Month: October 2011

Everyone knows or at least heard of the game ‘Call of Duty’, which is avaliable on various gaming platforms such as PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. So I was watching the trailer of Call of Duty 3 on youtube couple days ago and I happened to find a link to a similar video, ‘Call of Duty Black Ops: There is a Soldier in All of Us.’

The trailer was well-directed, with many special effects and crazy explosions (as expected from a first-person shooter game). What caught my attention was that the commerical starred both Kobe Byrant from the Los Angeles Lakers and Jimmy Kimmel. Because I am not very familiar with Jimmy Kimmel, I will briefly talk about my take on Kobe’s presence in this commerical. The commerical is well action-packed and consists of all kinds of people firing assault rifles, pistols and machine guns. Kobe, as one of the characters in the commercial, fires a generade launcher. The commerical does not show who Kobe was aiming at but shows a smirk on his face after he successfully fires the generade launcher.

As expected, people were upset at Kobe’s appearance in the commerical and NBA commissioner David Stern was informed to discpline Byrant. However, none of these happened.

I can understand why people are upset. In terms of business ethnics, EA games should not have used idols such as Kobe Bryant in their trailer. This would advocate younger consumers to purchase and play a game that is rated mature and contains explicit violence. However, EA is primarily targeting younger consumers and that is the essential reason why they hired Byrant. On the other hand, all Kobe wants is to make money. He was well-awared of the consequences of his presence in this commercial and EA probably gave him an offer that he couldn’t decline. I’m not even a Laker’s fan but come on, cut the guy some slack (he already has enough haters).

BMW and Audi have always been rivals in its class. For the past decades, BMW and Audi have been producing luxurous automobiles in Germany. The two automobile makers have considered each other as direct competition as with various luxurous makes such as Mercedes Benz, Jaguar and Lexus. Both BMW and Audi have been cartering to middle and high class consumers due to the price of vehicles they produce. Each year, BMW or Audi will come up newer and more advanced models of vehicles to top the competitors of their classs. This time, however, they have moved onto the marketing battle field in Santa Monica, California.

On the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Beverly Glen Blvd, Audi has posted billboards with a picture of the all new A4 along with the headline : “Your move, BMW”. Few days later, Santa Monica BMW dealership responded as if it was an virtual chess gamewith billboards of the its flagship sports car: the M3 along with headline : “Checkmate.”. So which of these two cars is superior? The BMW M3 coupe or the Audi A4? To be honest, it is no near a fair comparison when the cost of an M3 can buy you two and a half Audi A4s. However, the marketing technique by Santa Monica BMW is not only eye-catching but also extremely creative.