Electronic Arts has been known to pull some pretty ridiculous marketing stunts in its time, whether it’s causing traffic disasters or protesting its own titles. Mass Effect 3, however, may have just won the prize for the stupidest promo campaign of all time. It wants to pressure the UK government for proof of aliens.
BioWare is asking for 10,000 signatures to force the government to “release information about UFOs and extra-terrestrial life.” Apparently this campaign will “change the way we think about aliens forever.” Christ almighty.
When a Mass Effect fan called BioWare out on the forums, asking why the studio was wasting government time and resources on an ad campaign, a moderator denied everything. It even claimed that the site was invalid, when it is freely viewable to anybody with a browser. I have a feeling that BioWare thinks it’s being clever by pretending it has no official involvement in this. Oh sorry … did I just spoil it?
Something tells me that we weren’t given the right to petition so that we could bombard politicians with frivolous demands aimed at promoting a videogame. I could be wrong about that, though.
[Thanks, Aurain]
Published: Feb 23, 2012 11:00 am