So they’ve been around for a while now, but it seems that a new weapon in advertising appears to be using celebrities for game endorsements. With people like Mr. T, Verne Troyer, and William Shatner endorsing WoW, and on the edgier side, porn star Tera Patrick talking about Saints Row 2, it seems we are on the cusp of a new “Hollywood” twist to our game marketing.
Never mind the fact that Mr. T probably broke the keyboard in half while playing, Verne Troyer cut yet another check to keep his career going, and William Shatner has proven yet again why he’s probably the longest-lasting relevant sci-fi star out there. I mean, it’s celebrities! People have used celebrities to sell us things all the time, from things as small as a fruit cutter to items as large as cars or even houses. It doesn’t matter that the celebrity in question probably wouldn’t be caught dead with these things, because hey, if we want to emulate a porn star, we can do it, just by doing what they do, and without the mess afterwards. It’s easy – all we have to do is be a good little consumer and buy the product.
We’re probably going to see a whole new string of celebrities smiling at the cameras, glancing nervously at the product they are endorsing hoping they sound like they know what it is, and shilling games for us geeks. Just imagine Andrew Dice Clay endorsing the value of XBox Live’s “unique” communication style. Or what about Paris Hilton selling you the next Dead or Alive type game (given that lawsuits or another sex tape don’t mess things up, of course). And in the great coup of all time, considering the most recent of internet memes that are certainly not overdone and not terribly unfunny, Chuck Norris or Rick Astley promoting any game they touch.
Can’t you just feel the money rolling in? Yeah, it’s the sound of it rolling out of your pockets and into the developers’, but still, it’s nice to live vicariously sometimes.