Worst advert ever

Retr0gamer · 12-11-2006 2:18pm #1

Okay so I thought that the PS2's third place adverts were by far the worst I've ever seen but the new PSP advert I saw at a bus stop takes the prize and will be very hard to beat.

It's a white background with two black scribbles on it with eyes. One says 'I can't believe she called me a dirtbag' to which the other replies 'I know, you're clearly a dustball' or something very similar.

And thats it. What's the ad for? The PSP obviously. Of course you wouldn't know unless you strain and see the small PSP logo in the bottom right corner.

So what exactly has this ad to do with the PSP and how does it make you want to buy one? I'm asking the question because I'm completely dumbfounded as well.

Then out of desperation I searched to see if there was a dustball game on PSP. What I found to my horror was some youtube PSP adverts featuring these dustballs. Again they had absolutely nothing to do with the PSP except for showing it at the end of the advert and saying that the PSP is like carpet except outside (I know, WTF!).

The absolutely abysmality, cheapness and cheek of these ads makes me want to sell my PSP and buy a DS lite. Maybe they are right with the carpet analogy. However the carpet on my floor is getting more use than my PSP.

tuxy · 12-11-2006 2:21pm

the psp , as entertaining as watching carpet..........outside!

Ciaran500 · 12-11-2006 2:25pm

Congrats, you just showed why the whole compaign works. They want people talking and they want people going WTF then telling their friends about it.

Goodshape · 12-11-2006 2:27pm

Don't you have a DS Lite, Retr0?

The ads are pretty stoooopid alright. It's provoking discussion though (here, obviously, and I've seen people say similar things elsewhere), which is what Sony seems to go for with their Playstation adverts. Have you seen the crying baby PS3 ad? or the one with the eggs? Just plain weird.

projectmayhem · 12-11-2006 2:50pm

Retr0gamer wrote:

Okay so I thought that the PS2's third place adverts were by far the worst I've ever seen but the new PSP advert I saw at a bus stop takes the prize and will be very hard to beat.

It's a white background with two black scribbles on it with eyes. One says 'I can't believe she called me a dirtbag' to which the other replies 'I know, you're clearly a dustball' or something very similar.

And thats it. What's the ad for? The PSP obviously. Of course you wouldn't know unless you strain and see the small PSP logo in the bottom right corner.

So what exactly has this ad to do with the PSP and how does it make you want to buy one? I'm asking the question because I'm completely dumbfounded as well.

Then out of desperation I searched to see if there was a dustball game on PSP. What I found to my horror was some youtube PSP adverts featuring these dustballs. Again they had absolutely nothing to do with the PSP except for showing it at the end of the advert and saying that the PSP is like carpet except outside (I know, WTF!).

The absolutely abysmality, cheapness and cheek of these ads makes me want to sell my PSP and buy a DS lite. Maybe they are right with the carpet analogy. However the carpet on my floor is getting more use than my PSP.

you mentioned a previous advert playstation ran, the third place. look at the new "play b3yond" ads on youtube too. they give you no information at all. playstation ads have never done that. the idea isn't to say "look at playstation, look at what it can do.. here's what games it has". they're to confuse most people, entertain others and collect awards (which they do, a lot).

after watching it you're supposed to go "wtf?"... which makes it stick in your head. they don't care if you love or hate it. they just want you to think about "that psp ad".

as you say, it didn't have much about the PSP, but you know it was a PSP advert, and it's in your head. sony PR wins again

Retr0gamer · 12-11-2006 3:51pm

I only have a DS fat.

The PS advert really don't do anything for me and really don't make me want one.

The Nintendi and Xbox advert are a hell of a lot better since they actually show the games. I remember the old SNES ones were in the space of 30 seconds they showed Contra 3, Axelay, Super Aleste, F-zero, Super Mario World and lors more. Now that me feel like my life wouldn't be complete without a SNES. The DS ads at the moment are quite good.

Prehaps Sony is going for brand awareness but they could do an awful lot better. With this round of console wars looking to go less in Sonys favour perhaps they should look back at how successful their original Ps1 adverts were when it launched. Those ads with the guy in the labcoat showing the games were excellent. They certainly contributed a lot to beating the Saturn.

griffdaddy · 12-11-2006 3:58pm

are those things not the enemies out of loco roco? thats what i thought they were anyway

Crucifix · 12-11-2006 4:09pm

Sony have some great weird ads in the past, but the dustball one is kind of irritating. Still effective no doubt.

