If you missed our spotlight on Leo Burnett's "Communion Day" ad last Sunday, make sure to give it a glance. Even if you've already skimmed through our words on the award-winning piece, we've updated our summation with some insight from art director Rosemary Collini Bosso.
This weekend's installment of Promotional Consideration takes a critical eye to an unconvincing ad that might actually drive away consumers. Read on for more details.
Click the resized picture for a larger version.
Hangin' out. Playing music. Looking like a bunch of jerkwads.
We've extolled the virtues of Jam Sessions many times in the past, so it pains us to see the guitar simulation advertised (Nintendo Power, V218) in this manner. The top-left and bottom-right sections aren't particularly offensive, repeating the boxart's hip aesthetic; it's what's between those two corners that's caused us grief.
If it weren't for the DS Lites -- the female, lacking her own handheld and likely a groupie for this band of clowns, can only strum along on an imaginary thigh-guitar -- we would've mistaken this photo as having been grabbed from a stock collection. The staged smiles and feigned camaraderie of these apartment musicians just doesn't work. You cannot sell an image when everything about it feels inauthentic.
It's an insult to any promotional piece when comparisons can justifiably be drawn to Nokia's disastrous N-Gage advertisement from mid-2005:
Upon seeing the unappealing image above, Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik (Gabe) had the following to say: "Am I supposed to relate to this jackass? Is that a gamer? What the f--- is wrong with his face? I saw a lot of f---ing gamers this week and I'm here to tell you not one of them looked like that."
Over-exaggerated faces from Nokia's and Ubisoft's ads compared:
Is it just us, or does the marketing firm that handled this Jam Sessions advertisement seem completely out of touch with the game's intended audience?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-15-2007 @ 3:43PM
MisterL said...
Judging from the ads, they must be targeting hostile aliens from Mars. The marketing firm seems out of touch with humans in general...
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7-15-2007 @ 5:33PM
Nick said...
the guy in the jam sessions one looks like sanjaya
Reply
7-15-2007 @ 7:48PM
wintersweet said...
I can only imagine that the ads are aimed at really stupid 12-year-old boys, rather than members of the same age group as the models. But I'm probably being too generous...
Reply
7-15-2007 @ 8:15PM
Trogdor said...
You know, I got that Nintendo Power issue, glanced at thas ad, and thought nothing of it. Now that you bring it up, however, I see how gay that ad really is. Thank you DS Fanboy. Thank you.
Reply
7-15-2007 @ 8:33PM
The_Pixel_Ninja said...
The N-Gage guy looks like he's burning kittens. o_o; it scares me.
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7-16-2007 @ 12:37AM
NvM said...
what's with wii/DS fanboy and Nirvana?
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7-16-2007 @ 3:29AM
Rubang B said...
Are you implying that that girl has an imaginary thigh?
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7-16-2007 @ 9:07PM
Eric Caoili said...
#7:
there's a hyphen between "thigh" and "guitar"!
Reply