And Your Mom’s Gonna Hate It

Posted on: 01/19/11 6:42 AM | by Jonathan McKee

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It’s no secret that controversy can be a good marketing tool.

Maybe that’s why the makers of Dead Space 2 are trying an interesting viral video approach to market their new violent video game. (So is my blogging about it helping them? Hmmmmm.)

The game creators sat down hundreds of moms and filmed their reactions to the most violent and horrific scenes from the game, showing us their facial expressions in a commercial. Then they provide comments from some of the moms, comments like, “It’s horrible!” “It’s demonic!” Then the commercial finishes with the slogan, “It’s everything you love in a game, and your mom’s gonna hate it!”

Here’s the video.

Creative marketing, I’ll give it that. It just worked for MTV’s Skins earlier this week. When the Parents Television Council deems your show “the most dangerous show for teens,” it helps create a hype.

Remember when churches tried to ban Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. The film didn’t even need previews. Every news station was chatting about the controversy.

Video games have been the center of controversy for decades. This week on our web page David provides an amazing insight into the recent gaming world in his brand new Youth Culture Window article, The Dominance of Video Games: And What it Means for Today’s Teenagers.

(ht to Jon Forrest)

Posted in Entertainment Media, Internet, Youth Culture |  | Leave A Comment

3 Replies to “And Your Mom’s Gonna Hate It”

  1. Rated M, but the way they are trying to advertise it here they are def shooting for the 14-17 crowd. If mom doesn’t want me to play it, then I have to get it! The 17-19 age which the game is “ok” for, and I put that just to go along with the ratings, probably doesn’t really care what their moms will think of the game.

  2. Look, I hate that they think the people playing this game still live with their moms. I think it’s a little presumptuous. I no longer live with my parents, and still play video games, but a slogan like “You’re mom’s gonna hate it” makes me second guess my lifestyle, which I don’t need. I wish the marketing execs would grow a pair because most people playing this game already have a long time ago.

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