Challenge Everything (including common decency, it seems)

[yendi]

("Challenge Everything," for those not familiar with it, is one of the assorted slogans Electronic Arts has used. Others are "It's in the game," "We see farther, " and "fuck you, we're Electronic Arts and we own everyone, so we'll do whatever the hell we like.")

Un-fucking-believably, Electronic Arts is asking folks at the San Diego Comic Con to "commit an act of lust" on their booth babes or -- and this is where things go beyond the pale -- any other company's booth babe, and to record said act on film. Random gropers will win prizes, including dinner with EA booth babes.

Yes, you read that correctly. EA's putting a bounty out for folks to grope women at Comic-Con. A con, incidentally, where half the attendees could easily be confused for booth babes.

I normally suggest that folks don't read comment threads (and there are certainly the usual bunch of trolls out there), but the comment by iola on page three of that post is very worth reading.

I'd note that I've got no intention of buying an EA game after this, but that would be disingenuous, as I haven't bought an EA game in years, even as they've manage to buy out more and more of their competitors. But if they were to, say, acquire the Katamari or Disgaea franchises, they'd still be off my list.

The folks at SDCC should, incidentally, kick EA right the fuck out of their show for this. And sue their asses for their recklessness.

Comments

[roomette.livejournal.com]

Ugh!
This just made me sick sick sick to my stomach.

For years I've attended cons, both as a professional and not. More often, "not" but it is exactly EXACTLY this kind of behaviour we don't need more of.

[yendi]

*nod*

The thing is, there's already this harassment atmosphere built into con culture, and there's a similar one built into the trade show/booth babe culture. Combining the two, and then ramping it up by asking folks to harass people is just horrifying.

[litch.livejournal.com]

and add on a non-apology apology that blames people for misunderstanding their tongue-in-cheek marketing

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brinstar/3754109578/sizes/o/

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Wow, solicitation of a criminal act. Classy.

[wishiwasnt.livejournal.com]

Here's (http://twitpic.com/bcpvq) a more complete (and worse) pic of the ad.

[jennifer.livejournal.com]

I agree completely with SDCC needing to kick EA right the fuck out, ban them, and sue them. (And that comment demonstrates exactly what's wrong with them.)

We're planning on getting a Wii Fit next month and I'd been looking at buying their personal trainer program they just released for it, but that's absolutely not going to happen now, and they're not going to be seeing a dime from me ever again.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Someone needs to get Neil Gaiman to yell at them. This is probably exactly the sort of thing that actually would piss the normally gentle Gaiman off.

WE NEED TO BE BETTER THAN THIS.

This also makes me glad I'm not into games anymore, so I have less chance of supporting shit like that.

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

I buy *a lot* of EA Games products (sports games), and unless I see a "WE fucked up" apology, I may very well stop.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Really fucking lame. Though, I think it's bad enough as the contest actually is without overstating it.

The contest is to take your picture with a booth babe. Stupid marketing around it, and a lot of people are going to use it as a reason/justification to sexually harass the women, but the actual description of the first step is "take photos with us or any booth babe."

Even if you figure in a five martini lunch that would allow someone to think it was a good idea to have the phase of the contest called "commit acts of lust," I still don't understand how this made it past anyone's legal department. "Hey, Frank, do you see any possible liability in a marketing campaign that uses imagery of lust in regards to a subclass of con employees who are already objectified by design, some of whom don't work for us, and who already have issues with people who don't know where the line is drawn?" "Nah, what could go wrong there?"

I'm with you - I don't buy EA games (or much of any games, admittedly) these days, but this has pretty well driven a nail into that coffin. I guess it's a good thing they already murdered the SimCity franchise so I don't have to be sad about that.

[badlittlemonkey.livejournal.com]

While Harmonix isn't owned by EA, they ARE the publishers of the Rock Band titles, and you bet your sweet ass I'll be letting the higher-ups at Harmonix know about this if they don't already. We were out at a company outing all day so I'm not sure if this has been made known to them yet.

That's fucking disgusting.

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

So I'm a fan of the band Vagiant and I'm led to understand that the singer works with you guys. I'm imagining her reaction to this and it's actually making me a little gleeful.

[badlittlemonkey.livejournal.com]

She does indeed work with us...I sat next to her on the train home from out mandated day of fun today, actually. And yeah, I *cannot* imagine this sitting well with her!

[skintalker.livejournal.com]

What he said. I can only imagine the Fires of Hate I will return to after this week long vacation I'm just starting. Dammit EA, Activision are supposed to be the evil ones now!

[imortalscot.livejournal.com]

Oh I'll be passing this link on to a gamer podcast that will be on Sunday. Should be interesting.

[hippie-mamabear.livejournal.com]

Unpopular opinion here, i'm sure, but i think it was just a case of poor word choice. They're just encouraging people to get pics with the booth babes, and uh...isn't that their job?

[dark-blade.livejournal.com]

Wow. On the one hand, this is ridiculous, and probably going to incite no few number of incidents--and may well be behind the groping complaint I saw elsewhere yesterday. On the other, while the line break throws things a bit, they are advocating pics--not pics of groping.

