Minecraft commercial -- funny, tasteless

Martin Waltz's funny -- and slightly tasteless -- ad for Minecraft certainly seems to capture the obsessive fearlessness the game inspires in its adherents.

Minecraft - "Diamonds" (Thanks, Riley!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Entertainment • fanac • minecraft

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Jean-Luc Turbo

There’s something pervy about it, I just can’t tell what…which makes it brilliant as far as I can see…kinda’ like everything that’s wrong and right with pop culture right now…
acrocker

PIG!
- Anonymous
  
  Pervy? I didn’t get that vibe from it, but maybe you’re using the word differently?
  
  Maybe the “Diamond” refference slightly went over people’s heads? I mean he’s “made of diamonds” so the kid took a cube off of him. Makes sense. Really weird, David O’reilly style sense :D
Jack

I understand the concept, but it really turns me off to the game. Seriously had a fantastic day and this thing sticks with me in a way I can barely understand and does not make me curious about the game.

Itâ€™s like a Michel Gondry concept without the whimsy.
- Hadlock
  
  Reminds me of a Sony Playstation commercial. It’s done exactly what it was supposed to, which was make you aware of the product, and stick with you for a long, very long time. I still remember a commercial I saw in high school for the “Playstaion 9″ which involved a kid sitting on an urban roof staring into a glass orb labeled “PS”. This kind of advertising isn’t supposed to make you go out and buy their product, it’s supposed to make you think about it and mentally dissect it, discuss it with other people (much like art).
  - Anonymous
    
    “Reminds me of a Sony Playstation commercial.”
    
    This one by any chance?
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bqq38WZctA
Anonymous

“Yeah! And it don’t stop! Cuz it’s 187 on the M.F.’in cop!”
Dr. Dre and Snoop’s Deep Cover is the background music. ;-)
VICTOR JIMENEZ

I was expecting the kid to be a creeper…
Anonymous

Great commercial!! It is a commercial for the people that already play MC though. It’s kinda like a beer commercial, there not trying to get more people to drink…There just keeping the ones that already do.. Diamonds!!!! LOVE IT!
- AirPillo
  
  Superliminal advertising!
Anonymous

You’d have to be a true kid of the 90′s to fully understand this ad. Back in the Xtreme days, when any ad for a videogame or anything aimed at young boys had to be over the top and feature at least one repulsive thing to freak out your mother in some manner.
For a prime example, see commercial for Yoshi’s Island (one of the most lovely, tasteful games ever): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AyE3EXTj58
- erg79
  
  Gross, and a complete ripoff of Monty Python.
- AirPillo
  
  Oh man… that commercial stuck with me for years after I forgot what it was even advertising. I’m really confused now, by a mixture of feeling nostalgic and wishing I hadn’t been reminded of it.
Dave Faris

It’s pervy because it’s a commercial that only appeals to those who are already addicted to the game.
- Anonymous
  
  I thought it was hysterical, and I don’t play Minecraft, I play Dwarf Fortress.
nikol

xa xa!! very nice video!!
monstrinho_do_biscoito

something about this makes me think of the shenanigans of Hey Ash, Whatcha playin?

http://www.heyash.com/

similar crazy energy
Revan343

Kinda funny, but yeah, not a very good ad.

That said, he could have run into something worse than Char (yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and call that person Char).

Something a lot worse…tsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss…
hassenpfeffer

Sorry, just not seeing the alleged tastelessness.
- Boondocker
  
  Neither am I. When I saw the word tasteless and saw a black man in pain, I immediately assumed it was going to be comparing Minecraft to African diamond mining.
  
  (Now I’ve spent like, five minutes trying to decide if this makes me racist or just oversensitive.)
  - JoshuaZ
    
    FWIW, I had the exact same thought.
gths

That was like three acts in thirty seconds.
Anonymous

Yeah, this is sort of preaching to the choir. It’s like if a Dwarf Fortress advert started with someone mentioning to their other half that they’re going to get some new gloves, and the other half saying they’ll handle it. Cut to the other half chasing a cat with a sledgehammer.
- Cormac
  
  A commercial like that would make me want to play Dwarf Fortress, and I already know it is more work for me to play than to read about playing.
remmelt

Love the mindless cackling when the kid runs away with the diamond. That is EXACTLY what I do when I finally get my hands on some.
3lbFlax

Were it truly accurate the kid would run into a cavern full of lava and Creepers on his way back to stash the loot.
Anonymous

Shit. My 14 year old just started playing this, and from what I saw it seemed fairly harmless (he showed me things he was building, which seemed kinda interesting)… bad move?
Anonymous

uber wonderful silliness! Love the kid: whahahaha
Jgeoff

jesus, this needs a lot of fridge logic to understand.
should I start playing minecraft just to understand these jokes?
Teller

Bangin!
Mantissa128

I don’t see it as tasteless. Black people are a good source of diamonds and niacin.

Seriously, I wonder if there is a different response to this commercial for Americans than other folks? I find the commercial just kind of kooky and funny, like many video game ads these days.
Antinous / Moderator

I think that ‘tasteless’ is a typo. My first response was ‘tasty’.
Anonymous

Your head is now diamonds…
Guysmiley

The joke is that Minecraft players go nuts when they see diamonds. If you haven’t played the game you’ll have no effing idea what is going on in that commercial though.
- Maria Eugenia
  
  “Minecraft players go nuts when they see diamonds”
  Yes, that’s
  DIAMONDSS
- erg79
  
  Yeah, I’ve never played Minecraft (and I’ll further embarrass myself here by saying I’ve never heard of it before). That just grossed me out. Not as disturbing as that zombie video game trailer though. That just made me feel really depressed.
osmo

Why is that black guy kicking a garbage truck…?

I kinda got the joke, don’t play minecraft but its around so you grasp the concept. Also that kid looks like a straight haired version of me that age :)
S. Ellis

I would find it tasteless were there not so many adult men who fill the aggressive bling and posturing stereotype.
I have never played Minecraft, but I’ve learned enough through osmosis that I got the joke. I think it is hilarious. Especially since the man is so strong and attractive, and the little boy looks just like my little brothers and their friends in years past when they were too little for their clothes and looked like zombies from marathoning video games and subsisting on cola and cheese puffs.
Anonymous

Shouldn’t the kid have used an iron pick. Now that would have been distasteful…
Anonymous

This is terribly offensive. Everyone knows you need a steel pickaxe to mine diamonds, and that the ore drops a diamond gem, not a block.
Anonymous

Pervy? as in sexually perverted? I didn’t get that. Although that dude is really hot.
Bitmeintheass

It was funny and then disgusting!
pentomino

yes, the video thumbnail is accurate.

someone takes a cube out of a guy’s skull.

NIGHTMARE FUEL.
fnc

I LOL’d. Spot on.