European PS3 ad takes a step back ... into crazytown
by Justin McElroy 
{ Nov 5th 2007 at 3:28PM }
"OK, here is my pitch. We blend Cirque du Soleil with A.I. then we take that concoction and dip it in glitter, using the tears of five-year-old orphans as adhesive. Then, we set the whole thing on fire. That ... is your ad."
"Why would that make someone want to buy a PS3?"
"... I don't know what that is."
"You're hired!"
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
arrrgh @ Nov 5th 2007 3:33PM
wtf.
FOXHOUND @ Nov 5th 2007 3:39PM
"From the twisted continent that brought you Dr Uwe Boll..."
Dan @ Nov 5th 2007 4:31PM
I can't wait to play the psycho-cowboy game... that looks awesome, I don't know how stoked I am for a gymnastics game though.
Penguin Warlord @ Nov 5th 2007 5:35PM
I guess when you run out of decent games to advertise you get this.
hulked @ Nov 5th 2007 3:49PM
I actually saw this on tv yesterday, freaked me out
NeoGohan @ Nov 5th 2007 3:38PM
omg... *slaps forehead*
ukickmydog (NDF - Earth) @ Nov 5th 2007 7:33PM
LETS DO THE SONY DANCE!
one step forward
two steps back
AGAIN!
CleftAsunder @ Nov 5th 2007 3:39PM
So this is what tripping on acid feels like!
What a great anti-drug ad.
gonk @ Nov 5th 2007 6:32PM
yeah, the new ps3 ads show tentacles and wheels popping out of the console, wtf. they're losing hardware in the new versions, not gaining it!
Hiroken @ Nov 5th 2007 3:39PM
Holy god. AWESOME. I totally want a...what was it again?
~
arrrgh @ Nov 5th 2007 3:40PM
space ghost is amazing
Hiroken @ Nov 5th 2007 6:34PM
Also, fantastic post Justin.
This is nuts. I have and like my PS3, and the new American ads are sweet, but wtf is that? It's like something out of a David Lynch film.
~
Jonah Falcon @ Nov 5th 2007 6:39PM
David Lynch only wishes he were that creepy.
Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 5th 2007 10:17PM
Neither of you have seen Inland Empire.
Night Elve @ Nov 5th 2007 3:43PM
I mean come on I love SONY and all but I really don't understand what the fuck is happening with its Marketing Department.
Shit! SONY I need a good job and you seriously need me so hire me!
JJ Rooster @ Nov 5th 2007 3:43PM
Wow, you'd think the ad would go: Here's the PS3 and here's the games enticing you to buy it.
Sadly, no. Are the marketers stupid, or are they keenly aware of their client's drawbacks?
h2c @ Nov 5th 2007 3:44PM
"This is entertainment like you've never seen before."
Indeed.
LaughingTarget @ Nov 5th 2007 4:42PM
They got the "have never seen before" part right, I just can't figure out if that's entertainment.
The Fuzz 53 @ Nov 5th 2007 3:44PM
...
[speechless]
-b- @ Nov 5th 2007 4:19PM
Whatever you guys. Just because Europeans can appreciate more of an abstract approach to advertising...
I like of lot of the Sony ads. In an age of media/consumer/advertising saturation, their adds really stand out as essentially small-art films that have a real aesthetic quality to them, requiring you to work more, than just sit there on your fat ass and be spoon-fed information. Which in the end, at least in Europe, is going to sell more product.
Apart from the TV ads, some of their billboards are really subtle and funny. Don't you guys appreciate this 'consumer art'? No?
NeoGohan @ Nov 5th 2007 3:52PM
I think the point is that they ads aren't convincing consumers to buy. If it was an artsy ad that enticed consumers to buy a ps3, then of course that would be lovely. In this case, the art doesn't do anything.
ComicShaman @ Nov 5th 2007 3:56PM
"Yes, well, that's precisely the sort of blinkered, philistine pig-ignorance I've come to expect from you non-creative garbage. You sit there on your loathsome, spotty behinds, squeezing blackheads, not caring a tinker's cuss for the struggling artist. You excrement!"
(with thanks to John Cleese)
d-pad @ Nov 5th 2007 3:58PM
I love abstract artforms.
However, this commercial was avant-garde for the sake of being avant-garde.
That makes it shitty.
Arinya @ Nov 5th 2007 4:13PM
So just because we don't like it we are fat American's who do not understand anything. C'mon, those PS3 ads are trying too hard but the both fail and succeed as ads. They generate interest in the PS3 but for the most part it's not positive attention that translates into sales. This is the problem with Sony. They don't really connect with the customer. They want to force ppl to think a certain way disregarding how the customer feels or what hey want. This is classic Sony.
Robobagins @ Nov 5th 2007 4:20PM
Aren't art-house film watching, gallery-hopping, anti-capitalistic faux-intelligentsia the last people who would buy PS3s(Or Wiis, 360s, etc) or anything else smacking of commercialism?
slyecho @ Nov 5th 2007 4:40PM
As a European, I find myself agreeing with Justin McElroy in this case.
I don't want my "living" to be like that. And how is any of what's going on in that video associated with the PS3 at all?
Slaziman @ Nov 5th 2007 5:34PM
I'm an European, I saw this ad on TV after seeing the American ad on Joystiq, and was very disappointed. Fucking crazytown bullshit that nobody wants to see FTW
You'd think they'd know their target audience (young males), but nooo they pull some avantgarde shit over us and become the laughing stock of the youth they were targeting. Maybe some crazy rich douches will buy it as an entertainment center after seeing this...
Oh and fuck you, you don't speak for all Europeans.