A bit off topic, but still on advertising, has anyone spotted the Gears of War graffitti anywhere? There's some on the paths near the school on Collins avenue.

Goodshape · 12-11-2006 5:54pm

Commercial graffiti? Is it actually just stenciled on the sides of walls or what?

That's a total disgrace if true. Didn't Sony get into bother for their own PSP graffiti a while back?

monkeyfudge · 12-11-2006 6:08pm

I haven't seen the bus shelter adverts but I've seen the one with Tekken for the PSP on TV.. It's like a 15 year old wrote the dialog between the two dust balls.

The current DS adverts are great though.. I like the one following the girl through her day and she never puts the DS down. And that DS chime at the beginning of the adverts really grabs your attention.

5uspect · 12-11-2006 6:31pm

Didn't David Lynch do the Third Place ads? You're kinda asking for weirdness with him!

I suppose Sony wants to advertise the brand and leave the games to the developers, at least Nintendo do a significant amount of their own games to show them. I get the feeling that Sony want Playstation to be part of the culture like CocaCola. It's almost at the point where any games console is by default a playstation, be it the microsoft or the nintendo playstation and parents will happily buy them in masses for their kids. Sony know that such console ads have little or no effect on your average hard core gamer decision making.

Goodshape · 12-11-2006 6:46pm

That's true enough. Games console == Playstation to many people these days. These ads probably work in their favour; looking at a Nintendo / XBox adverts might show of some good looking games and gadgets, while the Playstation ads basically just shout "playstation" at you.

Ask the uninformed what it is they're looking at and its "oh, some sort of playstation thing". The CocaCola analogy is quite a good one.

Crucifix · 12-11-2006 8:58pm

Goodshape wrote:

Commercial graffiti? Is it actually just stenciled on the sides of walls or what?

Yep, stencilled on the ground.

skywalker · 13-11-2006 12:24pm

Retr0gamer wrote:

I only have a DS fat.

The PS advert really don't do anything for me and really don't make me want one.

The Nintendi and Xbox advert are a hell of a lot better since they actually show the games. I remember the old SNES ones were in the space of 30 seconds they showed Contra 3, Axelay, Super Aleste, F-zero, Super Mario World and lors more. Now that me feel like my life wouldn't be complete without a SNES. The DS ads at the moment are quite good.

Prehaps Sony is going for brand awareness but they could do an awful lot better. With this round of console wars looking to go less in Sonys favour perhaps they should look back at how successful their original Ps1 adverts were when it launched. Those ads with the guy in the labcoat showing the games were excellent. They certainly contributed a lot to beating the Saturn.

If your talking old games ads. Especially for showing maximum games in minimum time, you cant beat the old classic:

Sega cyber razor cut ad

projectmayhem · 13-11-2006 12:30pm

while we're at it, and since retr0 started this, i just saw the Wii ad. it features the wiimote and a womans voice saying "what's this". zoom in. then you get to a splash with "Wii" and the date on it.

possibly the most unprofessional looking ad from a multi-billion dollar company. how you can say the ps3 ads suck when ninty are bringing out this muck is beyond me

/stir the sh1te

Retr0gamer · 13-11-2006 12:37pm

Seems more of a teaser to me, like them stupid big brother ads on Channel 4. It will get the hardcore frothing in anticipation although it probably won't reach the mainstream. They will show the game footage at launch (well thats my prediction, they should have at least a zelda ad considering how big that franchise is). At least they show the wiimote. The Sony ads hardly ever show the console.

monkeyfudge · 13-11-2006 1:02pm

This should be the advert for the Wii

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BJX2fm61IKY

Vegeta · 13-11-2006 1:14pm

Hey where's LookingFor, his wages will be docked if he doesn't stand up for PS soon.

Anyway those ads are sh1t, the only thing i think when I see them is "There's only one thing more stupid than these adds and that's buying a PSP, utter tripe"

Why cant sony leverage the excellent work for the bravia adds and put it into playstation

projectmayhem · 13-11-2006 1:26pm

Retr0gamer wrote:

The Sony ads hardly ever show the console.

they never have in the past. quick show of the logo, let people know what the ad was supposed to promote, but generally confuse the sweet jesus out of you so afterwards you make a post on a forum asking "wtf?", promoting it more

didn't understand this at all until someone commented that the 4 pillars mean 11/11 (release date). makes sense of a lot of the ps3 stuff (the ///7 tag in america is 11/17)

Retr0gamer · 13-11-2006 1:41pm

projectmayhem wrote:

they never have in the past. quick show of the logo, let people know what the ad was supposed to promote, but generally confuse the sweet jesus out of you so afterwards you make a post on a forum asking "wtf?", promoting it more

I think I'm preaching to the converted by posting this on a Games board.

