You wouldn’t expect stupid people to move so fast, but…

Now, let’s fast-forward a month to September 30th, 2002. Acclaim, whom at the time held the rights to the Burnout franchise, was about ready to release Burnout 2: Point of Impact onto the unsuspecting public. Obviously inspired by the cautious reactions of cops all over the country when The Fast and the Furious came into theaters, Acclaim insisted people get to the store as fast as they could. In commemoration of the game’s release, Acclaim offered to pay the speeding tickets of anyone who is pulled over in their rush to go out and buy the game. You’ve got to admit, it’s pretty damn classy.

Anyways, it turns out that Acclaim got their bluff called and immediately retracted when confronted with questions about whether or not this was a shameless marketing promotion. At least it’s good to know that there’s still some semblance of hope in the world.

Permission to mess ourselves…

In November of 2003, Acclaim’s latest endeavor for new marketing buzzwords and janitor’s rights became clear: Bloodvertising. To gather hype for Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance, a game that the PR machine had already dubbed “The goriest game of all time”, posters equipped with cartridges of red dye would be posted and would literally drip blood for a week straight. In addition to the posters, special bus stop kiosks would also drip blood out of panes of plexi glass, which Acclaim promised they’d clean up once the campaign was over. Unfortunately, the Bloodvertising scheme never really took off and turned out to be the latest in a growing line of Acclaim aspiring to do huge things, but ultimately, being all talk in the end.