'Slavery the Game' revealed as a viral ad for Dutch TV history series

@mcnichoj
Why would the ESRB sue them? Not only are they out of ESRB's touch (since they'd use the PEGI system ifI understand correctly) it was still a mock site. Which mocking of anything is almost always protected underlaw.

@The Aquacharger
They used a ESRB logo at the start of the video although the ad wasn't for a real game so I guess it doesn't matter but however if it was a real game that gave itself a rating before it was actually rated then it could be held liable.

That aside, this was a terrible marketing campaign. It was in English even though it it's for a Dutch audience, it incorporated a fake video game even though I'm gonna assume not a single video game thing will be in the actual show and lastly the video was hosted on YouTube instead of the broadcasting channels own website where it could (and it did) get misconstrued as a real game.

I was offended by the commercial and infact was oddly aroused but this was a terrible idea on all fronts.

@mcnichoj
I can agree that not putting it dutch instead of english (unless a lot of there speak English) but not putting in their youtube channel would've killed the viral campaign for it. They however were kind enough to cut it off before it got too out of control.

@The Aquacharger
We do speak English over here. Close to half of the commercials shown here are in English, even for Dutch products. This is especially true for trailers for films and games, which are always shown in English unless they're targetting a younger audience. So showing it in Dutch would've made it far less realistic.

As for the sensitivity issue, of course a US audience is going to be much more sensitive about this. The Dutch didn't really own slaves, we traded them (which is kinda worse). This means there really aren't any former slaves in the Netherlands, there was no civil war over (among many other things) slave rights, there was no Martin Luther King jr. (at the time the Dutch were more concerned about Martin Luther) and there is no Black History Month.

We know about slavery, we know about our part in it, but there's no real emotional connection to it, it all happened 'over there'. It gets downplayed a lot in history classes too, the entire era in fact. We know about the V.O.C. and that they did a bit of trading here and there, but little to no mention of the Dutch actually being a commercial superpower or our four (!) wars with the English.

The lack of knowledge and emotional connecting to the issues of slavery among the Dutch is what this series is trying to address, which is why they needed a campaign that was shocking and reached a large audience. And it seems they managed to do that.

"It was in English even though it it's for a Dutch audience,"


If Gamescom were held in the Netherlands, you wouldn't see 99% of everything translated and voiced over in the local language despite it being such an international event. Unlike Germany, we're not so in love with our own language that we insist on forcing it on everything that comes in even if doing that makes it sound stupid as hell.

We tend to respect people's original work, hence most games and shows are in English, unless it's for kids.

@Third

Why is everyone so sensitive about cultural differences?
Hey, btw, have I shown you this hilarious cartoon drawing of the Muslim prophet Mohammed? I found it in this Danish newspaper a couple years ago...

I say keep pushing that envelope, you Nordic trailblazers!

@Third
So they WANTED an uproar so then they could show their viewers why it was an important issue, thanks for clearing that up.

@JonahStein

Excuse me if I'm misinterpreting this but, are you saying the riots and death threats over that cartoon were somehow not completely ridiculous? Are you saying that cartoon shouldn't have been drawn?

@Demon G Sides
Yeah I want to watch the series now aswell. Though it did show how unmature we Americans(not saying you're an American incase you are. Just including my self since I am one) about this topic.

@The Aquacharger

Oh I am definitely of the American persuasion, and I agree wholeheartedly that we as Americans are definitely over sensitive about our own history. If we can't learn from the past, we're doomed to repeat it, or at least make egregious mistakes similar. However, at no point should we take this history so seriously that we can't even satirize it without someone having a shitfit about it.

@Demon G Sides
100% agree.

@Demon G Sides How was this satirical though? If anything, it was satirizing the video game industry, but it was a very graphic and real depiction of slavery. Even so, I think that's a pretty stupid thing to say. You don't have to be able to make jokes about painful issuses to not be doomed to repeat them. I think we're pretty unlikely to repeat the Holocaust, but nobody thinks jokes about that are funny except assholes on the internet.

@TheDarkWayne
Guess that makes me an asshole...

@Red Runner
Man who would've thought that Visceral / the KKK would be creating a show to about the Dutch slave trade?

@Red Runner

oh hey how's it going guy who got all upset about nothing!

@Red Runner

POINT AND LAUGH! SALT THE WOUND!

@Heisenberg

Everything is offensive to you americans, so no wonder you're projecting and thinking this is something specifically meant to offend someone.

@bm111

Ba-zing! If the shoe fits, as the saying goes... and this was supposed to be a wake-up call to the Dutch, not us Yanks.

@bm111

Who says I'm offended by this? I'm saying that everyone involved in the marketing for this knew that people were going to get offended by this. If they didn't, they must be really thick headed and out of touch with the world. I'm not saying it's a bad marketing campaign and that they should burn for it, but I'm saying that they knew going into this that people were not going to take this viral ad lightly and that any publicity is good publicity. They certainly succeeded in drumming up attention for their show and their viral ad was great because of it. I'm not condemning anyone for being a bad person. I'm just saying that it's a viral ad and that being shocking is a big part of viral ads and they tend to offend people.

So please, read my comment and learn to interpret it correctly before making assumptions about me based on nothing but our point of disagreement, you barbaric non-American :)