New American PS3 ads are very impressive
by Majed Athab 
{ Nov 20th 2008 at 8:30PM }
Impressive. That pretty much sums up how we feel after watching this new collection of PlayStation adverts for holiday season 2008. The three commercials you are about to watch are all very different, but they have one unifying theme (well, other than PlayStation duh). They all utilize holographic images to show off PS3-exclusive titles. Our favorite one is posted above, which shows off some exclusive action titles: Resistance 2, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, and the Dark Knight film on Blu-ray.
Another commercial touts the PlayStation Network. It clearly promotes lively, social gaming as you'll notice the happy people going about their daily business. It's interesting to note that each person has their own holographic game image imposed on their bodies giving a hint at saying, "hey, we've got a little something for everyone." A sharp contrast to this one is the next, somewhat dark series of adverts. It's sort of eerie with its slow-motion and starry-eyed actors. It's an interesting piece that asks you "have you made your wish list yet?" We wonder if you have?
Check out the other two vids after the break, or, get ready to see them on TV very soon.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
guillemot @ Nov 20th 2008 8:42PM
Woa! the third one is FANTASTIC!
The1stMJC @ Nov 20th 2008 8:40PM
Wow, finally some really great PS3 ads something I think Sony has been lacking is good advertising.
MBO @ Nov 20th 2008 9:05PM
Weeeeelllllll, there have been some. seen the R2 ad in (I believe it is) Los Angeles? remember the giant leviathan on the side of the building?
Raider @ Nov 20th 2008 8:45PM
I lol'd guillemot.
lucky_7s @ Nov 20th 2008 8:47PM
lets see if europe/uk can catch on with this as sony europe like to use the kind of advertising called NONE!
Rowdehaj @ Nov 21st 2008 1:20AM
Are you kidding? I don't know where you live, but Sony has been going all-out on the ads here in Holland, with everything from lbp to Blu-ray on TV, radio, in print and local ads, and (naturally) the interwebs.
acedoh @ Nov 20th 2008 9:16PM
The ad's are nice.... Very nice but I really think SONY is missing the ball... The 360 ad's can be craptastic but when they end with,
Starting at $199 that is the biggest selling point. SONY needs to do something before the holiday season gets going. If they don't offer a price drop they are really going to have a hard time getting consumers...
Pablos102030 @ Nov 20th 2008 9:34PM
There will be no price drop people! I thought Sony already made this clear.
Game_playa @ Nov 20th 2008 8:55PM
Dammit, All these videos always seem to lag, even they are fully loaded.
DAMN YOU 3 YEAR OLD PROCESSOR
Pablos102030 @ Nov 20th 2008 9:32PM
Say that to my 6 year old processor.
Game_playa @ Nov 20th 2008 10:26PM
To Pablos102030's 6 year old processor :
Dammit, All these videos always seem to lag, even they are fully loaded.
DAMN YOU 3 YEAR OLD PROCESSOR
Roto13 @ Nov 20th 2008 8:55PM
PS3 adds that aren't creepy and/or pretentious?
I think Sony has learned their lesson.
Danny F. @ Nov 21st 2008 11:41AM
I'm gonna miss the creepy baby and weird circus ads :'(
Roto13 @ Nov 21st 2008 11:43AM
I'm going to miss the thumbdick.
acedoh @ Nov 20th 2008 8:57PM
These are some great ad's... Very nice. Although I do believe the only thing that will be selling consoles this holiday season is a lower price. The 360 commercials are average but they always end nicely with "Starting at $199."
Twinturbo120 @ Nov 20th 2008 8:58PM
wow the third one is really impressive
ryan @ Nov 21st 2008 11:24AM
The 3rd one on the third one was kinda off, his wishes being in a dirty alley puddle that is. Not to mention it's confusing at first read as it's not really a place where the boy is looking like the other 2.
But these are really great ways to advertise. The first one gets the PS3 image straight off the bat: Everything Entertainment.
