THQ In Hot Water Over Homefront Marketing

[Therumancer]

Well, it seems to me that San Francisco was probably not the best place to do the marketing for a war game, that by it's nature espouses a world view contrary to the political idealogy famously practiced in that region and celebrated in song.

The complaint on the balloons is ridiculous of course, and seems to be an after-the-fact attempt to do something about this more than anything, because I very much doubt this is the first promotional event/celebration in the city to do something like this, what's more the laws involved are likely pretty obscure if the marketing department working with THQ didn't know about them. Typically events like this are done by working with locals who help obtain the venues and promote locally, so it's not likely that THQ just decided to wing this whole thing and upset a bunch of people by being careless.

Simply put they walked into one of the biggest left wing strongholds on the left coast, and decided to promote a "realistic" war game involving real factions. It shouldn't be shocking that given the number of San Fran residents who might literally want to put flowers in the hair of Kim Jong and his son, that something went wrong here.

 

[Gralian]

Hasn't releasing balloons been a crime since the 90's? They even made jokes about it on Beavis and Butthead back in the day... "Happy Birthday Flipper".

Man, why can't publishers advertise games like NORMAL people?

I don't even get. What are the balloons supposed to signify exactly?

We're talking about it aren't we? The thing is that whatever idiot had this idea didn't remember people talking about it because they look like assholes doesn't increase sales.

Yes, it does. The only bad publicity is no publicity.

This game better be great.

It's not about being 'great'. Pumping all this time and money into marketing is the opus magnum of every corporation since time immemorial. At the end of the day, it's about whether or not somebody bought your product. Not whether or not the thing is good or bad after the fact.

I think these kinds of stunts are trendsetting and i think we're going to see a lot more of them in the future. I also think the worst that's going to happen to publishers / producers who do this sort of thing is a slap on the wrist and some more free publicity. As i said above, there's no such thing as bad press. A little sad really, all this focus on marketing that could go to research and development to improve the product. Oh well, c'est la vie.

 

[Sallix]

I'm just going to throw it out there, if a sea lion sees the balloon and thinks "That looks rather tasty, I think I'll have a bite on that" either a) it won't die or b) it kinda had it coming.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

This seems like an honest mistake to me. Its not like THQ intended to fill the bay with balloons. They are filled with hellium and it slowly leeches out through the rubber causing it to sink lower and lower, wind currents eventually pull them over the water where they land. Releasing balloons as part of a promotional event goes back decades.

If THQ were as stupid as EA's marketing department, they would have detonated an actual EMP device over the city.

 

[Branches]

I'm from the city and I don't give a shit. You can't even imagine some of the stuff I've seen floating in the Bay lately...

I'm just going to throw it out there, if a sea lion sees the balloon and thinks "That looks rather tasty, I think I'll have a bite on that" either a) it won't die or b) it kinda had it coming.

QFT

 

[SomEngangVar]

If a bird finds a way to get entangled in a balloon and die, I just view that as natural selection.

 

[JDKJ]

Well, it seems to me that San Francisco was probably not the best place to do the marketing for a war game, that by it's nature espouses a world view contrary to the political idealogy famously practiced in that region and celebrated in song.

The complaint on the balloons is ridiculous of course, and seems to be an after-the-fact attempt to do something about this more than anything, because I very much doubt this is the first promotional event/celebration in the city to do something like this, what's more the laws involved are likely pretty obscure if the marketing department working with THQ didn't know about them. Typically events like this are done by working with locals who help obtain the venues and promote locally, so it's not likely that THQ just decided to wing this whole thing and upset a bunch of people by being careless.

Simply put they walked into one of the biggest left wing strongholds on the left coast, and decided to promote a "realistic" war game involving real factions. It shouldn't be shocking that given the number of San Fran residents who might literally want to put flowers in the hair of Kim Jong and his son, that something went wrong here.

Just in case you're not being entirely facetious, you should be aware that the Summer of Love ended more than 40 years ago and San Francisco is no longer the communist hot-bed it was once thought to be. In fact, an influx of well-educated techie-types and regentrification have now placed it beyond the means of most Little Red Book-carrying Maoists. They all moved out and up to Humbolt County many years ago (where they're all now growing super-potent pot and making money hand over fist). The "hippies" you may see in Haight-Ashbury aren't really hippies. They're all actors paid by the local merchants to ensure a steady stream of gawking tourist willing to buy bootleg Grateful Dead T-shirts. Just so you know.

