From researching and watching Playstation's adverts over the years pre-2013, I've noticed that the key points are rarely mentioned, or not at all. For example, the fact that it is a console for gaming, what the Playstation looks like, or even the brand name. Instead of selling these, the directors are focused on the emotions, advertising it as more of an abstract concept.
Even the logo does not reflect the game, with abstract shapes combined to create letters.
PlayStation advert: Mental Wealth | 1999 #20YearsOfPlay
Using a facial distortion filter to alter the girl's face, she explains the importance of "mental wealth". How "it's no longer about what they can achieve, out there on your behalf, but about what we can experience up here (points to head)".
stopped talking about the technicalities of the game, and went weird. Further enhanced by employing the directorial talents of Chris Cunningham, fresh from his delightfully disturbing Windowlicker video, this advert was a perfect storm of weird, compelling and interesting.
This advert appeals to a wider demographic, including people from all walks of life, from different genders, ages and professions. In an alternate world, they "have lived" through Playstation (presumably - not mentioned), "commanded armies and conquered worlds", making their real lives seem bleak in comparison. Gaming is no longer seen as a 'guilty pleasure' or a place of escape - it's a part of the player's real lives.
Before this ad aired, few would dare to portray gaming as an underworld of guilty pleasures and escapism, but it’s exactly what it needed – recognition and validation.
Over a sweeping choral score and spoken in the timbre of a stirring Kipling poem, there is a notable sense of frisson being created in the undercurrent of this advert. No longer were games just a childhood memory but instead offered a lifetime of unadulterated passion. Gaming finally grew up…
SAPS - Society against playstation
"It may look like a harmless table coaster, but inside is a deadly doughnut"
"Users lose all sense of reality and enter another world"
Interesting to create a character that is against their product in order to advertise it.
An expressive, loud and laughing mouth is passed around animated characters.
- Cheesy phrasing
- Icons on game consoles used to substitute letters
- The idea of a 'world' is repeated - make a fold out book? The world in your hands
References made to 'Matilda' and 'Back to the Future' with the desks that come alive in the classroom and the flying car. Implies there is a 'magic' power behind the four control symbols.
The PlayStation logo was designed by Manabu Sakamoto. Sony decided to focus on 3D polygon graphics (graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data) for PlayStation after "witnessing the success of Sega's 'Virtua Fighter' in Japanese arcades". To create the 3D support of the console, he made the letters of 'P'and 'S' appear as though they were floating in space, rather than just placing shadows to add depth. With the colours Sakamoto chose primary colours, and green "for better harmony across the logo". A black and white logo was also created from this design.
To the soundtrack of a song that repeats "get on board", PS2 players all compete to get to the top of a human mountain.