More Game Developers Rail Against Change4Life Ad Campaign
Nothing says I love you like a laundry list of rebuttals. I do love me my rebuttals. Yesterday I brought news that Sony was a little upset about the use of their joystick in a recent ad campaign created for Change4Life. Turns out not only Sony was upset by the message.
Rod Cousens, Codemasters CEO:
Governments have a unique ability to get it wrong. Their track record to do so spans centuries. As usual, they are out of touch, respond too late and their so called facts or intelligence is normally flawed. This is certainly so in this case.
Peter Stone, Konami UK General Manager:
Konami has long been at the forefront of active video games, with our Dance Dance Revolution series... we refute the accusations that gaming is a sedentary pastime, and feel such comments are damaging and do not reflect the wide range of activity-related titles that are both available and immensely popular.
James Binns, publishing director of Future (Official Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation magazines):
Using a child with a joypad to illustrate Change4Life is crass and misleading. The negative associations with gaming could be long lasting. There is no arguing that the campaign's underlying message about premature death is incredibly important - but the government would never risk the wrath of showing a child sitting still reading a book to illustrate their point.
Mike Hayes, Sega Europe president and COO:
Television, radio, cinema, listening to music, computing, video gaming and of course, reading all require a high element of passive participation, but of all these media types it is video gaming that provides the most potential interaction and activity. It seems that an advertisement has been put together by a poorly informed advertising agency.
Now, it wasn't all negative, the Department of Health defended the ad:
We are not saying that children shouldn't play computer games or eat treats, but parents and children need to be aware of the benefits of a balanced diet and an active lifestyle. The activities portrayed are examples of poor diet and lack of physical activity.
I understand they are shooting for emotional imagery, something that most parents can relate to. Yes, reading a book is just as "bad" for you, and there are no gains in hand eye coordination either! I don't blame the game industry for getting upset though.
UK Game Biz Types Speak Out Against "Early Death" Ad [GamePolitics]
Asterick
Posted to Video Games on 10 March 2009
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: angry publishers, change4life, codemaster, developers, future, konami, sega, uk
lol you would think the department of health would have more of something along the lines of "Stop your children from eating high fructose corn syrup before you worry about video games." You would expect that if they actually cared about any ones health...
Just out of interest, who exactly are they suing for this?
The games industry should get a fucking grip. The advert isn't taking a swipe at video games, it's just illustrating a physically inactive child. Children often play video games when they're physically inactive. Don't they?
If the child *had* been reading a book, or listening to music, or watching television, I bet there would have been no such outcry from their associated industries; it's quite frankly embarrassing to see major game publishers react in this way.
Its not the fact that they portrayed video games as a physically inactive pastime.... its the fact that they chose it above all other physically inactive pastimes.
They preyed on the stigma that parents already have against videogames. Like you said, reading is just as inactive and "unhealthy" .... but I don't think their campaign would have as much of an impact if the child were reading.
Videogaming was an easy target to make their ads more effective and grab parents attention.
Which considering videogaming can actually be MORE active than reading and watching television makes their ads all the more ignorant, prejudice and misinformed.
You only have to look in the direction of the Nintendo Wii to realise videogaming can be active.
I believe the console is also the highest selling, and most played amongst the child demographic that this ad portrays as "lazy gamers"