Bravo Sony, finally you get the picture. :D
jitty @ Nov 20th 2008 9:12PM
Wow, did they fire their entire add team and hired some new guys?
top.slacker @ Nov 21st 2008 9:16AM
They actually did!
http://www.edge-online.com/news/scea-lands-new-ad-agency
BlingOnMyWrist @ Nov 20th 2008 9:10PM
Ah, finally.
That is all.
m3nphls @ Nov 20th 2008 9:17PM
nice ads....really nice ones hehe. hope to see them more often on tv cuz i'm sick and tired of the xbox360 commercials
ryan @ Nov 21st 2008 11:29AM
Yeah, it's time they fired that "robot head" team and hired guys like these. Although the $199 at the end of every commercial seems to be working it's magic.
MATT @ Nov 20th 2008 9:29PM
I would've felt more of an emotional connection if they were slighlty funny. Like, if Weird Al or Carrot Top was one of the people being projected on.
Imagine Weird Al just standing there, stoically epic, with a smirth, nodding a "yes" motion in slow motion while GT5 is being played on his stomach.
Now we're talking.
MATT @ Nov 20th 2008 9:31PM
err, smirk... not smirth
j.howlett @ Nov 20th 2008 9:53PM
i like the first one but they're all good. seen the ones in the third vid before on tv
will @ Nov 20th 2008 9:57PM
these are cool and all, but do they really speak to non-owners? last years black and white ones that showed the game footage were probably more effective for selling machines. not sure a 2 second view of PAIN on someone's shirt is going to sell a system.
mezzanine @ Nov 20th 2008 10:05PM
Do the D A N C E, 1 2 3 4 5...
LAZoftheTamarinds @ Nov 20th 2008 10:18PM
Great Ads!
Also, wouldn't it be cool if shirts like in ad 2 existed??? :)
Anthony-E @ Nov 20th 2008 10:26PM
With the new flexible OLED display technologies by companies like Sony and Philips, I believe that clothes like that could be released sometime in the future.
link: http://www.pinktentacle.com/2007/05/flexible-full-color-organic-el-display/
James @ Nov 20th 2008 10:44PM
I think the first one was good, the rest are awful. I don't need a 15 second ad of a kid staring at Ratchet.
I hardly get the 2nd one and I'm a fairly hardcore PS3 user. (Obviously I recognized most of the games but still, not sure what kind of point they are trying to make).
The problem is people are seeing the PS3 as expensive but Sony is failing to show the value yet again, and thus without a price drop people are just going to see the PS3 as overpriced.
Ranben @ Nov 20th 2008 10:44PM
Is the song played in ad 3 a real song? If so, what's it called?
infekt @ Nov 21st 2008 1:19PM
These ARE good. But the best was the first:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5MGhAgmgYw
Kenny @ Nov 20th 2008 11:21PM
meh i think these ads are too safe. i liked the so-called "artsy" ads. bring back david lynch to make the commercials.
ChrisWanker @ Nov 24th 2008 7:08PM
The first one was really good. The second one was a bit confusing... I guess it was number of people that had some sort of action on their shirt. Not too much a problem though, I guess. The third one was to the point, but bland and rather uninspiring.
C-Onor @ Nov 21st 2008 3:23AM
great ads...very good. i hope they put some of these on tvs in ireland
Monkey Majiks @ Nov 21st 2008 4:26AM
yep, it would seem that Sony UK dont have a clue what an advert is, bloody stupid, especially considering how close fought the console war is here, there are 360 and wii ads EVERYwhere.
To emphasize this fact, the last PS3 ad i saw in the UK was one of the "this is living" ones at launch.
beebop @ Nov 21st 2008 7:27AM
Your totally right, every ad break as 2 Wii/DS ads and 1 360 ad. C'mon Sony, get your finger out.
Clarkey @ Nov 21st 2008 5:09AM
Is that owen wilson in the first ad?
Marius @ Nov 21st 2008 5:57AM
Again, Sony does nothing to promote third party software anymore.
