It's not a glitch. Tiger does walk on water.
Electronic Arts doesn't make mistakes. That's clear from this nifty bit of customer outreach. What happened was: A player of EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08 found a glitch in the game that allows Woods to walk on water. The player, Levinator25, filmed and posted a video of the glitch to YouTube. EA responded with its own YouTube video showing Woods on an actual golf course, strolling out into the middle of a lake for a shot—to show "that the 'glitch' Levinator25 thought he found in the game, is not a glitch at all." It seems possible, though maybe not likely, that whole thing—the glitch, the discovery of the glitch, the response to the discovery of the glitch—was orchestrated by EA. Either way, it's an inspired and engaging bit of marketing. Covered by Fark, Deadspin, The Social Path and others. |
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August 21, 2008 in Celebrity endorsements, Electronic Arts, Golf, Nudd, Tiger Woods, TV, Web video, Wieden + Kennedy | Permalink |
Comments
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Listen Tim, this is a great post, but isn't it possible this is a mind trick from EA games. I just read about viral marketing tricks that game creations who design ARG's have been playing on fans for the last year or two. This is a simple eye trick, like levitation, but here hes walking on a board, or steel frame that happens to have water flowing to create the illusion hes "walking on water." Love you Tiger!
Posted by: Big Boi Song | Aug 21, 2008 11:43:02 AM
After watching both clips I am 98.7% sure the whole thing was done by EA. But I like it, so if that's the case well done! Leaves a feel good impression of the game, not that I needed a nudge in that direction as I am a die hard Tiger Woods fan.
Posted by: Andrew | Aug 21, 2008 4:46:55 PM
That is a pretty brilliant piece of marketing, especially since EA had such a negative image to those in the gaming community concerning their sense of humor.
Posted by: Heidi | Aug 21, 2008 7:18:10 PM
complete crap. Especially if you watch golf and EVERY week there is a car out in the middle of the lake having the same effect.
BORING! I expect better from WK
Posted by: bob | Aug 21, 2008 7:46:40 PM
Whilst it could be all planned, I prefer to see this as a opportunistic bit of creativity, responding to what's been said about the game. That's why you should always plan to have a little extra funding in the budget to respond to things, instead of having to scramble for some more money
Posted by: Rachel | Aug 22, 2008 8:02:29 AM
I love this concept. If it was EA generated, I love it even more. If not, hail WK. That said, it seems a bit off to me as a piece. It may be in need of a fresh editors take as the flow doesn't work seamlessly. What if they flipped the entire piece around and went live to game to line instead? I don't know, it's a great idea regardless. Congrats.
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Posted by: Kevin Amter | Aug 22, 2008 4:01:08 PM
It's not a glitch, because you can plainly see he's walking on water, as he's that good. Get it? Do you? Wink wink nudge nudge? It's clever, right?
Posted by: Aishiori Katamura | Aug 24, 2008 10:40:34 AM
