Video game shooter franchise Call of Duty has just drawn the ire of many news outlets due to a careless twitter stunt used to promote the next game in the series, Black Ops 3.
The controversy began when the official Call of Duty twitter (@callofduty) underwent a quick makeover to make the page look like that of news website. Sporting a new name (Current Events Aggregate), profile picture, and banner photo, the people behind the page proceeded to tweet some fictional entertainment related news to its 2M+ followers.
Narcis Dravinski brings his fall fashion line #Elabor8MZFIT to Milan this week - read more: https://t.co/JmrEpqwXA0 pic.twitter.com/hSvtgnGN9d
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 27, 2015
Congrats to #TidalVortex for dominating the box office two weeks in a row: https://t.co/8g3X63bxZ4 pic.twitter.com/kmuV5pEEZV — Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 28, 2015
Then this tweet appeared.
BREAKING NEWS: Unconfirmed reports are coming in of an explosion on the North bank of the Singapore Marina.
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 29, 2015
Followed by a series of tweets making it seem like such an event was actually occurring.
The cause of the explosion is unknown, but large plumes of dark smoke have been seen rising from the site. pic.twitter.com/dsJZ6hti7Y — Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 29, 2015
City Authorities urge the public not to panic, and to not hinder the emergency teams that are converging on the area.
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 29, 2015
You get the idea. The little marketing blitz continued for a little while longer, with other tweets referencing things like Martial Law, quarantine zones, and riots. It finally ended with this message:
This was a glimpse into the future fiction of #BlackOps3. — Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 29, 2015
The whole debacle has rightfully been skewered. With many slamming the insensitive nature of the tweets, given the many real life conflicts engulfing the world at the moment. IGN's Mitch Dyer called it 'poorly concieved and executed' writing:
This sort of marketing is bad for video games, bad for the community, and bad for anyone who mistakenly misunderstood something Activision intentionally misrepresented.
