THQ is apparently planning a crazy promotional event at GDC for its soon-to-be-released action game Homefront. According to SF Weekly, THQ has hired actors to pose as anti-North Korean protesters, march across the Golden Gate bridge, down the streets of San Francisco, and stopping across the street from GDC at Yerba Buena Gardens.
It seems odd to decry North Korea's "human rights violations" to promote a video game, but THQ's marketing department didn't consult us. The staged promotional event will also feature speeches by global experts, musical performances, and the launch of 10,000 balloons. Nothing says "we've been invaded" like a bunch of balloons, after all.
The "event" will take place on Wednesday in San Francisco.
It will be interesting to see how the mainstream media receives this mock protest. Will they be fooled? Will it insult Koreans? Does it minimize real human rights violations going on in North Korea and around the world? We will have to wait and see, I guess.
Source: SF Weekly
Comments
Re: THQ Plans Fake Protest to Promote Homefront at GDC
It would certainly end up being a call out to journalists who jump the gun without doing research and decry Homefront, only to find out that it was publically (within the specialty news of computer/video games news sites) KNOWN that it was a fake protest. I'm ready to condemn ANY mainstream news agency that reports it as a real protest. And applaud any journalist who does their research before hand. Even if they condemn the fake protest, at least they would have done their research.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
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Re: THQ Plans Fake Protest to Promote Homefront at GDC
This sure worked out great when Electronic Arts did it for Dante Inferno! What could possibly go wrong?
Re: THQ Plans Fake Protest to Promote Homefront at GDC
Oh... everything.