Gather ’round children, so I can tell you the tale of the Boston Bomb Scare. It was January 31st 2007 and to promote Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie the entire city of Boston was covered with Litebrite boards featuring one of the show’s characters. These could be seen all over the city and certainly didn’t go unnoticed. Police and officials failed to recognize one of the most popular toys from the nineties in America and mistook them for bombs. Needless to say that everyone lost their minds. Large areas in Boston were evacuated and it pretty much caused the entire city to be in a state of chaos. The guy responsible got punished for the incompetence of the state and apparently one of the Cartoon Network execs lost their job because of it, but don’t quote me on that. That was considered one of the worst marketing disasters in history. And it was ten years ago. So to celebrate/commemorate this amazing event I decided to look back at some of the dumbest marketing disasters in gaming. So with that said OH MY GOD WATCH OUT IT’S A BOMB!!!!
#10. Wigg(l)er Wednesday.
So let’s start off with an innocent and not that dramatic but hilarious one nonetheless. In the current digital age, companies tend to have direct contact with their consumers through things like social media. Promoting content and involving consumers with promotional endeavors is now faster and easier than ever with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It’s so fast in fact that the people behind it can sometimes manage to make simple spelling mistakes. One such thing happened when Nintendo’s twitter account wanted to see if people wanted Waluigi Wednesday or a Wiggler Wednesday. See whoever wrote that tweet forgot to add the letter l in Wiggler. It’s an honest to god mistake and nothing too disastrous but hilarious either way. People still like to mock the tweet for its unfortunate spelling mistake on twitter and various other places. Again nothing too bad compared to the other disasters that will follow but one certainly worth mentioning.
Better spell check your Tweets next time Nintendo.
#9.Ubisoft set up us the bomb!!!
Next up on the list is a blunder by Ubisoft. To promote Watch_Dogs, Ubisoft thought it would be a good idea to send people a beeping safe. It was not. Ubisoft sent a package to Australian news site Ninemsn. The package was a safe and a letter saying to listen to their voicemail. Ninemsn didn’t get a voicemail from Ubisoft and the company got nervous when the safe started beeping and like any normal person would do involved the police who in turn got the bomb squad. The entire building was evacuated and the safe was forced open to reveal some Watch_Dogs swag. This is very much like the Boston bomb scare and not only should Ubisoft have learned from that event but their previous stunt in New-Zealand didn’t go too well either. The publisher hired a guy to walk around with a gun in public pointing it at people for Splinter Cell. Oh Ubisoft….
Unlike Boston, fear was totally appropriate.
#8. White is better?
so Sony’s marketing around 2004 until 2006-ish was pretty weird to say the least. Whether we are talking about the ps3 baby or the PSP nuts squirrel commercial, Sony made sure people were weirded out or confused. But none of that was downright offensive. The white PSP commercial though? That was an entirely different story. Holland was plastered with billboards stating the white PSP is coming and showcasing a rather racially insensitive image. While I don’t think Sony thought this all the way trough, the idea alone to differentiate the white PSP from the black one by using skin color is just dumb. But off course it doesn’t end there. Taking a quick look at the billboard shows why a lot of people got offended by it. I like it when you do those freaking weird commercials Sony. But come on man, you can’t be doing that.
OOPH…How could not have noticed that Sony?
#7.EA=Evil Anti-Christ.
Aw yeah it’s time to talk about EA and one of the many dumb things they did. The whole ‘your mom hates Dead Space’ thing was really tacky but this is on a whole different scale. So just about everything EA did with the marketing for Dante’s Inferno(which is a dumb idea for that kind of game in the first place) is moronic and insulting. EA did a promotion at Comic-Con to win a night out with “hot babes” by taking pictures of yourself with the booth babes and putting it on Facebook which they labeled an act of sin. Now that’s pretty childish and dumb but that’s not even what I’m talking about. No, what I’m talking about is the protests. So during E3 several Christians protested Dante’s Inferno by holding signs saying “say Infer-NO” and “EA is the Antichrist”. While I think the latter is completely true, the protests garnered a lot of press attention. It got even more attention though when it turned out EA hired actors to protest the game. So naturally some religious figures were pissed that their people were being portrayed as stereotypical zealots. What I think is interesting is that after either this EA still decided to do the Comic-Con promotion. EA certainly is the king of piss-poor decisions. Speaking of which…
Well I see a sign that’s certainly not wrong…
#6.EA decides to break the law.
