Game developer Changyou strikes out at critics with humour

Client: Changyou

Agency: Del Campo Saatchi & Saatchi (Spain) and Saatchi & Saatchi Greater China

Market: China, Hong Kong

Name of campaign: 'Playing can't be bad'

Campaign scope: Three cinema/online spots ('Little girl', above; 'Mother' and 'Employee', below) that promote the developer's new games, TLBB 3D, Dash Fire and Warframe. (We've embedded English versions. Chinese versions are available via Youku: Little girl, Mother, Employee.)

Press release quote: "Does online gaming cause anti-social behaviour? Or do others cause the gamer to seek escape from real life by playing games? The campaign uses ironic humor to examine human relationships."

Campaign Asia Pacific's comments: It would be great to see any remaining stigma against gamers disappear, but we don't really expect these twisted little tales to change the minds of game detractors. (Haters gonna hate, after all.) That's not the real objective here anyway, and the spots succeed brilliantly at building affinity for the brand among its target audience by assuaging any potential guilt about excessive playing.

We also like seeing the level of international collaboration that brought this campaign to fruition: A Chinese client and account directors getting help from the network's Spain office to employ an Argentine director for a shoot in Argentina employing Chinese actors for a campaign that will only run in China and Hong Kong.

CREDITS

CCO: Maxi Itzkoff / Mariano Serkin / Carol Lam / Fan Ng
ECD: Ariel Serkin / Juan Pablo Lufrano /Rafael Santamarina
Creative team: Carlos Lanús / Diego Gueler
Production: Adrian Aspani / Felipe Calviño / Ran Yin
Account director: Ana Bogni / Michael Lee / Irene Shum /Rebecca Liu
Production company: PRIMO
Director: Nico Perez Veiga / The Perlorian Brothers
Executive producer: Caro Cordini
Producer: Victoria Piantini
DOP: Charly Ritter
Post production: Pickle House
Music: Circle of Sound
Sound: La Casa Post
Editor: Alejo Hoijman