Is the Advert for the Sydney 2000 Computer Game Successful?

The form of the advert is that the bottom fifth of the advert contains screenshots from the game, each one highlighting one of the ‘twelve gruelling events’ that you can take part in.  The word gruelling also indicates that the game is tough, echoing the toughness of the Olympics.  Below these are the small print official logos and extra, but not as exciting, information.  Directly above the pictures is a line of bullet pointed facts about the best features of the game such as, ‘Great multiplier fun’ and ‘Official TV Commentary’.  The word Official is used as emotive language, to encourage people to buy because it must be quality if it is ‘Official’

 The next two fifths up from that contain a white background, with the official ‘Sydney 2000’ logo, along with the games slogan ‘THE Game of THE Games’.  These are on the far right.  Next to these are two fingers in a running posture, with the comment ‘how fast are your fingers?’ next to them.  Above this is the last two fifths.  In this there is a picture of Michael Johnson, the fastest 200-metre runner in the world.  The crowds behind him are blurred to give the impression of speed, along with enhanced ripples caused by wind resistance on his face and upper body.  The picture is cropped so you cannot see below the thighs, and the fingers in the two fifths below replace the legs.  They are very cleverly fitted in so that they look like the legs would if he were running and also match up correctly with his thighs.  This is very unusual.  No normal person has fingers for legs, so this picture is designed to make you look and to grab your attention.  Also the fingers are not blurred, when the picture of the athlete is.  This could be to suggest that no matter how hard you try, you would not be able to keep up with him.  The fingers represent the reader.  The words ‘how fast are your fingers?’ are used because, even though Michael Johnson is running, to run in the game you use your fingers, not your feet, so it is important to know that how fast you can move your fingers the faster you can move.  Michael Johnson may be on the right side of the page to give the impression that he has run across the left hand one.  On the left hand page to the bottom right is the fact that ‘his legs take him 200m in 19.32 seconds’.  This is referring to Michael Johnson.  This picture also appeals to the sports enthusiast, as the picture along with the amazing statistics will make them want to read on to try to find out the answers to questions such as Why? When? How?  People also know as the ‘Armchair Sports Enthusiast’ will like this picture, because they are people who often like sports and sport orientated computer games, but are too lazy, or cannot get out and do these sports, so the opportunity of a new game would appeal to them.

        The pictures at the foot of the page, ten of them in total, all show action shots of the different events featured in the game.  They include pictures of athletes crossing the line, just about to finish a race.  There is a picture of a swimmer in the middle of what looks like a very complex dive, and a picture of a canoeist stuck in some rapids.  All of these pictures have been chosen along with the statements above them to highlight the best features of the game, to show the quality of the graphics and the realism of the events.  This helps the company to sell the game, because if pictures of what happened to the game when it crashed or a shot of the menu or install screen were included instead of these shots, they would not have nearly as much effect as the pictures in the advert.  The statements above the pictures also help to sell the game to the reader.  ‘Authentic Locations’, ‘Latest Motion Capture’ and ‘Great Multi-Player Fun’ are a few of the statements included.  These statements also help to sell the game, and highlight the main points that the pictures cannot show a picture cannot show ‘Official TV Commentary’!  These statements also only highlight the good points, because someone who is a prospective purchaser of the game would be pretty put off if the statements included things like, ‘poor gameplay’, ‘extremely difficult to install’ and ‘cannot work with most game controllers’. Some of these statements also include ‘technical jargon’ to help to sell the game.  A good example is ‘Latest Motion Capture’.  Many people will not know what it is and it may play a very small, insignificant part in the game that will not improve the game at all but, because it sounds high tech and modern, many will think that it will.  It is not actually used to help the reader, but may be used to persuade or ‘con’ them into thinking that the game is more advanced than it actually is.

Facts are used to impress the audience.  ‘200m in 19.32 seconds’ is pretty impressive and is bound to make anyone want to read on just to find out more about this statement. These facts are called statistics, they also help to show that the developer knows what they are talking about

The advert also makes good use of personal pronouns, with ‘how fast are your fingers?’  This is designed to give the reader the idea that the advert is talking to them personally and no one else.  It makes the reader feel that they are being directly addressed because of the language used such as ‘you’ and ‘your’.  These are all terms used to address a single person, so you get the impression only you are being talked to.  If language used did not include these words, it may not create such an intimate and cosy atmosphere between the reader and the advert.  This language, along with the statement being a question, helps even more to make the reader think that only they are being addressed.  You can tell it is a question because of the way it is asked, as well as the fact that there is a question mark on the end.

Logos are used to impress and reassure the reader that they are getting a quality game, not a poor quality game which has been put together at the last minute.  Logos included are the official logo of the Olympic Games, the five interlinked rings, along with the logo of the Sydney 2000 games.  At the foot of the page is the Eidos logo, along with the Olympic Rings with ‘official video game’ underneath them.  All of these are designed to impress the reader and assure them that they are buying a quality product.  A game could have all these features, but if it did not have any official logos it would not be as popular, as it would be seen as a fake or a cheap copy of the official game.  It is also a good ‘marketing gimmick’ because a game has more chance of selling if it is the official game, rather than a game that has the same sports but has got to have made up venue and athlete names’ because it is not the official game.

A wide range of vocabulary is used in the advert, and very few words are repeated.  One of the few words that are repeated is ‘mode’.  This is only used to describe what game types you can have and ‘mode’ is the best word.  All the other words are mostly only used once, twice at the most.  This is good, because it stops the advert getting boring.  If words like ‘the’, ‘new’, ‘it’ and ‘if’ were used, it would make the advert sound plain and boring and the reader may get bored and stop reading so, instead, words like ‘Gruelling’, ‘Virtual’ and ‘Great’ are used.  This single use of each word helps to make the advert interesting for the reader and encourages them to read on.  Most of the vocabulary used is positive, highlighting the games features and best points, which helps the advert to sell the game.  There is no negative vocabulary used, which if there were, would just work against the good impression that the advert has given you of the game.

In conclusion, I feel that the advert for the game of the Sydney Olympics 2000 to be extremely successful.  It grabs your attention with the picture of Michael Johnson’s legs being replaced with fingers.  This makes the reader want to read on and find out what it is all about.  The layout is clear and uncluttered and helps the reader to find any information they need about the game quickly and easily.  Logos are used to their full potential and are well placed.  Logos that are most likely to sell the game, like the Sydney 2000 Logo and the Olympic Rings, are placed in a main point of the advert, on the right hand page which is the side you see first.  Logos that are not as likely to sell the game, such as the Playstation, Dreamcast, and PC-CD Logos, are placed at the foot of the page, but not completely where you would not notice them.  The language used is varied and interesting, yet simple enough for most people to understand.  Additional pictures used, the game’s screen shots, are interesting and varied, and this also makes the advert more interesting.  These all make the advert more interesting and increase its ability to grab the reader and persuade them to buy the game.  I think this advert is an extremely good one and I am sure that it has helped Eidos to sell many more copies of the game than it would have without it.