Fake Blog Promotes Game

Here's an interesting blog post discussing how video game companies are using blogs to circumvent – or in many cases, augment – the traditional advertising process.

The piece – and it's corresponding Chicago Tribune article (free reg. required) – is a good look at the new age of advertising, and how the line between editorial and advertising can be easily blurred.

From the Trib:

When a video-game tester named Beta-7 began suffering from blackouts and uncontrollable fits of violence, he launched a blog to campaign against the release of the game causing his problems. After four months of battling gamemaker Sega, Beta-7 mysteriously disappeared. Sound like the premise to a thriller?

It was a hoax.

Beta-7 (www.beta-7.com) was part of a new marketing trend that uses fake blogs to promote products. Conceived by the New York office of Portland, Ore.-based advertising agency Wieden & Kennedy, the blog was intended to create a buzz for Sega's ESPN NFL Football 2K4 game and draw attention away from Electronic Arts' Madden Football 2004 --the game that dominates the segment.

While it's okay to embrace the digital world, tapping into its social connectivity, companies that step over the line – mixing too much reality with advertising – are likely going to face serious backlashes from the unsuspecting netizens. Afer all, nobody likes to be made a fool – particularly on a worldwide stage.