Share ideas that inspire. FALLON PLANNERS (and co-conspirators) are freely invited to post trends, commentary, obscure ephemera and insightful rants regarding the experience of branding.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

The Sound of Madness

War is mad. (You don't need me or the midterm election results to tell you that.) And I love the choice of Gary Jules' "Mad World" as the soundtrack for the new xBox game, Gears of War. Not because of its originality (see second clip) or lyric appropriateness, but because the contradiction between the visual and the auditory is arresting. Avoiding the sounds of war found in most "shoot 'em up" games (and their commercials), they chose, a brilliantly different track. It strikes an emotional chord and no doubt makes this otherwise forgettable ad, special. And that's why people shut up for the trailer in the movie theater before seeing Borat. And that's why I, and others will seek it out as entertainment—(Google search for "gears of war" "song" results in 618,000 hits) Unfortunately for Microsoft, I'm still working with Sega Genesis so I'm not making the register ring, but I'll write.



I wonder if they got their inspiration here:


Finally, I've gotta give love to DD (Donnie Darko not Deutsch):

1 comment:

Alex said...

Brilliant, unlike http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/callofduty3/video_player.html?id=d3ZmkTH75bgOsj7d

I love the "WWII franchise part" - it cost quite a few people dearly to establish the WWII brand. Idiotic? Or is it a sign of the times? I leave it to you guys to explain.