Manufacturers these days have to think of something special to make their advertising stand out from the crowd. The team behind the mobile game Nikke has now overdone it and produced a spot that leaves even Asmongold, the top nerd of Twitch, stunned.
What was that ad? On January 11, 2023, the Thai website of the Korean mobile game Goddess of Victory: NIKKE released a one-and-a-half-minute commercial that caused a lot of excitement.
The spot features a stereotypical portrayal of a nerd: an overweight young man with thick glasses who would rather sit and gamble indoors than attend his own birthday party outside.
The main character then opens the game on his phone and gets sexually aroused by the anime girls that appear in it. As he blows out the candles on his birthday cake, he imagines being spoiled by 3 play figures that have come to life.
The original commercial can also be seen in a clip of Asmongold’s stunned reaction, which we embed for you here. The promotional video itself has since been removed, re-uploads on YouTube have received copyright strikes or have been deleted for violating the ToS.
Asmongold: They know their target group
How is Asmongold responding to the ad? He was initially impressed: Those responsible would make no secret of who is playing their game and what their target group looks like.
Then the little film goes in an increasingly absurd direction and the streamer can hardly believe what he is seeing: it could never be a real commercial. In fact, Asmongold just sits there with his mouth open at times and lets the whole thing sink in.
Players protest against unfavorable representation
Was the ad real? But the clip was really a real commercial in Thailand – and there was a lot of trouble for that.
As one reddit user reports, the ad received so much criticism from outraged gamers that it disappeared from the official site within an hour and an apology was posted (via reddit).
Thailand’s Nikke Facebook page says it apologizes for the lack of care in displaying the content and will use player suggestions to improve (via Facebook).
What bothered the players? Apparently, they were dissatisfied with their portrayal in the commercial, and they felt that the manufacturers were making fun of them and insulting them. In addition, the advertising is too sexualized, which some even found disgusting, writes the reddit user.
Asmongold sums up the criticism succinctly: “Oh, they’re not mad about it at all, they’re just mad because the ads called them fat!”
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The advertising is much better received in the comments than by the players: It is a real masterpiece and probably the greatest advertising of all time, the players are only angry because it corresponds to reality.
One viewer even writes that for the first time he has any respect for a mobile game.
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