@Ethric
"Doesn't "underhanded" mean dishonest, secretive or similar? Not quite what I meant.
I meant that there is less labour involed in slapping on a pinup as opposed to try to make an advertisement that actually speaks of the positive attributes of your product. Cheap in effort and creativity, and by that I guess indirectly cheap in money. And yes, also cheap in that it is directed at hormones and instincts as opposed to at the intellect.
Not that I look down upon all use of sexiness in advertisements, it depends on the product and the style. But this is just opinion."
So you mean “easy”. Ok, maybe it is, but I also argue that it’s also a better way of advertising, as I tried to explain. Sure an advertisement that describes your product nicely would be ideal, but the most important thing about an ad is getting someone to notice it. To do that, you have to cater to your demographic. What’s more, you have to be very efficient. Consumers have very short attention spans. You can’t have an advertisement with a two paragraph discussion about what your product is. You can’t even have an advertisement that tries to explain the product using pictures that take a lot of time and thought to discern. People don’t want to spend time doing ANYTHING. As an advertiser, your goal is capture the attention of potential consumers in a split second. Because a split second is probably all you have for a one page ad stuck in the middle of a gaming magazine filled with pretty much nothing else but advertisements for OTHER games. The average person, particularly the average teenaged boy, is not going to spend 10 minutes reading over all the 400 ads in a gaming magazine, so you as an advertiser don’t have the luxury of lovingly explaining every detail of your fine product. So what’s the best way to do that? Use an image that makes someone flipping through a magazine at the newsstand pause on your ad for more than a split second. BAM! Naked woman. “Whoa!” The brain says. “Hold it for a second, let me see that a little closer.” It’s involuntary. If you’re a male with normal hormones, you stop on that page. If you say you wouldn’t, you’re either lying or your gay. I’m sorry – it’s genetic. Your body and mind is built to reproduce, and sexual images capture our attention. And if you linger on that page for just three seconds, and see the brand name (and as I’ve said, everything is about brand names), then the advertiser did their job. Efficient, easy, low cost. Sounds like the recipe for successful business to me.
Remember also that most companies do not advertise their own products. They pay advertising companies to do it for them. Those companies may not know all the details about the product. Their job is to get the product name out there at any cost. The goal of all ads is not to tell you about the product. It’s to put the name of the product in your consciousness. Why do you think Coke advertises? It’s not like anyone out there doesn’t know what Coke is. Remember those ads with that supermodel (whatshername?) and Pepsi. What the hell did the supermodel have to do with Pepsi? For that matter, why advertise Pepsi at all? It’s to get the name floating. You associate it with a hot woman, so Pepsi must be cool. They’re not applying to your conscious mind. They’re applying to your SUBCONSCIOUS mind, that drives your actions without knowing it. There’s a lot of psychology involved and people focus their careers on this stuff. It’s a science.
In the case of this picture that we’re speaking of, it looks like the cover of a magazine. Pop a half-naked chick on the magazine cover, and teenaged boys are MUCH MORE LIKELY to pick up the magazine off the racks and look through it. More so than a bland screenshot of the game. That’s good advertising for your magazine. Your advertisers then pay more money to advertise in your magazine. You can criticize the sex-sells truth all you want, but it’s an established way to sell products. Blame society. Also note that the magazine looks to be in Russian. So for those who criticize the moral decision to put a naked woman on the cover of a magazine, be careful when you judge another society through the lens of your own. Besides, nobody here probably even knows if Nival had anything to do with that magazine cover. It might have been the magazine, or some random advertising company. Using this as a reason to say that Nival has trashed NWC’s beloved creation is just hogwash. (Sorry Ethric, that wasn’t directed at you – I just happened to think of it.)
@Lucky Dragon
"We consume all those things you enumerated because we are lead to believe that our desires are actually our needs. There is a difference between desire and need.
Sex isn't shameful, I never meant to imply that. It is a natural need. What I don't agree with is the way it's being used: IMO it's not honorable. Yes, I realize honor in marketing and advertising is something utopic, but that doesn't mean I can't have principles."
You can have whatever principles you want. But the fact is that most males are attracted to sexual images featuring women. And advertisers cater to what the majority of the demographic wants. And even so, what I don’t understand is: why is exploiting our sexual desires any worse than exploiting our desires for alcohol, violence, tobacco, entertainment, etc., etc. They are all desires. What’s the difference?
"I trust a good product can be successful without scantily clad persons advertising it. For example, I have yet to see such a person promoting Civilization IV, and if I were to witness something like that, my opinion of the game would drop. But that won't happen, as Civ is a game that sells itself by its reputation. If a game or any other product is advertised by resorting to sexuality, it means something is wrong with it from the very start, it hasn't got anything better to show for it. "
I quoted this separately for a reason. Civ is an interesting contrast to HoMM. As you yourself state, Civ has a strong reputation and pretty much sells itself. It’s also been produced by the same company for how many years now? As I’ve said repeatedly, HoMM no longer had the reputation of a strong brand name. It’s always been something of a niche product anyway, and after 3d0 tanked and the last MM was tepid to say the least, the brand name was pretty much destroyed. Couple that with the fact that fantasy-themed games (even a TBS like HoMM) can be geared towards a different demographic than those who play games like Civ, it is no surprise to me that you might see sexual images in the ads of HoMM5 but not Civ4. If Nival’s advertisers decided that the best way to attract new customers to the MM brand name was to go after the teenaged boy demographic, then sexual images is definitely one potentially effective marketing strategy.
Also again I urge you to distinguish between Nival and whatever the hired advertising company is. While Nival (well, Ubisoft actually) probably has the final say over advertisement content, most companies trust in the advertisers they hire to know what they are doing, unless the advertisements are totally off the wall or (after a time) unsuccessful. Same goes for Civ4. Someone at these respective advertiser companies spent a lot of time deciding what the best marketing strategy is for the respective games, based a lot on demographics and brand name recognition, and the decisions make sense to me.
@Sir Charles
"But there are some places that it's just not appropriate. His frosted flakes example is a valid one. I think it also applies to video games as well."
Also if I recall, MM2 (and Xeen) had several women-creatures with very revealing outfits. My point is that you paint Nival to be a bunch of sex-crazed maniacs and NWC as this perfect "decent" company, when it's just not the case.
Also, there are certainly places where it's probably not appropriate. Is it appropriate in a Russian gaming magazine? I don't know - maybe the Russians have different morals than you. I don't see a problem with it.
"What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?" - Richard P. Feynman
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