 

[Buchichu]

don't people release balloons like this all the goddamn time? why all the hullabaloo over it now?

 

[Therumancer]

Well, it seems to me that San Francisco was probably not the best place to do the marketing for a war game, that by it's nature espouses a world view contrary to the political idealogy famously practiced in that region and celebrated in song.

The complaint on the balloons is ridiculous of course, and seems to be an after-the-fact attempt to do something about this more than anything, because I very much doubt this is the first promotional event/celebration in the city to do something like this, what's more the laws involved are likely pretty obscure if the marketing department working with THQ didn't know about them. Typically events like this are done by working with locals who help obtain the venues and promote locally, so it's not likely that THQ just decided to wing this whole thing and upset a bunch of people by being careless.

Simply put they walked into one of the biggest left wing strongholds on the left coast, and decided to promote a "realistic" war game involving real factions. It shouldn't be shocking that given the number of San Fran residents who might literally want to put flowers in the hair of Kim Jong and his son, that something went wrong here.

Just in case you're not being entirely facetious, you should be aware that the Summer of Love ended more than 40 years ago and San Francisco is no longer the communist hot-bed it was once thought to be. In fact, an influx of well-educated techie-types and regentrification have now placed it beyond the means of most Little Red Book-carrying Maoists. They all moved out and up to Humbolt County many years ago (where they're all now growing super-potent pot and making money hand over fist). The "hippies" you may see in Haight-Ashbury aren't really hippies. They're all actors paid by the local merchants to ensure a steady stream of gawking tourist willing to buy bootleg Grateful Dead T-shirts. Just so you know.

While I was trying to be funny with the flowers and mentioning the song, I will say that I didn't actually say "communist" or even "hippies" I said left wing. The left wing has changed in how it presents itself. "The Left Coast" is referred to that way for a reason, the point here being that it's not an ideal area for this kind of thing. Most of the big cities down there aren't.... HOWEVER there are exceptions to every generality when dealing with populations that big. San Fran doubtlessly has some very conservative areas like any big city.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

guys I have a question since I honestly don't follow gaming culture that much. are gaming companies so dead broke they can't afford TV commercials and Internet advertisements like industries who market things like adults. I think things like this are the reason why were looked at as children.

ps the first gaming company that blames piracy for them not spending money on marketing is getting their corporate headquarters hijacked by the alien overlord Xenu under the intergalactic code of stupid.

As a fellow non-follower of gaming culture, I can understand your question completely. However, I have the great misfortune to run across the Dead Space 2 advertisement enough (online videos or TV) to know that, sadly, no, they still do commercials... they just suck. The Bulletstorm one has been on a few times and I think that video game marketing would sometimes be better off just showing cool explosions for 15 seconds and shutting the hell up.

This marketing ploy looks like more empty fuel to the already spluttering fictional fire burning off of the fear-oil hidden under North-South Korea Super Nation of Great Victory. Balloon launch, really? Who's going to be impressed by a half-hearted humanitarian awareness/video game plug just because helium is involved?

[footnote]Dear ReCaptcha: Two words does not equate to reading books, especially when at least one or even both words are either misspelled, illegible, or written in the language of "Crazy."[/footnote]

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Freaking hippies. Always something to complain about.

Who cares about the animals? What if a small child drifting lazily by consumes a balloon? Won't somebody please think of the children?

OT: Moral of the story is that you should always check the laws of a state about balloons, you never know what sort of shit you can get into. You should also never trust Gamestop, lying bastards, of course they knew about it all.

 

[Quaidis]

It sounds like an honest mistake. One that will cost the lives of a few endangered squid-eating animals, but an honest mistake none the less.

This isn't like the two guys who thought it would be a great promotional idea to dress one up as a robber and break into their own work building to advertise a phone (least I think it was a phone), or that one commercial pandering an M rated game to kids by saying their mothers would hate it.