When Sony spends the big bucks on commercials now, it's all about them and their first party games, like nothing else even exists. And please, advertising Home? It's not even out!
These commercials clearly shows how selfish Sony has become. No wonder developers are cheating on you.
j.howlett @ Nov 21st 2008 7:05AM
i see third party ads all the time. sometimes they're the same as regular ads for a game but have playstation at the end. sometimes it's 360 at the end or it's a screen of all the systems a game is on. i think it depends who payed for the time to air the ad.
beebop @ Nov 21st 2008 7:25AM
These are so much better than the launch ads, at least now they are about the PS3 and not a bunch of freaks in a hotel. Still yet to see any PS3 ads in the UK tho.
resjon @ Nov 21st 2008 9:21AM
Great ads! These are perfect for PS3!
Desi_D @ Nov 21st 2008 9:26AM
Nice work, but too subtle for average viewer.
lokar82 @ Nov 21st 2008 11:25AM
Why doesn't Sony ever make an ad touting their system advantages in plain English, something like:
PS3=$400
Xbox360($199) + Blu-Ray player($199) + wi-fi adapter($99) + 60GB HDD ($99 for Microsoft's I think) + say 2 years of network service ($100) = $700
The PS3 is a good value proposition but Sony has never sold it that way which baffles me. I'm available for advertising brainstorming Sony...
ryan @ Nov 21st 2008 11:34AM
Because negative campaigns never worked for anyone. And because you jacked up the price for unneeded addons. Wi-Fi? Blu-ray? nice, but not necessary to their plan.
Also the online service, that's up to the user if they decide to use their 360 for single players, party games like Guitar Hero or if they use it for online multiplayer they can always find good deals online. It's not like it's expensive compared to everything else we pay for in this life.
Nugent @ Nov 21st 2008 11:59AM
Simply mentioning these things isn't necessarily negative. Besides, negative ads do work if they're done right. The old "Nintendon't" ads worked pretty well for Sega. Lokar is right though, its odd that Sony has failed to even mention any of these things in plain english, other than the Blu-ray capability.
These ads are kind of abstract though, as none of them really show the games directly. Sticking in a "built-in wi-fi, HDD and Blu-ray standard" wouldn't really fit in.
ryan @ Nov 21st 2008 1:12PM
Of course it's negative to say that "the competition is screwing you this way, here's what we offer".
It's simply better to show what you offer and have the consumer make the choice.
And where is Sega right now with their successful ads against Nintendo? Certainly not in the platform business.
Nugent @ Nov 21st 2008 7:32PM
Sega actually "won" the console battle for the Genesis/SNES generation, and it was primarily due to the advertising, a lot of which was quite negative. They may have died out later, but the negative ads worked for them that generation.
There are plenty of negative ads on TV right now, and a lot of them work. Verizon's "can you hear me now" campaign was hugely successful, and its basic premise is "other networks suck compared to ours," but people don't really think of it as a negative ad. Its all about how the message is presented. Sony could definitely do an ad that points out the wifi, etc., built into the PS3 without it having a negative tone.
ryan @ Nov 21st 2008 9:48PM
And their negative advertising against the PlayStation and 64 screwed them over with the Saturn setting them up for a financial crisis with the Dreamcast. Since then, you hardly ever see any negative game advertisements. It's best to be seen as your own professional. Keep it clean.
If companies talk about what they do offer, there is no need to bring up the negatives of the competition.
Quick, entertaining commercials that showcase the features of the console work better than ones that bring up statistics and performances of the competition (that does work better for networks like Verizon. People want those statistics not a flashy commercial.)
Nate @ Nov 21st 2008 1:28PM
See sony, nw that wasn't that hard. These commercials are finally really good. The black ball of ugly shapes... no. The room of rubiks cube advertising sheer power? the only people that care... don't.
Speaking of which, what do you guys think of the xbox commercials? I thought they were kinda weird with the crazy faces and half cut-off heads...