead of trying to outright ban the game. But that is not what this is about..

Common Sense is using common sense and that is all. They are aware of the rules and in their opinion those rules were broken.

 

[Treblaine]

I don't see them complaining to FOX News about Dead Space 2 either.

Ah ha ha, but they are trying to SIMULATE that controversy! With this buzz campaign, of course no one mistakes it for Fox News but they would think something like:

"huh, old people again trying to put us down, they're always trying to crush great games, what s this game anyway *google*"

I get the point, but I also get Common Sense Media's point. Your point: They're trying to get general buzz so people will look the game up. CSM's point: The method they've chosen has the side effect of appealing to exactly the wrong audience.

For the record, Common Sense Media loved the game.

The "wrong audience" I do not agree with. 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. How many 15-16 year olds wanted to see Matrix or 300 to spite both being R-rated? How many DID!

CSM is just trying to manufacture this manufactured controversy to their benefit, I mean who had even heard of them before? We're hearing of them now and "hey, we actually really like the game too, we're not all old fuddy duddies".

Frankly the very name "common sense" sends a shiver down my spine as the number of oppressive laws and rulings that have been justified as "common sense" (only from a prejudiced perspective). The fundamental problem with such a phrase is it automatically assumes there is nothing to debate, as if it is so obvious only a moron would not realise it, it's slightly less arrogant than calling themselves the "We Are Always Right Group" but far more bullshitty.

But that's just my tangent on the abuse of the phrase "common sense" from it's logical meaning to a logical fallacy.

 

[ninetails593]

Dear lord, everyone's targeting the developers these days. It's the parents that are the cause of children playing mature games.

 

[infohippie]

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.

 

[lacktheknack]

I don't see them complaining to FOX News about Dead Space 2 either.

Ah ha ha, but they are trying to SIMULATE that controversy! With this buzz campaign, of course no one mistakes it for Fox News but they would think something like:

"huh, old people again trying to put us down, they're always trying to crush great games, what s this game anyway *google*"

I get the point, but I also get Common Sense Media's point. Your point: They're trying to get general buzz so people will look the game up. CSM's point: The method they've chosen has the side effect of appealing to exactly the wrong audience.

For the record, Common Sense Media loved the game.

The "wrong audience" I do not agree with. 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. How many 15-16 year olds wanted to see Matrix or 300 to spite both being R-rated? How many DID!

CSM is just trying to manufacture this manufactured controversy to their benefit, I mean who had even heard of them before? We're hearing of them now and "hey, we actually really like the game too, we're not all old fuddy duddies".

Frankly the very name "common sense" sends a shiver down my spine as the number of oppressive laws and rulings that have been justified as "common sense" (only from a prejudiced perspective). The fundamental problem with such a phrase is it automatically assumes there is nothing to debate, as if it is so obvious only a moron would not realise it, it's slightly less arrogant than calling themselves the "We Are Always Right Group" but far more bullshitty.

But that's just my tangent on the abuse of the phrase "common sense" from it's logical meaning to a logical fallacy.

Well, we're debating, aren't we?

And they aren't saying "Oh, we liked it!" just for appeal. I checked their review catalog and they actually like many of the games they label "not for kids". Check their age-rating system, it's actually a good one.

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.

 

[Diligent]

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.

 

[bob1052]

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.

 

[Noctis_XZ]

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.

It's like I said before. This whole ad gives the groups that we should rightly be rallying against a legitimate reason why video games are for children and more so why they aren't art.

I've been posting a lot in this thread and it's only really because at this point because people STILL.. despite everything I've said and some others as well can't grasp the concept of what this is really about. It does not matter AT ALL what EA was trying to do with the ad! The finished product is out and it APPEARS to be targeted for a much younger audience and that is all Common Sense is trying to say.

If you disagree fine but my god.. really, just take a step back from your personal opinion and look at it logically. If you put personal taste and your opinion before logic than I can see how you'd think this group is just dumb and trying to get attention.. but really, to those with a shred of logic can at least say without a doubt that they understand where they are coming from and acknowledge their point even if you still disagree.

I don't like their name either and that's only because of what common sense really means. There are more unintelligent people than intelligent so if those unintelligent people believed smashing a rock against your skull made you smarter instead of the intelligent who believe reading will.. well, common sense tells you to grab a rock. See what I mean?

I might not agree with everything this group has said or will say but educate yourself like I did and perhaps take a look at their site..

Ten Common Sense Beliefs

* We believe in media sanity, not censorship.
* We believe that media has truly become "the other parent" in our kids' lives, powerfully affecting their mental, physical, and social development.
* We believe in teaching our kids to be savvy, respectful and responsible media interpreters, creators, and communicators. We can?t cover their eyes but we can teach them to see.
* We believe parents should have a choice and a voice about the media our kids consume and create. Every family is different but all need information.
* We believe that the price for free and open media is a bit of extra homework for families. Parents need to know about the media their kids use and need to teach responsible, ethical behavior as well as manage overall media use.
* We believe that through informed decision making, we can improve the media landscape one decision at a time.
* We believe appropriate regulations about right time, right place, and right manner exist. They need to be upheld by our elected and appointed leaders.
* We believe in age-appropriate media and that the media industry needs to act responsibly as it creates and markets content for each audience.
* We believe ratings systems should be independent and transparent for all media.
* We believe in diversity of programming and media ownership.

Does that seem so crazy? No.. and to that one group of people, they don't just attack video games.. they attack movies, books, music, and websites.. and by attack I mean give a reasonable description of what it's all about and just generally arm people with information.

 

[Mike Richards]

I'm glad someone is complaining about this, but not necessarily for the reasons they are. Yes, I do think the ad skewed the target audience way more then it should have and that's a bad thing, because really, kids aren't supposed to be playing Dead Space. Just the way things are.

But I have more of a problem with it just because of how monumentally immature it makes the whole industry look. At a time when the supreme court is basically investigating whether or not gaming has enough inherent artistic merit to be afforded the same rights as other mediums, they come along and make us all look like we're peddling violent content to minors just for the sake of ticking off their parents.

And let's not forget that this was probably the same marketing team that brought us the Dante's Inferno fiasco. I'm sorry to say this, but when it comes right down to it EA better fire their asses fast or at least transfer them to some other department where they can't do nearly as much PR damage. Otherwise we'll need specially registered licenses to purchase anything worse then Wii Sports by this time next year.

 

[Tony2077]

common sense media i don't think they have any.

 

[144_v1legacy]

I hate to say it, since the ad campaign seems so clever, but the advocacy group really does make a valid point.