I RATE ADS

jtherkal: I’m not sure if this ever aired on television, even in a shortened form. But it’s another example of how YouTube advertising can be effective in driving traffic to a website. I wasn’t sure exactly what this was for, but I love the stop motion version of human “snakes.” It made me curious enough to visit get-out-and-play.com. They have a pretty cool version of the breakout game there, using real people as the paddle, ball and targets. The problem is, even after seeing the video multiple times and visiting the site, I still wasn’t sure what it was for. I just went back to find out. My initial thought was that it’s some sort of public service announcement encouraging kids to get out and play. If that was so, it seemed counter-intuitive to put a video game on the site. Well, it’s not a PSA. It’s for Nokia N-Gage, whatever that is. Some sort of gaming thing you have to download for your Nokia phone, which I don’t have. So ultimately, it’s a cool video that doesn’t really learn me. Plus, typing in that website name with the dashes is really annoying. Someone should have tested that. B-.

sjbooher: Despite his high grade, jtherkal’s argument proves my reason for a low grade. I’m interested for about 15 aseconds, then it becomes AEM that advertises nothing since no one’s paying attention by the end. And then, apparently, you can go to the website and STILL not know what the hell’s going on. F.

jtherkal: Grand Theft Auto doesn’t have to do much more than announce they’re coming out with a new game to sell a billion copies. And they don’t really push much further than that here. Cutting together clips from the game isn’t very creative, but I guess it’s effective enough to do the job. Halo 3 set an almost impossibly high bar with their campaign. But I guess when you’re letting people, rob, kill, fuck and be a straight-up gangster vicariously, you don’t have to oversell it. The fact that it’s set in NY–errr, excuse me, Liberty City–makes me want to go scoop up an Xbox and get the game. But I won’t. D+.

sjbooher: My colleague himself explained why this is effective: they don’t “have to do much more than announce they’re coming out with a new game to sell a billion copies”. Knowing that, there is no reason to overdo it. These ads are great, as they show clips and music from the product, and show why the game will be as enjoyable as ever. As a fan of the series, these ads have made me ridiculously excited to get the game; I just haven’t had the time to pick it up yet. A.

And if you keep talking about that copycat Halo 3 ad…

Creativity has a real hard-on for Halo 3. I’m surprised this was #7 on their list of most viewed, considering I had never seen nor heard of it. The video I found on YouTube only had around 6,500 views, compared to the 3-4 million views “Believe” has. The short was created by Neill Blomkamp, the director who started making the actual Halo movie (which was slated for release in 2009, but is now apparently dead in the water).

He accomlished his goal of making it “feel like the most brutal, real version of science fiction in a war environment that you’ve seen in a while.” The problem is, it doesn’t make me want to play the game; it makes me want to see the movie. So the director succeeded in making an ad for his derailed movie, but failed in making an ad for the game. The real-life action and cgi aliens are so good they make the game seem like crap.

Here’s a link to the interview about the commercial and movie.

Already reviewed this one here. I love it, my associate believes it was stolen.

The original. The Halo 3 ad, while good in it’s own right, is a clear rip-off of this classic. Not only did I want to buy Gears Of War, when I haven’t ever purchased a war/army game, but I downloaded the song played in the background (”Mad World” by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules), and I bought the movie, Donnie Darko — the soundtrack of which contains that song.

That’s an advertising bonanza.

Check out the review here:

I’m An Idea Man

It’s an older ad, but I love it. Awesome.