Also sony did show the game in the past. There ads in the first 2 years of the PS1 showed a lot of game footage. It was only after the PS1 started to trounce the opposition that they started their awful brand recognition advert campaign.

projectmayhem · 13-11-2006 1:46pm

Retr0gamer wrote:

Also sony did show the game in the past. There ads in the first 2 years of the PS1 showed a lot of game footage.

that is true, but the new ads do show some footage. there is footage in the crying babies eyes, and 2 or 3 of the other play b3yond ads show resistance & what not for brief periods after explaining what cell is, which is about as much as the original ps1 ads did show

Retr0gamer · 13-11-2006 1:54pm

projectmayhem wrote:

that is true, but the new ads do show some footage. there is footage in the crying babies eyes, and 2 or 3 of the other play b3yond ads show resistance & what not for brief periods after explaining what cell is, which is about as much as the original ps1 ads did show

Well I haven't seen those ads but it looks like a step in the right direction.

Sony really should do an advert with just Resistance footage. The gameplay videos aren't the most exciting but it does look rather nice and could be edited together to look quite exciting. They should do it like the original Halo advert which looked excellent. The only problem is that Resistance doesn't look as good as Gears of War which might not go well with Sony touting the PS3 as the most powerful console around (and before anyone argues, GoW does look better than Resistance but since Resistance is a launch game it really isn't making full use of the PS3).

5uspect · 13-11-2006 2:45pm

Maybe Sony aren't big on showing a big shoot 'em up as a way of advertising (lets face it) their only way of pushing Blu-Ray what with all the anti violent video game stuff. Have they advertised that it is one of the only Blu-Ray players around even?

Ciaran500 · 13-11-2006 4:46pm

5uspect wrote:

Maybe Sony aren't big on showing a big shoot 'em up as a way of advertising (lets face it) their only way of pushing Blu-Ray what with all the anti violent video game stuff. Have they advertised that it is one of the only Blu-Ray players around even?

They're not advertising the PS3 yet.

tosh_thedude · 13-11-2006 5:06pm

These Adverts....

Creepy Baby

Eggs

Other

weird but you do remember them.

iregk · 13-11-2006 5:15pm

I thought the most ridiculous add was for that locco game. Crap music, and these balls falling down spinning things with a sign under neath saying "not actual game footage" and that was it!!!!

Sony have a lot to learn when it comes to ads. They really need to talk to Honda, they make the best ads.

Retr0gamer · 13-11-2006 5:20pm

iregk wrote:

I thought the most ridiculous add was for that locco game. Crap music, and these balls falling down spinning things with a sign under neath saying "not actual game footage" and that was it!!!!

Loved that ad. It might not have been game footage but it looked exactly like the game and did capture it's feel. How can you say the music was crap? Outrage! I love the loco roco music. Best PSP game this year by a long margin.

Ciaran500 · 13-11-2006 5:31pm

iregk wrote:

I thought the most ridiculous add was for that locco game. Crap music, and these balls falling down spinning things with a sign under neath saying "not actual game footage" and that was it!!!!

:eek:

I bought the game cause of that and everyone telling me to buy

iregk · 14-11-2006 12:56pm

Ah lads come on, I had more faith in you than that. Now the DS ad where you man tries to rub the fly off the window and the world outside gets thrown around. Now thats an advert!!!

RE*AC*TOR · 15-11-2006 12:33am

WTF has surfing or an eejit dancing about to Perez Perez Prado go to do with Guinness?

The carpet outside thing IMO is funny, in a bizarre kind of way. The mentality is obviously - the Sony PSP is different, Sony think differently - we have a bizarre sense of humour, hispanic people are dirty.

monument · 16-11-2006 12:49am

griffdaddy wrote:

are those things not the enemies out of loco roco? thats what i thought they were anyway

That's what they reminded me of too...

http://www.gamestoaster.com/photos/uncategorized/dsc00206.jpg

http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/2006/11/is_this_psp_ad_.html

Worst advert ever

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