If you are a gamer, chances are you have played titles for many hours straight and have tasted energy drinks such as Bawls to keep up your stamina. Now a company is introducing a new food product that they claim will keep your performance up for those late night LAN parties and WoW raids.
In my mind, when you open a casket of Gamer Grub, a single white larva the size of a football throbs inside. Because they are purchased in these little silos, I initially assumed it was a beverage, which made the prospect of their Racing Wasabi flavor (Wasabi Soy Almonds and Peanuts, Wasabi Peas, Honey Mustard Sesame Sticks, etc.) a truly horrifying concept. But, no. They're just snacks, sprayed with supplements, and then foisted on an utterly disinterested populace. The press release suggests that the product is "designed for hungry gamers who want to continue playing games while consuming...
I've been watching a fair amount of pre-season hockey this past week, and I've had the opportunity see this commercial for EA Sports NHL 09 a few gazillion times.
I was passingly intrigued the first time I saw it, but after seeing it time and time again, I've become more confused, a tad frustrated, and more than a little angry.
When a commercial first grabs my attention, good or bad, I tend to sit back and analyze it. I ask myself the usual questions about the audience, and how they are trying to position the product. On the surface, it appears that they're focusing on selling this hockey game to women, which I think is great.
Here's how they went about doing it:
The commercial opens with Lauren, an NHL.com blogger, claiming that "the best parts about hockey are the stories." Good call, Lauren. The stories certainly are the best parts about hockey. At least right after the part...
Two quick things: Firstly, this started out as a comment that I was going to tack on to Shawn's post, but I just got back from Toronto (secondly) and I am too tired to wring any semblance of coherency or finesse out of this mess. I didn't want to pollute his post with my listless rambling so I decided to make it a follow-up to the follow-up.
A nice follow-up boss. I hadn't managed to catch the new spot (until now).
It's funny. After watching that spot, I have to wonder if anyone at either MS or CP+B has really stopped to look at the big picture. Maybe I'll expand in a future blog (too late), but I look at this as a matter of "choosing the wrong enemy". It's quite obvious that MS is looking at Apple as the enemy, but I really believe that is the wrong way to look at it. Apple isn't an enemy. Their recent success is a symptom.
I'm not suggesting that Apple should be ignored. I'm just...
Let me preamble this post by saying, 'Shaner I'm not trying to steal your direction here, but you are on holidays and I believe that what I have just witnessed deserves an immediate post'.
So I'm chilling after a long day with a glass of vino watching a new episode of House on Fox, and am reflecting on my email to staff about our continued commitment to our Blog and importance of keeping it up to date and relevant and, at the same time, thinking that I should Blog it up tonight. So, I think of topics – the reno upstairs, the connectivity of the ipod, my thoughts on Obama becoming President in the US....hmmm, to blog or not to blog?
Then I see it! A 60 second commercial for Microsoft titled 'I'm a PC' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi1se9rH7S8. Talk about WTF? This is airing 1 week after they (Microsoft) cancelled the Seinfeld campaign (which was nonsense) that my co-worker Shane...
I'll state right up front that I am absolutely not on the "Apple Bandwagon". Quite the opposite in fact, but I'm, usually the first to give credit where credit is due, and Apple's aging "Get a Mac" commercial campaign has earned its fair share of credit. It's taken Microsoft almost 3 years to respond to Apple's challenge. When I'd heard that Crispin Porter + Bogusky had landed the $300 million Microsoft deal, I was, to say the least, excited. When I learned that they'd recruited Jerry Seinfeld, I was intrigued.
The friendly way to present the Seinfeld Vista ads is that they "get people talking." This is an adjunct to the notion that there is "no bad press," a lie I am happy to expose on a regular basis. For obvious reasons, I'm obsessed with advertising as a means of communication, and I believe that it's possible to communicate virtue in a way that is ethical, interesting, and...
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