That is very stupid.
Mainly because theres no reason anyone would need head phones in a warzone. Im sure soldiers would have some higher quality military grade head phones for communication or something.
That guy better get some good money.
I dunno about "stupid," but definitely insensitive, dangerous, and unnecessary. They were probably going for the shock value, and God knows they've got it now. Definitely PETA style promotion--press by outrage.
Also:
agentorange98 said:
TLDR: sending a 24 year old gamer to a warzone (Iraq) to promote your head phones
Can someone copy and paste the text from the article into a spoiler? I cannot access it from work, and I won't be able to until April next year! :S
I'm in the Military, and I am intregued by 'headphones' and 'iraq' in the same sentence!
It's incredibly stupid. The article's probably right when it says that when the executives described the experience as "interesting" they probably meant "depressing." Either that or "pants-shittingly terrifying." The random gamer wasn't the only untrained person there, either. I doubt any of those execs have been within a hundred miles of a warzone before either.
Can someone copy and paste the text from the article into a spoiler? I cannot access it from work, and I won't be able to until April next year! :S
I'm in the Military, and I am intregued by 'headphones' and 'iraq' in the same sentence!
Why Taking a Gamer to War for Advertising Purposes is Wrong
Real war is not a game - and it shouldn't be part of your advertising campaign either.
Australia, December 8, 2011
Estimates put the civilian cost of the War in Iraq at well over 100,000. With excess deaths thanks to increased lawlessness, plus degraded infrastructure and healthcare, that number is dramatically higher. Upper estimates for civilians killed in the War in Afghanistan are in the tens of thousands.
The Middle East is not a playground. You can ask the families of the men and women who've been returned to their countries of origin in a box with their national flag draped over it.
This is not about politics. However you feel about the conflict over there is a human cost; that much is clear. It's a situation with a certain degree of gravity to it. It's not really the perfect backdrop for an advertising campaign. At all.
Except if you're a popular gaming headset manufacturer.
To demonstrate that its audio systems "take you there" the New Zealand branch of said headset company is taking a 24-year-old Kiwi gamer to a real warzone: Iraq.
"Gamers play in virtual warzones every day and night, and they want the immersive feeling of combat so we thought we'd take that experience one step further," said a spokesperson for the company. "The whole project has been an experience. Though there was a huge amount of planning it's fair to say the journey proved... interesting."
War is not a game. The Middle East is not a theme park you can take everyday schmucks to just so they can see how the reality of devastating conflict compares to their video games. Having a gamer visit the Middle East as a means to spruik some headphones simply trivialises the entire situation. The journey proved interesting? Are you sure you didn't mean depressing?
Real warzones and virtual warzones are nothing alike. Real war is a deadly serious business. Real war devastates local populations. For the men and women who choose to serve in the armed forces it's a dangerous job filled with risks they acknowledge and accept. Virtual war, in the likes of today's most popular first-person shooters, is make-believe. It's a mere hop, skip and jump from running around the backyard with your index fingers outstretched yelling BLAM and hoping your kid brother will play along and fall down. It's pretend. It's a game.
The bodycount from the conflicts in the Middle East continues to rise for all parties involved. The civilian death tolls, as we mentioned above, are obscene, and you can add thousands of KIA from the coalition forces present in the region (nearly 5000 in Iraq and almost 3000 in Afghanistan). For New Zealanders specifically, it's only been a few months since two NZ SAS operators were killed in action in Afghanistan within six weeks of each other. Corporal Doug Grant was killed in Kabul in August, leaving behind a wife, a daughter, 7, and son, 5. Lance Corporal Leon Smith, the first medic to treat Grant before his death, was killed the following month. That the ad agency behind this stunt, Droga5 New Zealand, has organised to take a gamer to the Middle East to play soldier in the aftermath of some very real and very crystal examples of just how profoundly uncompromising war can be is nothing short of baffling.
Of course, each piece of PR this gets ? positive or negative ? will only serve to make the whole stinking exercise worth it. It's why we haven't named the product involved.
It's not appropriate to exploit real war to flog a line of video game headsets. It's that simple.
OT: yup it is incredibly stupid and it really doesn't help when I try to convince people games are getting more mature. I have no problems with them showing the war as an experience so we can see it first hand, or movies that show the war. Hell I don't even have a problem with comedians making joke because that shows social awareness but going there just so they can try to advertise cheap headphones is just unacceptable.
Can someone copy and paste the text from the article into a spoiler? I cannot access it from work, and I won't be able to until April next year! :S
I'm in the Military, and I am intregued by 'headphones' and 'iraq' in the same sentence!
