Holiday Marketing—- bad for culture?


     I play Clash Royale, currently a popular game on the App Store which focuses on balanced real-time strategy fights. And, while in-app purchases have always been a part of their game, recently, they’ve been amping it up. Specifically, Supercell, the company in control of Clash Royale, has been implementing ‘seasons’ which provide opportunities for players to get more loot. Though, with this seasonal event, players can buy a season pass for $5 to get over double the rewards. Along with immediate benefits, the pass also gives multiple other benefits within other challenges. The value in this deal is crazy if you are a dedicated or invested gamer. Though, because seasons change within the game every month or so, this five dollar purchase becomes way more expensive.
     Two things standout here to me. Firstly, this phenomenon of taking advantage of holidays to make profit is getting out of hand. The last three seasons in clash Royale have been about Thanksgiving, Halloween, and  Christmas. Think about it, since holidays are a huge part of our culture, how is this incorporation of marketing any different from the add-placements in movies? Both are corrupting our culture yet this method gets both immediate effects as well as long term advertisement for their game with commercials for their events. Though, this isn't any recent development.
     This isn’t just limited to the latest clash Royale event.... The once popular game, Overwatch, has incorporated a similar advertisement technique since it's launch in 2016. Most video game industries have been relying on holidays to increase sales or attention to their brand for nearly as long as video games have been around. Though, how can we be surprised by this when Christmas shopping goes hand in hand with religion, and as origins of Halloween, which nobody really knows about, justifies buying huge candy bags. And decorations for just about EVERY holiday, I mean, these days you can’t take ten steps without tripping over a giant inflatable spider or a couple of light up reindeer on somebody's lawn.
     The answer? We shouldn't be surprised in the least. We've done this to ourselves, and before we know it, all our cultural events will be flooded with huge brands and companies that attempt to take advantage of our 'Christmas joy.' I mean, the task of nowadays would be to list events central to a culture that AREN'T dominated by capitalism.
     If you want to see the adds for these seasonal events in video games, check out the picture below, but regardless, Pce out my bloggin friendos
-Rexamus Nigel Yancey


Comments

  1. This is a very interesting point you make, and that I definitely agree that these companies do attempt to take advantage of the holidays, since they know that this is the time when lots of people shop. I also think that advertising would be harmful to holidays if brands make the holidays superficial and more about the materialistic aspects of the holidays instead of the actual culture and relationships that are celebrated.

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  2. i totally agree with your point. while the marketing is smart, if it's that noticeable is it effective? like i know that there is a certain appeal to limited edition items, but if their intentions are transparent then i feel like their holiday advertising is too obvious. then again, it's hard to disguise holidays; especially when they are so out of the norm.

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