Celebrity Endorsement-Pros and Cons

I was watching TV the other day, and i saw an ad for Brutal Legend. I have no problems with game, but it seems to irk me when i see “FEATURING JACK BLACK!!!” on the advertisement. This of course led me to think of Nintendo’s advertisement campaign with Naomi Watts, Beyonce, and the like. Is this drawing away from our hobby? Or am I just being picky about who gets involved in my little cranny of the world.

I do believe to some extent that it helps make our hobby less frowned upon. I mean, what adult doesn’t look at us without thinking we’re lazy people looking to escape our “miserable” excuse for a life. I suppose having respectable celebrities showcase DSs to the world doesn’t really hurt us, but it only serves to make people think games are simple toys, rather than works of art like books, movies, and music, which is a huge problem the industry faces today; but I’ll get to that in a later column.

On the other hand having celebrities as voice actors is a great idea. With their talents, it makes a game that much more believable. However, using that as a way to earn sales is not needed at all. If a person likes games enough, they’ll have known about Brutal Legend featuring Jack Black long before they see advertisements. This, and the fact that it only serves to make less careful consumers believe that accomplished actors make a game great. Who wants Halloween: Part II featuring whatever dumb actor they choose to be a best seller?

Like it or not, we have to be careful about who markets games, but only because of quality control. The market is already too flooded with Wii party games.

-Julio (Xbox 360 Editor)