Disturbing Resident Evil Ad Set To Drop on Friday

London creative agency Brothers and Sisters has produced what is arguably one of the most frightening advertising campaigns ever, for the global launch of the videogame Resident Evil 6.

 

The game has been developed and published by Capcom and is scheduled for release on October 2nd on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The ads premier across the UK, Western Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australia from this Friday 7th September and will run across television, press, poster and digital media.

 

Blending action and survival horror, Resident Evil 6, which has been five years in the making, is set to be the most expansive instalment to the multimillion selling series. Since the landmark release of Resident Evil in 1996, the franchise has firmly established itself as a truly worldwide entertainment brand and mainstay of contemporary culture with a series of live action movies, CG anime, manga, novels and numerous merchandising lines. 

 

This campaign asks people all over the world how they would react to the very real threat of an attack by zombies. The campaign has been building since the announcement of the game in January 2012 through an anonymous website nohopeleft.com. The site trailed the story's bio-terror narrative with transmedia story telling that took in appearances at E3 and culminates with an elaborate Alternate Reality Game later this month. 

 

 

The crescendo is two films in which people are captured in the final moments before they succumb to zombies. In ‘Cries For Help’ people from all corners of the globe call to the skies for salvation as the end approaches. In ‘Last Goodbyes’, men and women leave emotional last goodbye messages to loved ones on their computers and phones. The seeding during the campaign was implemented by Crush.

 

Renowned horror movie and commercial director Pat Holden directed both spots. His new British poltergeist movie ‘When the Lights Went Out’ is released in late 2012. The brutal and emotionally raw ‘Cries for Help’ premieres on Friday September 7th at 9pm on ITV1 during England's World Cup qualifier.

 

“In advertising it’s very rare to find a client like Capcom, prepared to make work this brave. Both in terms of the bleak subject matter and in going to air with a film that has no branding on it, and leaves the audience to discover what it’s for. This project has taken us to the darkest places in our imaginations and we are phenomenally excited to see how the world reacts,” commented Andy Fowler, founder of Brothers and Sisters.

 

The Resident Evil 6 global campaign includes the following elements:

- Two brutal and emotionally raw TV spots: ‘Cries For Help’ and ‘Last Goodbyes’ (90”, 60”, 30”, 10” formats)

- Interactive augmented reality press ads: using Blippar technology, featuring exclusive trailers and footage from the game, plus the Cries For Help TV spot

- An alternative reality game: where fans can be selected to "restart humanity" by submitting themselves for a series of psychological and physiological tests, culminating in a real-world DNA profile

- Real-world experiential end-of-the-world conspirators: warning of the impending end of the world with bespoke No Hope Left doomsday literature

- Giant missing person walls: featuring posters of fans and journalists complete with spoof voicemail numbers to call featuring Last Goodbye voicemail messages

- eBay listings: with exclusive artifacts from the narrative, such as university jerseys, contaminated with the C-virus that causes zombie mutation

- A Facebook app: where users can place themselves in an interactive film that depicts their friends and family massacred in the zombie apocalypse (produced by Crush)

- A UGC initiative: for people to record their Last Goodbyes from across the world and be featured in the parallel storyline of nohopeleft.com (produced by Crush)

 

The Digital & Social Media Marketing campaign was put together by Crush across the social media channels.