I still don't like it, but it's not quite what you're saying here. However, I don't doubt that a few idiots will turn it into that.

sorry, my outrage meter is burned out for the day

[litch.livejournal.com]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090724/ap_on_re_us/us_children_sex_assault">

Re: sorry, my outrage meter is burned out for the day

[trochee.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but you're derailing.

Pointing out that there are awful, horrible things happening elsewhere [and implying that this is a waste of breath] is like saying "the Boston cops who arrested Skip Gates for being a black man breaking into his own house -- psssht. At least they weren't burning crosses on his lawn."

It's still wrong.

[litch.livejournal.com]

go fuck yourself you useless clown

If you can't find enough compassion to at least give some minimal, transitory consideration to something really wrong happening much closer to most of us than some bad advertising at a convention in san diego you are one of the most pathetic excuses for a human I have had the mispleasure of encountering

[theotherbaldwin.livejournal.com]

People can care about more than one thing at a time. At the same time, even, dude.

[yendi]

Nothing about what trochee said implies that he doesn't care about some of the other horrifying issues. And it's more than bad advertising; it's the continuing contribution to a culture in which harassment and mistreatment of women in considered a non-issue, which is exactly what leads to a rape culture.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

I bow to your superior rhetoric, sir.

Re: sorry, my outrage meter is burned out for the day

[theotherbaldwin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hate how it's impossible to care about more than one thing at a time, too.

[davidlubar.livejournal.com]

Beyond all the obvious stuff, they are also inflicting harm upon the language we all know and love. You can no more commit an act of lust than you can an act of hunger. (Though I think you can act upon your hunger or act out your lust.)

[yendi]

Yeah, that's a big part of their problem. They not only didn't run their copy past legal, they didn't run it past anyone with a working knowledge of the English language. Which is the sort of mistake that leads to the "misunderstandings" that the E/A folks are halfheartedly apologizing for.

[ninjakitten]

DAMMIT. I really wanted Sims 3, too. I was just waiting to be able to afford it.

And it's not just ('just') the, you know, ridiculous and irresponsible incitement to sexual harrassment -- I'm a gamer, I'd rather like to be at SDCC, but gee, somehow "dinner and a sinful night with two hot girls" is not a huge enticement to me. What's that? Oh, right, I have an innie so I don't COUNT. Thanks for the reminder, EA!

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

While I agree that the ad is horrendous and what it will encourage is not acceptable at all, I have to wonder why women are willingly signing up to be "booth babes", a job which encourages their own objectification.

Can we just start saying no to "I'll take money to be a pretty object selling a game at a convention full of men"? It's kind of hard to complain when you willingly show up to be labeled as a sex object. :P

[yendi]

I do agree that the clothes encourage objectification, but that also doesn't excuse any of the actions folks take as far as harassment goes. And in this economy, I don't know if I feel comfortable suggesting that anyone should turn down a job. I strongly doubt any of the booth babes don't aspire towards doing something else.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Nothing excuses harassment, definitely. :/

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

As someone who has hired "booth babes" for trade shows, I can appreciate your insight here... the fact is that when you have a trade show with a mostly male audience, and you're trying to drive traffic to your booth, hot women do the trick. (To be fair, I've also used hot men for trade shows with more female attendees - and it also worked.)

That being said, I've always been protective of the my onsite staff, and would NEVER allow someone to grope or handle them or make them feel uncomfortable in any way.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I wish we didn't have to worry about problems like this, but in the end when you're tapping into a primal/animal part of humanity, you're going to run into issues like this. Using sex appeal to sell something feels a lot to our primal-brain like using sex to sell something, and while we've intellectualized it we're still playing with fire there, and not all the 'civilization' we've done to ourselves is going to matter. :/

But on behalf of folks who've been threatened by creepy stalkers or been in uncomfortable situations, thank you for taking your guardian duties so seriously. :)

[litch.livejournal.com]

Spoken like someone who's never considered what it's like outside their privileged little sphere

"Models tend to average $20 to $25 an hour working a show." - Yvonna Lynn, Charisma+2 model agency (link (http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=86877))

[yendi]

I can assure you, haikujaguar is very aware of what goes on outside of her sphere. Nor are you necessarily correct in your assumptions about where she's coming from.

That said, the Lynn link is useful. Thank you.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

You can put it that way if you wish. All I'm saying is that the issue is more complicated than just 'harassment is bad' (obvious) and 'encouraging harassment is really bad' (should be obvious, but from this ad, maybe we're wrong). It ties in to the entire issue of why is it okay to use sex appeal to sell things, and what that means to us as a culture, and whether it's safe or a good idea.

Yes, it works. The question is whether we should encourage it... because it leads, inevitably, to problems like this, where people aren't sure where the line is.

[thegreatjohnzo.livejournal.com]

so if there are 9 months with the circles of hell, this is honestly the worst promotion ever.

for gluttony, take a picture of your gamer fatass, winner gets cake. for the traitors, best pic of you stabbing a friend in the back gets to be flayed alive.

personally im looking forward to the forest of suicides. i predict at least 15 fuckups by people trying to fake one and accidentally killing themselves. all in an effort to win (i assume) marilyn manson cds