Be Excellent To Each Other

This is from Kathryn Diana – Alienware Reviews Team

The saying “nothing in life is free” simply isn’t true. As a young PR professional, I love giving away awesome swag and promotional materials away for Alienware – as much as I love getting it from other companies. During my lunch break at events like PAX and GDC, I like to go “shopping” to see what kind of swag I can pick up and give away back at the office. It’s hard to turn down free stuff, no matter how useless it might be.

EA recently made some headlines when it shipped out genuine brass knuckles as part of their Godfather II press kits, aimed at getting the attention of influential game reviewers and websites. Well, it certainly got some attention and was even featured on the homepage of Yahoo – although I’m sure the content wasn’t what EA’s PR team had in mind. Brass knuckles are illegal in most states and shipping them across state lines is an even bigger no-no.

But I’m not here to regurgitate the news or speculate on how this will play out in the California court system. What I find fascinating is how much press one bad idea can get a company. Before the EA recall was picked up by the gaming press, I wasn’t even aware that the Godfather II was being released in April – and I would bet that neither did the average Yahoo reader. I’ve always been mixed on the cliché “no press is bad press” – but in this case, this decision seems to have paid off (at least in the number of people now aware of the game’s launch). I’m not in the advertising department, so I don’t have any real numbers to show off – but think about it, a front page ad on the homepage of Yahoo would costs a pretty penny.

Because of the recent media coverage, I now know that the Godfather II has been released, that it’s currently ranked #13 on the Top 100 games this week and critics say that beating the game on single-player mode isn’t difficult enough. The reviews on the game are mixed, but EA unknowingly (albeit illegally) hit a homerun when it came to getting press coverage. This however, is not a chance that I will personally take with my career – so whenever plasma rifles are invented, I’ll make sure to double-check with Dell’s legal team before suggesting them for Alienware’s press kits.

I'm still trying to decide if this was deliberate or not. If it was, it was ballsy, and fucking genius.

It says EA are silly !

"it was just harmless fun, we didn't know it was illegal"

Land Rover sent out a package with a flashing red LED in it to potential customers, that highlighted a location on a map (or something) and said "Adventure starts here".
Everyone thought they were bombs. It got in the news, along with lots of photos of the new Range Rover Sport. I have it on good authority that that's exactly what Land Rover were going for.

Cos real bombs have flashing red lights. And countdowns. And they tick.

And to think in the 1980s, people were angry at System's 3's rubber shuriken in Last Ninja 2 boxes.

Mind if I switch the title and subtitle around, John?

and have a red wire.

or is it blue?

Don't cut the wrong one, man, I'm retiring tomorrow.

Good job, you're getting too old for this (shallots - ITV)