Bluebrake @ Nov 5th 2007 7:15PM
Somebody get hold of Sony! We've found the one guy on the planet who likes their advertising!
Korova @ Nov 6th 2007 7:15AM
I think you all nailed it. Sony is not targeting young males. They dont want the PS brand to be a toy anymore. They want to adultify it. The kinds are like WFT? The adults are like WTF? And Sony just keeps trying to stear that massive brand that is the PS into a wholy different direction.
Most companies would just create a new brand. Like Microsoft and Ninty did. Sony went with PlayStation 2+1 but are trying to make it look like its a totally different species. So everyone is like WTF - you are killing the PS name and giving me toilet girls and circus clowns.
I did like it though. It was a good commercial. But no, it does not push me to buy. Thats what makes me like it even more.
Slaziman @ Nov 6th 2007 8:15AM
So you mean they ditched everything that made the PS2 such a success so they can adultify the PS brand? Forget about this ad, their whole plan is batshit loco
Korova @ Nov 7th 2007 7:32AM
lol. I am not saying its a full proof plan. It sure looks batshit loco.
But lets talk in 5 years.
ComicShaman @ Nov 5th 2007 3:49PM
Okay... that was fabulously stupid and pointless. We had mimes, clowns, a giant dry-cleaning machine, acrobats, a poodle...
I'm at a loss.
Wait! I've got it! Several Microsoft employees went undercover, disguised themselves as high-priced ad wizards, and pulled one over on SCEE! Oooh, those crafty corporate spies from Redmond! Or maybe they worked for Nintendo. I dunno... I'm just trying to come up with some other explanation besides Sony Execs Are On Drugs, which I admit is a persuasive theory.
Poisoned Al @ Nov 5th 2007 3:52PM
Was the PS3 even mentioned in this train-wreck?
losttoys @ Nov 5th 2007 4:12PM
Yes, it is mentioned in the end cap.
-b- @ Nov 5th 2007 3:58PM
I get what you are saying, but you're missing the point too, the point of this ad isn't to try to sell people playstation 3's. Its simply for associating the bizarre, fantastical imagery with the simple words 'this is living'. It's like brand association, just trying to push this simple sentence as something that means fun, wild, etc. From then on its the purpose of other ads to push the product.
hoop @ Nov 5th 2007 4:36PM
Where, then, are the other ads? All I've seen from Sony Europe has been bat-shit loco.
arrrgh @ Nov 5th 2007 4:37PM
it's not working in this case
frozengod @ Nov 6th 2007 5:43AM
Oh, -b- is right, the only problem I see here is the near impossibility of having any acquaintance of mine saying, after seeing siblings of this commercial some years from now, the following words: Verily, that IS living! If you excuse me, I must go buy myself a right now!
hotnutz @ Nov 5th 2007 7:10PM
lol - don't bother explaining it to this crowd.. I think it was aimed a bit too high to be honest. I got the concept because I work in a marketing related field but I think they misjudged their market.. gamers are not exactly mensa level people so they will react like most people have on here. Lots of "WTF", "" and "what are you on" of questions which has been proven.
Someone in the Sony marketing department should be reassigned to work for a perfume or car company as the style of commercial is more in line those advertisement styles.
Korova @ Nov 6th 2007 7:02AM
A. Europe is more high-brow then America - their adds tend to be more conceptual. I dont know why. Different school systems?
B. This is part of the ten year strategy and its only Year 1. In year one you position the product in consumer's minds. You dont push them to buy, now, quick. And they are purposefully positioning it not as a gaming console but as a lifestyle transformer. Very self-conscious, unlike most gamers.
C. I dont know. It kinda worked for me. They are trying to say that PS3 is wondrous and cheesy like the circus. And it transforms you living like a magical machine.
Zootittles @ Nov 5th 2007 3:59PM
More entertaining than stacking cups.
Trev @ Nov 5th 2007 4:00PM
Freaky. I was mildly entertained by the weirdness and I guess if its goofy enough to stick in someone's head and keep them thinking of the brand it accomplishes one of the things advertising is intended to do.
eugene @ Nov 5th 2007 4:06PM
whatever that was, i'm awestruck that anyone would dare to call it art. "we're sophisticated, we're edgy, we're different!" sony, you make an electronics device that plays shoddy ports of old games and blu-ray copies of talladega nights. you only hurt your own brand name with kitsch like this.
i didn't think it was possible for a console to jump the shark. thanks for proving me wrong, sony.
foodgoes @ Nov 5th 2007 4:08PM
aahhh......
Vagabond Artist @ Nov 5th 2007 6:58PM
when the guy with the plastic hair starts gyrating to dodge the bullets a piece of my soul left forever.
Jonah Falcon @ Nov 5th 2007 7:27PM
He represents the Sixaxis :p
Ethan @ Nov 5th 2007 4:11PM
I've got nothing against surreal or quirky, but this was just cuttings from things we associate with that. Forgettable, had no style of it's own.
And unfortunately, the mutt is more fun to play with than the poodle.
deaftly @ Nov 5th 2007 4:14PM
good to know sony is still giving its marketing team plenty of lsd
JET @ Nov 5th 2007 4:15PM
I love the This Is Living campaign; I've got the entire run + the Making Of featurette from the European PSN store. My favorite was the one with the flamboyant host of the fictitious You Bet Your Wife when he states that his jacket was "woven by the fingers of a thousand Thai boys." This one was good, too, but it is not the freakiest by a long shot.
JET
Arinya @ Nov 5th 2007 4:16PM
Disregarding how the customer feels or what hey want. This is classic Sony.