Massively explains Warhammer Online to the dedicated WoW player
Joystiq presents

Promotional Consideration: The Usual Suspects



This week's creative but confusing installment comes from Leo Burnett Milan, the same advertising firm behind "Communion Day," the first Promotional Consideration ad (and one of the smartest) we ever featured. The print piece presents a police lineup of criminals and ne'er-do-wells, suspects for an unspecified crime -- really, it's less of a "whodunit" than it is a "what does it mean?" Step past the post break and peer through this one-way mirror to solve the mystery yourself!


Click the image for a larger version!

Danny Trejo (NSFW)? Keyser Soze? Dr. Kawashima?!

It's certainly different from any other Brain Training ad we've ever seen! Where's Nicole Kidman? Patrick Stewart? Or any of the other celebrities Nintendo has been trotting out to promote the non-game's expanded audience?

While we're willing to congratulate Leo Burnett Milan for its originality, we're surprised that the firm decided to use such a vague piece. In our opinion, the ad's message isn't clear enough for most viewers to pick up. We've come up with three plausible points raised by the scene:
  1. Crime doesn't pay! Pick up Brain Training, learn some critical thinking abilities, and make yourself an honest living. (This one's a bit of a stretch.)
  2. Do something useful with your time! Instead of playing cards and eating junk food, you should be training your brain. You don't want to turn out like that old guy on the right when you get older!
  3. Maybe if you used that prefrontal cortex more often, you'd have a better memory and be able to recognize the guy who stole your bike! Really, these vagrants have better things to do with their time than stand around for hours while you struggle to pick out the culprit.
Our bet's on the third explanation -- what do you think?

One last interesting detail to note is the casual placement of beer bottles around the set. You can't get away with that in the U.S.!

Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.

Related Headlines

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Gaming to Go!We debate the hot topics!

This Month's New Games

Name Date
Bleach: Dark Souls
Oct 6
Legend of Kage 2
Oct 6
Crash: Mind Over Mutant
Oct 6
Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals
Oct 6
My Japanese Coach
Oct 14
Korg DS-10
Oct 14
Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 Oct 14
FIFA Soccer 09 Oct 14
Populous Oct 14
Rock Revolution
Oct 14
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Oct 21
Theresia
Oct 21
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Oct 21
Away: Shuffle Dungeon
Oct 21
Tornado
Oct 21
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
Oct 21
What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver Oct 21
MySims Kingdom
Oct 28
Ninjatown Oct 28

Get homebrew on your DS!

Popular on DS Fanboy

The story
More like it
Nintendo reveals the DSi
News
Lock's Quest review
Reviews
BTS: Cakemania
BTS
G2G: Clubhouse Games
Gaming to Go
Preview: Big Bang Mini
Features
Features
Another Week in ... (50)
Bury the Shovelware (15)
Contests / Giveaways (19)
DS Daily (565)
DS Fanboy Lite (42)
DS Fanboy poll (41)
Friday video (70)
Game Night (157)
Gaming to Go (14)
Items of Import (7)
Metareview (58)
Point/Counterpoint (6)
Promotional Consideration (58)
Show and Tell (72)
The DS Life (67)
What are you playing? (90)
Bits
Accessories (147)
Downloads (68)
Fan stuff (1418)
Features (291)
GBA (129)
Hacks (82)
Homebrew (229)
How-tos (75)
Imports (937)
Interviews (155)
Meta (135)
Mods (17)
News (3318)
Nintendo Wi-Fi (190)
Reviews (192)
Sales (196)
Screens (992)
Video (733)
Rumors (193)

RESOURCES

RSS NEWSFEEDS

Powered by Blogsmith

Featured Galleries

Neopets Puzzle Adventure
Hot 'N Cold
Show and Tell: Epic
Goodbye, GBA slot
Mario & Luigi 3
Nintendo DSi
Chocobo and the Magic Storybook: The Witch, The Maiden, and the Five Heroes
Shaun White Snowboarding
Show and Tell: Painted love

 

Most Commented On (14 days)

Recent Comments

Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: