You know, I thought it was good, but it didn't occur to me that this really is a turnaround. I was a bit bemused by the discussions of Xbox 360 as a "toy" and the belittlement of the people waiting to buy it as "losers" and so on, but clearly this demonstrates that the turning point was close, and MS' platform design and launch library just didn't come close to harnessing it.

Good points! Though me, I do regard video games as at least partly "toys" -- though I also regard that as one of the most philosophically interesting things about them, simply because a society's toys are incredibly interesting and meaningful, as is a society's play.

The big problem with America is that it is intensely freaked out by play.

That's a great post and I love to think that Clinton and Lieberman and Brownback can be throw out with the ignorance of their arguments, but isn't it slightly disconnected from mainstream culture if it's a commercial that's played before a movie that was marketed and hyped towards the demographic who would be most familiar with video games and gaming culture? I haven't seen that GTA coca-cola spot on TV and I'd jump for joy if that happens.
I did see an interesting AMEX commericial that riffed on Pong using a tennis court for the playing field...
anyhow, has anyone seen the GTA spot anywhere else besides gaming community blogs/sites and before movies that are hyped to/by the gaming community? (somebody, please say yes....)

Being one of those over-30 people who plays no video games and has never seen the actual GTA, I still knew exactly what the reference was with the ad, if not every humorous nuance, because the game is so much in the media and they always show clips.

And here I thought the problem with America was the combination of Puritanism, populism, capitalism, and anti-intellectualism. But maybe it boils down to the same thing.

Although the commerical is most definitely entertaining and ballsy enough to not force feed us a faux-GTA logo (so we 'GET THE JOKE!!!!!!!'), credit should be given where credit is due.

The commercial was actually done by advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy (http://www.wk.com), a firm thats been 'round for many a year. I encourage everyone to check out their site and look at the chronology of their work. Anyone remember Spike Lee saying "It's got to be the shoes!"?

In any case, W+K has done some stellar work, including this other recent spot for coke which is truly gorgeous:
http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/commercials/3035/

So give Coke the pat on the back for liking the idea enough to fund it, but give W+K the pat on the ass for coming up with it.

Hey now! I'm just about to turn 39 (this Friday) and not only do I know how GTA plays and feels, but I'm the proud owner of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas.

There's more of us older-than-30-gamers out there than you might think.

And I loved the Coke ad too. :-)

emm333, sure, I would imagine this ad is being played mostly before the sort of youth audiences most likely to pick up the reference. But as btl35 points out, the game has so thoroughly soaked into mass culture -- at very least from the incessant reporting about its violence -- that many more outside the core audience would probably recognize it.

Reggie, yes, the idea obviously came from the ad agency ... I wondered what other work they'd done!

Les -- yes, I'm 37 myself!

Sorry I wasn't more clear...it's not Youth Audience market...as a market I think "Youth" is a very broad category nowadays unconstrained by actual age... it's the cinema vs. TV market. I'd love to see the GTA Coca-Cola ad on TV. It's more pervasive and mainstream than cinema, particularly in American culture. Has anyone seen it on TV?

This ad is narrowly targeted advertising, pure and simple. Once you get to a certain stage in life, you almost never go a theatre to see a movie, you rent a DVD to watch at home with your spouse after the kids go to sleep. If you are at that "stage", you probably haven't played video games for years, either. And an ad for Coke in any format or in any medium isn't going to change your soft-drink buying habits. Coca-Cola isn't going to waste advertising dollars on people like me who are at that "stage" in their life. You are closer than you think to that "stage" yourself, Clive. There is very little that is truly mass market anymore. Everything revolves around the "tribe" we belong to, and what happens to other tribes has little meaning for us. As our circumstances in life change, we may move to a different tribe, and we bring our experiences with us, but we no longer have access to new experiences shared by the previous tribe.

Does it piss anybody else off that once again advertising companies are getting praise for re enforcing a big name product that already is so engrained in the targets audiences culture that really, their time could be far better spent projecting images into the wombs of pregnant women? I liked the ad, but would have liked it better if it wasn't an ad. Or happened when GTA was still fresh. I don't think its so spectacular that some advertising think tank went, "hey, GTA is so hot right now... lets copy it, but make it all fuzzy." If I had my way the ad would have contained 30 something non gamers seeing the ad, instantly drinking coke then proceeding to go and beat the shit out of those punk youth and stealing there cars to go have sex with prostitutes, then killing them and perhaps running the car off a small cliff and parachuting to a bmx waiting below. then drinking some more coke. I would definatly buy more coke then.
Is that wrong?