Gum Makers Agree: Uwe Boll Must Be Stopped
The drive to stop infamously awful director/producer Uwe Boll from making more movies has entered the corporate realm. In April of this year, the director who has single-handedly stained the video-game-to-film industry remarked that he would consider pulling out of the filmmaking business (in this genre anyway) if a petition requesting him to do so reached one million signatures. No sooner had the words been spoken than a website was erected to do just that. Now topping 230,000 signatures, www.stopuweboll.org has gotten quite a bit of press on it’s own, but corporate sponsorship? Sho nuff.
In a…, well… bizarre marketing stunt, Stride Gum is throwing its hat into the ring by promising 1 million packs of gum to the petition signers looking to prevent further film atrocities from exiting Boll’s head. I don’t usually equate Stride Gum with gaming, but their marketing director seems to think the gaming community and the gumming community are very close.
“Since gamers are one of our most supportive groups, we’ve been looking for ways to return the favor,” says Gary Osifchin, Stride North American Marketing Director. “And what better way is there to get gamers’ backs than by helping them rescue their cherished videogames from the clutches of Uwe Boll?”
Sure, okay. If the petition hits the million mark by May 14th (a scant week from this writing) Stride will distribute coupons digitally to each signer of the petition. Coupons will be made available on May 23rd, coinciding with Boll’s latest release, making me think the promotion isn’t exactly what it seems. Sure, people don’t like this guy f’in up their favorite games, but the likelyhood of actually getting 800,00 signatures in one week isn’t a good bet. Secondly, why not distribute the coupons on the 14th? Why wait till the new movie comes out?
Methinks other forces are at work. Still, it’s interesting to see a product officially get behind what is essentially and internet flame war. Despite my reservations on the promotion, I still encourage people to sign the petition: http://www.stopuweboll.org