If the balloons are biodegradable there shouldn't even be an issue. They didn't intend for them to end up in the bay they intended for them to end up in gamers hands. It was reported elsewhere they had game coupons inside the balloons. They just miscalculated things like the wind and weather. All I see is an honest mistake and environmental whackos looking for something to complain about.

I will agree with all of that, but at the same time, why not try that stunt in a heavily populated area farther away from the sea. You know, if the coupons part is true anyway. Because right now for anyone to get the coupons they have to at the least rent a kayak. On the other hand, why not in a state that doesn't have a law banning the releasing of balloons? On the other other hand, why not use an air cannon and tiny parachutes? or have those coupons strapped to those plastic army dudes with the parachutes? On a realizing-my-age-and-how-the-world-has-changed note, do they still make those?

That 'coupons strapped to parachute army-men' idea is brilliant. I remember those. They were awesome. I'm sure they still exist out there.

 

[Rayne870]

sad that some moron in PR got paid to come up with this stunt. why do companies think they have to go outside of traditional marketing, especially with a game that is already at the front news on most gaming websites?

 

[Sovereignty]

If the balloons are biodegradable there shouldn't even be an issue. They didn't intend for them to end up in the bay they intended for them to end up in gamers hands. It was reported elsewhere they had game coupons inside the balloons. They just miscalculated things like the wind and weather. All I see is an honest mistake and environmental whackos looking for something to complain about.

Agree with this!

Hippies gonna hate.

 

[JDKJ]

Well, it seems to me that San Francisco was probably not the best place to do the marketing for a war game, that by it's nature espouses a world view contrary to the political idealogy famously practiced in that region and celebrated in song.

The complaint on the balloons is ridiculous of course, and seems to be an after-the-fact attempt to do something about this more than anything, because I very much doubt this is the first promotional event/celebration in the city to do something like this, what's more the laws involved are likely pretty obscure if the marketing department working with THQ didn't know about them. Typically events like this are done by working with locals who help obtain the venues and promote locally, so it's not likely that THQ just decided to wing this whole thing and upset a bunch of people by being careless.

Simply put they walked into one of the biggest left wing strongholds on the left coast, and decided to promote a "realistic" war game involving real factions. It shouldn't be shocking that given the number of San Fran residents who might literally want to put flowers in the hair of Kim Jong and his son, that something went wrong here.

Just in case you're not being entirely facetious, you should be aware that the Summer of Love ended more than 40 years ago and San Francisco is no longer the communist hot-bed it was once thought to be. In fact, an influx of well-educated techie-types and regentrification have now placed it beyond the means of most Little Red Book-carrying Maoists. They all moved out and up to Humbolt County many years ago (where they're all now growing super-potent pot and making money hand over fist). The "hippies" you may see in Haight-Ashbury aren't really hippies. They're all actors paid by the local merchants to ensure a steady stream of gawking tourist willing to buy bootleg Grateful Dead T-shirts. Just so you know.

While I was trying to be funny with the flowers and mentioning the song, I will say that I didn't actually say "communist" or even "hippies" I said left wing. The left wing has changed in how it presents itself. "The Left Coast" is referred to that way for a reason, the point here being that it's not an ideal area for this kind of thing. Most of the big cities down there aren't.... HOWEVER there are exceptions to every generality when dealing with populations that big. San Fran doubtlessly has some very conservative areas like any big city.

I figured you were being tongue-in-cheek more than anything else. I was just yanking your chain a lil' bit. But, as one who lives in California, I can tell you from my personal experience that the liberal brush with which the State gets painted isn't always entirely deserved. Putting aside Southern California (Los Angeles to San Diego) and that Silicon Valley-San Francisco area, it can get real conservative real quick. After all, it's the State that produced both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. And even the claimed liberal parts aren't all that liberal. Los Angeles has some of the worst racial intolerance I've ever experienced. And much of it is state-sponsored. After all, it's the City that produced the Rodney King Beating and the May Day Melee. The LAPD ain't known for putting flowers in anyone's hair. They're know for putting a boot up your ass if you look at them the wrong way and happen to be poor or a minority. God help you if you're unfortunate enough to be both poor and a minority.