Why Taking a Gamer to War for Advertising Purposes is Wrong
Real war is not a game - and it shouldn't be part of your advertising campaign either.
Australia, December 8, 2011
Estimates put the civilian cost of the War in Iraq at well over 100,000. With excess deaths thanks to increased lawlessness, plus degraded infrastructure and healthcare, that number is dramatically higher. Upper estimates for civilians killed in the War in Afghanistan are in the tens of thousands.
The Middle East is not a playground. You can ask the families of the men and women who've been returned to their countries of origin in a box with their national flag draped over it.
This is not about politics. However you feel about the conflict over there is a human cost; that much is clear. It's a situation with a certain degree of gravity to it. It's not really the perfect backdrop for an advertising campaign. At all.
Except if you're a popular gaming headset manufacturer.
To demonstrate that its audio systems "take you there" the New Zealand branch of said headset company is taking a 24-year-old Kiwi gamer to a real warzone: Iraq.
"Gamers play in virtual warzones every day and night, and they want the immersive feeling of combat so we thought we'd take that experience one step further," said a spokesperson for the company. "The whole project has been an experience. Though there was a huge amount of planning it's fair to say the journey proved... interesting."
War is not a game. The Middle East is not a theme park you can take everyday schmucks to just so they can see how the reality of devastating conflict compares to their video games. Having a gamer visit the Middle East as a means to spruik some headphones simply trivialises the entire situation. The journey proved interesting? Are you sure you didn't mean depressing?
Real warzones and virtual warzones are nothing alike. Real war is a deadly serious business. Real war devastates local populations. For the men and women who choose to serve in the armed forces it's a dangerous job filled with risks they acknowledge and accept. Virtual war, in the likes of today's most popular first-person shooters, is make-believe. It's a mere hop, skip and jump from running around the backyard with your index fingers outstretched yelling BLAM and hoping your kid brother will play along and fall down. It's pretend. It's a game.
The bodycount from the conflicts in the Middle East continues to rise for all parties involved. The civilian death tolls, as we mentioned above, are obscene, and you can add thousands of KIA from the coalition forces present in the region (nearly 5000 in Iraq and almost 3000 in Afghanistan). For New Zealanders specifically, it's only been a few months since two NZ SAS operators were killed in action in Afghanistan within six weeks of each other. Corporal Doug Grant was killed in Kabul in August, leaving behind a wife, a daughter, 7, and son, 5. Lance Corporal Leon Smith, the first medic to treat Grant before his death, was killed the following month. That the ad agency behind this stunt, Droga5 New Zealand, has organised to take a gamer to the Middle East to play soldier in the aftermath of some very real and very crystal examples of just how profoundly uncompromising war can be is nothing short of baffling.
Of course, each piece of PR this gets ? positive or negative ? will only serve to make the whole stinking exercise worth it. It's why we haven't named the product involved.
It's not appropriate to exploit real war to flog a line of video game headsets. It's that simple.
The official war in Iraq is nearly over, with pretty much all trops withdrawing by the end of this month. The insurgents arn't really bothered with the western world there anymore, they have other problems to deal with, so It is a lot safer. The whole things is a publicity stunt. I imagine they will take him to some quiet town, far from any of the areas which actually had problems, probably up in the North, where the Kurds are, who are a lot more friendly to Westerners, and have their own problems unrelated to the war anyway, then they will do a shoot, calling it a 'warzone' and then returnn hoime, happy days, and everyone thinks 'wow, look at the lenghth they go too!'
The western media is inching its way back into Iraq. It was over a year ago when Top Gear from the UK sent their presenters driving across the middle east, through Iraq, Syria (before the uprising) Jordan and Israel as a pretend 'wise men' journey, parodying the nativity story for a christmas special. The whole time they were in Iraq they wore helmets, and played on the fact that they were in a dangerous warzone, although they were miles and miles north of any danger, and saw how beautiful the country actually is!
Most of Iraq now is no more dangerous than most middle eastern counties, or African countries at that! Or hell, even parts of New York and London are probably more dangerous now!
I don't understand, what's he going to do when he gets there?
I can see a very thin connection between the slogan that the earphones 'take you there' and the company actually taking the guy 'there', but beyond that little bit of wordplay, the purpose of this eludes me.
Is he just going to walk around Iraq for a while, scribble some notes, and then confirm that "Yes, the background noise in Call of Duty actually sounds like a real desert"?
Yes, it's stupid and all, but the article was very vague on exactly how the ad is supposed to work, and now I'm curious.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
