Mangled bodies, pierced and tattooed newborns, underwear sniffers and twisted mutations — this is how advertising agency TBWA sold the PlayStation 2 in France. Warning — NSFW images coming up.
PlayStation marketing has always been pretty strange — David Lynch created a PlayStation 2 ad, after all — but the Paris branch of TBWA took strange to an entirely twisted new level. I’d almost put these out of my mind, but then Redditor seeyoshirun had to go and dig them back up again. Now everyone has to suffer.
Some of our non-French readers will recognise some of these images. Several of the tamer pieces made it out of the country, slipping into magazines and such. This one, for instance. It’s creepy, but not to the point of being disturbing.
Then things got a little bit sexual. At first it was mildly humorous.
Then it got pretty creepy.
And then this happened.
That is not right. That is not right at all. That’s the sort of thing that leads to dismembered debauchery.
Which, naturally, leads to situations like this:
Or maybe this:
It’s best just to keep yourself from getting overly excited.
Keep your clothes on.
Practice safe sex.
It’s the only way to save face.
And earn the respect of your peers.
Or just do whatever. It’s no skin off my back.
The advertising strategy here was to either burn the PlayStation 2 into consumers’ minds until it haunted their nightmares, or to sells millions of consoles just to make it all stop.
It never, ever stops.
Comments
7 responses to “You’ll Never Unsee This Gallery Of Grotesque PlayStation 2 Ads (NSFW)”
these arent ps2 ads some idiot just stuck the ps2 logo on these images
These are PS2 adds, look for the X, Square, Triangle and circle in them.
I’m curious how well it worked, cause if it wasn’t for the logo watermark I would’ve though was an ad for a porno.
Well it’s obviously been a while since I last saw a porno…. I remember them being a bit less, uh, grotesquely meaty and nightmarish. Only a bit less, I guess. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m all up for seeing two power-socket heads connect faces, but the disembodied limbs and surgical wounds and so on… erm…
I don’t know where these came from but I’d be surprised if they were PS2 ads. No way, even in this day, would most of those be published anywhere the public could vomit at them.
Oh… except for here of course… haha!
I already unsaw it.
Soz.
well uh… for some reason i want a PS2 now…
Chances are these are unofficial PS2 ads. Ad agency creatives do it all the time, especially in non-Western markets (Brazil has been cited a few times). It’s a way to get exposure for both ideas and skill. Normally the brand in question releases an official denial, but they get free press anyway.
I remember one distinct ps2 ad by Chris Cunningham. (The guy from the Aphex twin videos)
Used to be all the rage back then, so I can see how these are printed ps2 ads.
You’re welcome. 🙂