| RavenBlog |
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| Comments on Sunday 8 September 2002: |
| An interesting advertising technique; I rather wonder whether it's secretly a cover for an even sharper technique. Say you're going to advertise in some innovative and deceptive way. Give an example which fully describes your product. The outraged press print articles, outraged or impressed people point at those articles, and lo, your product is advertised. I wouldn't be surprised to see a "Sony backs down, doesn't spend $5M on actors after all" article later. Why would you, when you can get this sort of delicious exposure free?
[09:08] |
| Kevan |
| Isn't this pretty much all that Acclaim software do with their advertising budget these days? (A press release for adverts on gravestones! A competition paying people to name their children Turok!) It increases awareness, but I imagine comes with a lot of counteractive "christ, they must be doing badly if they're taking things that far" perception. If advertising smacks visibly of desperation, it makes it fairly clear that the product is flawed in some way. ("Hm, a new camera-phone that obviously isn't selling - why bother buying one if no real people can receive my pictures?") But it only falls over if people are aware of the scale of the fakery, I suppose. Join the Campaign for Real Advertising today. |
| RavenBlack |
| You think people consider that much? |
| Kevan |
| Not really, but if newspapers bothered to report such things as "Acclaim gibbers about gravestones as a desperate marketing ploy" rather than simple outrage, it'd help kill it off. |
| RavenBlack |
| Why would they want to do that? |
| Kevan |
| They wouldn't, we're doomed. |