New World Series PS3 ad is weak sauce
Sony aired the above turd of an ad for the PS3 during game four of the World Series last night on Fox (Go Tigers!). After the well produced ads from yesterday, it's hard to critique this one. It's just a pile of non-emotional, non-descriptive and confusing crap. A crying doll with "screenshot" devil eyes sitting next to a shiny PS3 in a white room. Doesn't make sense to us either, and we scrutinize video games at an unhealthy level.












(Page 1) Reader Comments
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The PS3 *does* make Baby Jesus cry.
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The add is a little creepy, but the add isn't supposed to overwhelm its audience with information. Its supposed to catch your eye, then mainstream people will see "Playstation 3 ind immediately be curious. The next round of Ads will push the console on the consumer a lot more.
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LOL
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That was an actual ad? That real people actually saw? People who were not Sony Fanboys?
Wow.
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How creative. No wonder I don't have a job in advertising. I just can't shit gold like the geniuses who made this commercial.
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congratulations everyone, even JOYSTIQ bought it.
*handshakes all around the room
heres a little something with advertising....they want you to say wtf, because most likely the people will want to know what they just saw.
now this ad is great for the sony haters. cause they will show their friends, post it up on the internets and bitch about it. and thus free advertising is born.
cause you know if the commercial was actually cool, the haters wouldnt care. but if the commercials were bad the haters would care and spread the word.
its ok joystiq it happens to the best of us.
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Anyway, I watched the game while doing work, so I didn't really pay much attention to the commercials, but I saw this one a few times (it was on yesterday too, I think, when they thought the game wouldn't be canceled). I never got through it, because as soon as I saw that freaky baby I went back to work. It wasn't until JUST NOW that I realized it was a PS3 ad.
Not all publicity is good publicity, and you are absolutely kidding yourself if you think that this was the pinnacle of product-placement. Edgy? Sure. So is showing a man getting shot in the penis, but I don't think that'd sell Ps3's either... or would it?
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This, along with many other things Sony has done in the past year, makes them deserve the bad press they get not just at Joystiq, but at pretty much any place that gives a crap about gaming or electronics.
If you didn't know what the product was and saw this commercial, would you A) be interested in the product and consider purchasing it or B) feel like some jackass who is making way too much money just belittled you as an intelligent human being?
If you chose A) then you're an idiot,
If you chose B) then do everything you can to make sure you and everyone you know won't buy this product from this pretentious company.
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My personal opinions, impressions, and questions on and about the ad:
- I found the ad terrifying, and I'm 20 years old. Just imagine what the really young gamers are going think. "Dad, There's a PS3 under my bed!"
- Was this supposed to overwhelm the recent god-like GoW ad? Or just make us see how a single game took out an entire gaming console?
- Bad publicity only works if you've had some good publicity in the past 2 years (in the very least). At this rate, Sony might as well just send a firing squad after their advertisement masterminds.
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Go Cardinals!
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"Don't cry for me... I'm already dead." -FIN-
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(unless he did actually make that commercial, which would make it Extra Spicy Weak Sauce [wait, that's an oxymoron])
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Normally, you would have a point. This product and its ad is different.
A lot of people watching the World Series has probably never heard of anything PS3 related...Do you think they know now?...Hell no they don't. They are going to wonder "WTF was that?" and they aren't going to find out, they will still have no idea.
Some people watching the World Series are informed like us. THOSE people will judge its content, like joystiq and everyone posting is doing. The general consensus is... that ad sucked.
John Q. has no idea what he just saw and immediately forgets it. Gaming savvy Johnny Joystiq, on the other hand, is pissed off that it makes no sense and immediately hits the net to flame Sony.
They are now appealing with an adult audience (600 bucks ain't kiddy toys) so they should have ran something during the world series that makes adults sit up and listen in awe...Something like Sony's previous 2 ads about capacity of blu-ray and the cell processor.
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http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c273/TravisMcEwen05/?action=view¤t=Picture147.flv
I think it's quite funny.
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... about the PS3 of course.
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No, seriously!
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Judging this ad without bias it is pretty good for a minimalist ad. In that all the Sony fanboys who haven't really spent much time with any thing other than their PS2 need their imaginations stirred. It will blow their mind when it comes out.
Which is sad...because I just saw the new Crysis video for PC today and the next generation is already here, and Sony isn't even out yet for this one! I would love to see Crytek make a commercial about the future of videogames that completely blew those 2 ads from earlier this week out of the water.
Jack Carver saying "Why, I can fit 50gb in my a**!"
Picture analyzing this ad though in a commercial design class. For what they are trying to do this is not too bad. At least they are not having long, OMG BUY THIS AMAZING PRODUCT THAT WILL BLOW yOU AWAY! commercials before this BRUTAL shortage forthcoming. Shoot, they already did this. The ad is still decent though! even kinda good. Plus, I like mysterious shit.. especially if I ignore the real crap its hiding.
I can still understand #16, Bnight3's take on this. They do come across as pretentious!
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Dude, the PS2 was my "last gen" favorite console by far. I'm not a Nintendo fanboy and Xbox has no games I want to play (except for Dead Rising). As you can see I'm pretty neutral about Nintendo and Sony. But... this ad was crap. It also creeped me out. And Joystiq keeps "bashing" Sony because they do something stupid almost every day. Sorry dude, but it's true. I do plan to buy a PS3 someday -- but not beacuse the console is good. I will buy it because it has a couple of games that I really want to play. Plus I guess it's nice to stare at pretty graphics from time to time.
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"I don't know!"
JR
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Also, I don't think this ad's purpose was to get people out of their chairs and into the store to buy a ps3. I came to this conclusion using 2 points of thought. 1) It isnt out yet. 2) It's going to be sold out at that date. I think the only purpose of this commercial was to grab attention, either good or bad. From the looks of things, I'd say it worked.
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Kamikaze watermelon shooting rake nukes into the European remote control helicopter dog!
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ROFLMFAO @ SONY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Sorry, I know I veered off path from the main topic but as an artist in training some of what passes for art today is embarassing to the whole field.
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i feel like i should work for sony and make confusing ads.
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Were Joystiq a blog on any other topic in the world besides gaming, I'd agree with you.
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Hoo-rah for the Contact reference!
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Boy that new GOW ad kicks ass though. Oh and the one with the 360 and all those GAMES? Man how bout all those GAMES! Remember GAMES Sony? Yea...you remember those things don't you? From the days before BluGhey? Remeber?
Thanks for making the hating easier.
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