Fabricated News: Overpromotion

Fabricated News reports on the effect of current advertising trends on videogames.

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caps4We here at “Fabricated News,” like any other respectable news outlet, get orders from the Chief, telling us what to write. These orders run the gamut from “Reach out to the teen demographic by mentioning Justin Bieber,” to “for the love of videogames, stop writing about Phoenix Wright all the time.” Then the Chief returns to his wigwam and does a rain dance.

Recently, the Chief decided that we need to be more professional, so he ordered us to write on “the effect of current advertising trends on videogames.” No joke. Last week, we reported on a company that went to extreme (i.e. stupid) lengths to promote a Facebook game. This week, we’re bringing you…

Current Advertising Trend: Overpromotion

You can trust us because we wrote it in big, authoritative letters. The current advertising trend is to overpromote your product to ridiculous lengths, by claiming it can do all sorts of things like “cure various diseases,” “lose weight easily,” and “fix the economy.” We are also seeing a lot of products which are in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in order to get more attention, like the movie AVATAR (slogan: The Greatest Adventure of All Time) or the TV show JONAS.

No, wait, I’m sorry; I’m told that’s not the entire name of the show. I meant to say “Disney Channel show” JONAS.

No, wait, I’m sorry again. I meant “Disney Channel Original show.”

No, wait, I’m sorry again, by jingo. I mean “the Disney Channel Original Hit Show, which is now the Disney Channel Original Sensation,” JONAS. It’s so awesome that Season Two of the show is not called JONAS Season Two, because that would be lame. Instead, it needs MORE CAPITAL LETTERS to signify the awesomeness that is the Jonas Brothers’ show. That’s right, it needs to be called JONAS L.A.

Stay tuned for season three—I mean, season three of the WORLD-WIDE, BLOCKBUSTER EXPERIENCE—which will probably contain even more capital letters. Rumor has it that it will be called OMG LOL JONAS L.A. Ph.D BBQ.

Effect on Videogames

Videogames are not immune to this trend of overpromotion. We are seeing more and more videogames that have unnecessarily long titles that promote the product instead of describe it, just like the Disney Channel Original Sensation JONAS L.A. The worst offender is the upcoming Professor Layton game, which has been retitled The Incredibly Logical Professor Layton and His Awesome Time-Travelling Adventures in Which He Travels Through Time, Starring the Incomparable Professor and His Spunky Young Apprentice Luke, As Enjoyed by Millions of People Worldwide.

The ALL CAPITAL LETTERS method of getting attention has been popular with videogames for a while now, thanks to HALO, MYST, and GTA. In fact, the only company that does not use all capital letters in product names is Apple Electronics.

Finally, videogames are also following the advertising trend of making ridiculous claims like “cure various diseases” (Trauma Center), “lose weight easily” (Wii Fit), and “fix the economy” (SimCity). In conclusion, videogames are overpromoting just like everyone else, and I hope the Chief is happy with this article so I can get back to writing about more normal topics.

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About the Contributor


From 2007 to 2016

Michael Gray is a staff writer for GameCola, who focuses on adventure games, videos and writing videogame walkthroughs.

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