While many fans of the Call of Duty franchise hailed the live action trailer for Modern Warfare 3, which stars Hollywood actors Jonah Hill and Sam Worthington, as the best commercial yet, it seems that not everyone felt the same way.
D.B Grady, a US Army Special Operations Commander paratrooper and a veteran of Afghanistan, has slammed the advert in an article he wrote titled ‘The Hideous Marketing of ‘Modern Warfare 3’’. In the article he describes the TV commercial as ‘tasteless’ claiming that it ‘sanitizes war’ and ‘trivializes combat’. He feels that the creators of the ad should have questioned whether they were being a little too insensitive and did not consider those who may be offended.
While glorifying war and battle has always been a popular way to convey the attractiveness of games like this and movies also, Grady also feels the timing of the commercial was poor as the conflict in Afghanistan was escalating. It is understandable that for those that have actually experienced war they may find certain subjects crass when they have had to risk their lives for their country and the game or movie makes it into a fun, tempting scenario.
The author of the article at GoNintendo also agrees with us that this type of advertising has always been used for TV, movies and games; however he can also appreciate where Grady is coming from. Black Ops also used similar advertising strategies to get people to buy their game which was also met with criticism at the time. Thinking about the people they may offend seems to be the last thing the publishers think about.
What did you think of the advert? What are your thoughts on this type of advertising in general?
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