Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
> Viral Marketing Leads to Mock Gunfight
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | The latest in a series of attempts around the world to mimic the
> | segment that, according to media analysts, amounts to free "viral
> | advertising" for Microsoft Corp.
> |
> | The latest incident took place on Tuesday in the cafeteria at
> | South Carleton High School when a crowd of students shot finger
> | guns at one another and feigned death by either falling or
> | slumping to the ground.
> `----
Initially I had no idea what this story was about [confused], until I
watched the GooTube video, and realised that /apparently/ Microsoft had
commissioned some sort of "Lets-pretend: Cowboys and Indians" advert for
their eX-b0rks.
> http://www.onthexbox.com/news981.html
Since I don't own an eX-b0rks, and never will, and also since I usually
manage to successfully avoid all advertising on all mediums, I had never
seen this advert until now.
Frankly, I think it highly irresponsible, and I'd be very surprised if
the ITC approved it for transmission in the UK. They've banned unsavoury
adverts from Microsoft before:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/new_media/2028725.stm
Like I said, I avoid advertising like the plague, so maybe someone can
enlighten me as to whether this gun-mania advert was ever shown in the
UK.
> Mafia culture?
I don't think this is uniquely Microsoft trait. America just has a
particularly lax attitude towards firearms, and their irresponsible
advertising reflects that.
I'm sure there are those who believe this is just a storm in a teacup,
but promoting firearms, even in a juvenile "lets-pretend" fashion (in
fact *especially* in a juvenile "lets-pretend" fashion) is exactly the
kind of thing that ultimately leads to the kinds of gun violence we see
all over America, with particular reference to schools.
Like I said, I don't know if this advert was ever shown in the UK, or
even ever intended to be shown over here, but American companies, and
American advertisers, need to bear in mind, that not every country in
the world is filled with gun-toting maniacs, and we don't all aspire to
going around killing everyone.
--
K.
http://slated.org - Slated, Rated & Blogged
.----
| "Future archaeologists will be able to identify a 'Vista Upgrade
| Layer' when they go through our landfill sites" - Sian Berry, the
| Green Party.
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Fedora Core release 5 (Bordeaux) on sky, running kernel 2.6.19-1.2288.fc5
07:11:26 up 20 days, 18:36, 2 users, load average: 1.09, 0.92, 0.87
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