So what could be worse than offending a ton of people? Well, Breaking the law of course. Ea wanted to promote their The Godfather game. And what better way to promote your game that’s about crime than to commit a crime and make sure that everyone involuntarily involved is also committing a crime. EA send a ton of members of the press freaking Brass-knuckles. Now not only are brass-knuckles very illegal in a lot of states in the US but the state where Ea’s office is it’s illegal to own them and even ship them. Everyone who got that package was now in possession of an illegal weapon. Ea later asked to send the knucks back but come on man. You should have known better. Thanks EA!
Hey here’s a package, now you are in possession of illegal weapons. Have fun.
#5.A hundred red balloons in the the water.
No one wants to remember Homefront. It was an awful game and it was clear the game was developed in order to cash in on the Call Of Duty hype. It failed. But not as much as their promotional stunt. In order to promote Homefront, THQ decided to release a hundred red balloons in San Fransico. The balloons ended up floating for a few seconds and then almost all of them ended up in the San Fran bay. Not only were people pissed but THQ actually got a fine for it. I just found out there is footage of the balloons being released. Seeing the balloons released and then the photos of the balloons in the bay make it even funnier.
This picture never fails to crack me up.
#4.God of war 2 is the GOAT.
Okay so what’s worse than breaking the law, offending people or polluting a harbor with balloons? Well having a DEAD FUCKING GOAT ON DISPLAY. God Of War is a very gory game. The game is set in ancient Greece which had it’s fair share of gruesome things. And just because your game takes place at that time and just because you have a launch party that’s thematically appropriate doesn’t mean you need to have a dead goat on display at the event. Apparently guests were egged on to reach inside the goat’s carcass to eat the offal in it. Yeah… Sony, what the hell…
“So honey how was work today?” Oh I just served drinks topless next to a decapitated goat. You know, the usual.
#3.Acclaim stop it!
Alright now it’s time to talk about the kings of PR disasters. Get ready because the last entries are all about Acclaim. Acclaim isn’t around anymore and their stunts are a big reason for it. Some of their promotions involved winning money by doing some really stupid things. One of those things was for Turok. A proud(or drunk) parent could win a copy of Turok and 10.000$ if they named their child Turok. So if you were crazy enough you could get a whole lot of money and a pretty good FPS, if you were willing to ruin your child’s life. I have searched if anyone actually did it but couldn’t find any more info on this promotion. I’m honestly kind of disappointed.
*Picture unrelated…
#2.No seriously Acclaim!!!
Alright so next up again is Acclaim. And just like EA they broke the law. Well the more so promoted to break the law. In order to promote the release of Burnout 2 Acclaim said that if people were caught speeding on the release date of the game Acclaim would pay for your ticket. Now as soon as this idea came to light more competent and smarter people in the UK government said hell no to that idea and the promotion was canceled. I wonder if someone didn’t get the message and thought they could be able to get away with speeding only to find out that they would have to pay the ticket themselves.
“Oh sorry officer. I was just going to get my copy of Burnout 2.”
#1.ACCLAIM STAPH!!!
Alright so this last one is one of the most tasteless thing I have ever seen in marketing. And guess who thought of this genius idea. That’s right, it’s Acclaim again. In order to promote the second Shadow Man game, Acclaim tried to get mourning families to sing off on hanging small billboards on their recently passed-on relatives. That’s right. Acclaim was asking if they could desecrate grand-pappy’s resting place to hang a little signs on his tombstone that says “go buy Shadow Man 2”. Acclaim was apparently also caught saying that they should look for poor families as they would need the money. Stay classy Acclaim. Or better yet, stay dead.
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And those were my picks. I actually wanted to use the Fear 2 black cats too but honestly nothing went wrong there so I decided to leave it off. Still, I’ll post a picture or the cats because it’s so damn adorable. I’m sure I missed a lot of disasters so don’t be afraid to comment and tell me which ones I missed. And again I will see you here next month for a brand new list. Catch you next time.
Oh and before I forget:
