PR often finds itself with quite a bad reputation. And not just those companies that you visit for a job interview, get told you’re just what they’re looking for and never hear from again (you know who you are), but in general. Which is a shame – I’ve known a few PR people, and generally they’re quite decent folks trying to do a job which can be utterly infuriating if you’re trying to shift a product that nobody in their right mind would desire.
But then there are PR stunts that are so ill-thought out as to be a ticking time bomb, living on borrowed time before they explode in a blinding light of bad publicity. In the games industry there have been quite a few of these that I’ve written about before, but the topic came to mind again because I think this week has seen a new winner in terms of head-smackingly bad ideas.
It was at ComicCon, and EA had the genius idea of offering awards for pestering scantily clad women. What could possibly go wrong?
It was all to promote Dante’s Inferno (the game, not the book). EA decided it’d be great to provide ‘booth babes’ (I actually had to stop typing to punch myself for typing that phrase there), and then encourage visitors to take photos of themselves ‘comitting acts of lust’ with said models. The prize is said to be a whole load of game related swag and a ‘sinful night with two hot girls’. Good lord. Bafflingly, EA also reserved the right to remove any entrants that involved sex, alcohol, drugs or bad language. So what sins does that leave? Gluttony? Perhaps covetting the sweet ox in the booth opposite.
Suffice it to say, EA has appologised for making people think they meant sexual harassment by using words associated almost exclusively with sexual harassment: http://twitpic.com/bityg
TwitPic, indeed. This isn’t too far removed from crudely writing ‘sos mate’ on a piece of scrap paper, setting it on fire and thrusting it through a wronged individual’s letterbox.
Earlier this year, I thought that Capcom had the ‘worst PR stunt’ award sown up with their hiding fake body parts round London to promote Resident Evil 5, only for some of them to wind up missing and for the police to get involved. Obviously not.
Dishonourable mentions go to EA again for bringing parts of London to a stand-still by giving away free petrol to promote Mercenaries 2 and Akklaim for a hatful of PR disasters in the distant past:
1) Offering to reimburse speeding tickets to drivers on their way to buy Burnout 2
2) Offering $10,000 to any parents willing to name their new-born baby Turok
and most jaw-droppingly of all:
3) Offering to pay for Shadowman adverts on the graves of the recently deceased.
I can’t wait to see what kind of bad taste stunts await the PR crew who pick up Postal 3 when it comes out.
