Friday Favorites #2

Sony's PlayStation division has always had a rather inventive approach to advertising their product. I have always been highly entertained by the adverts they create, even if they are completely bizarre as many often were. Just take a look at the PlayStation 3 "This is Living" campaign. With the recent lauch of the new PlayStation Vita Sony had some more marketing to do. The new campaign for the PSVita, "The World is in Play"does not disappoint me at all. It got me thinking about Sony's past campaigns and the adverts that captured my interest and imagination.





The Triangle, Circle, X, Square symbols are iconic to PlayStation now and have been since PlayStation was created in 1994. I often find myself idly doodling the symbols whilst at work. The first PlayStation advert that I remember seeing on the television was the S.A.P.S. campaign. The Society Against PlayStation. The advert is highly amusing and is among my favorites Playstation commercials. The premise of the advert is quite clear and it does kind of speak for itself so take a look.



The Double Life PS2 campaign is easily regarded as the best of the PlayStation campaigns. It speaks to it's target audience perfectly and presents the world of video gaming on the PlayStation not only as exciting and compelling but also something that can be enjoyed by all, not just the kids. It was this advert campaign that went along way to making the PS2 the best selling home video game console of all time.




Next for PS2 came "The Third Place" campaign. This campaign included my own personal favorite advert for the PlayStation. "I Am The Wolfman". "The Wolfman" was actually an animated short film by director Tim Hope. The 6 minute film was edited to make the now iconic PS2 advert. The "Third Place" campaign not only served to perpetuate the stranglehold PlayStation had on the home video game console market but it also increased Tim Hope's popularity. Type Tim Hope into the Google search bar will net you a link to "The Wolfman" on YouTube.
Here it is, my personal favorite PlayStation commercial.


The PS3 brought with it the "This is Living" campaign. It was a truly bizarre collection of adverts directed by David Lynch. They are definitely worth looking up on YouTube. I'm not linking them here because they are not among my favorite PlayStation adverts. David Lynch directed several PS3 adverts for Sony. Each one was as bizarre as the next but by the time of PS3 advertising had changed. It's no longer limited to T.V. advertisements and magazines. The internet changed the face of publicity for businesses the whole world over and PS3 gained a new champion by the name of Kevin Butler in the form of a series viral videos posted on YouTube. The Kevin Butler campaign continues online and has achieved a cult status among video game fans. Kevin Butler has a YouTube Channel with most of the recent adverts posted there.



Perhaps the finest PS3 advert to date is the "To Micheal" advert. The advert contained characters from exclusive PlayStation games all gathered in a bar in the middle of a forest sharing stories about how they were able to overcome the difficulties laid before them because of the efforts of one man. Micheal. Micheal is the video game player. All of the characters make a toast to Micheal at the end of the advert and his photograph is added to a wall of fame containing 100's, 1000's of other photographs of video game players.





So the new PSVita advert. It is somewhat reminiscent of the "Double Life" campaign and has the same kind of message. Tailored towards the new console of course and playing on the gaming anywhere principle of handheld gaming machines. Hints are dropped during the advert as to the features and capabilities of the PSVita. The music and dialogue in the advert is rousing and definitely speaks to me on a level that I appreciate. The PSVita's first commercial outing definitely makes it to my favorite PlayStation adverts.