'Guitar Hero World Tour', Featuring The Stoner, The Roider, And The Accused Rapist

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Posted February 11, 2009 - By r_pad

Remember that Guitar Hero: World Tour commercial featuring the LA Lakers' Kobe Bryant, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, the NY Yankees' Alex Rodriguez, and Olympic multi-medalist Michael Phelps? The ad is still running and its lineup is looking dirty these days. Bryant will carry the taint of being accused of sexual assault for the rest of his life, while Phelps' recent bong misadventures and Rodriguez' admission of illegal-substance use have tarnished their respective images. Some people were speculating that Activision would pull the ad and sever its relationships with Phelps and Rodriguez. According to the NY Daily News:

"A spokesman for Activision, developer and publisher of Guitar Hero, said the company has no plans to change its TV campaign, 'which is nearing the end' of its run."

I'm guessing that Activision has no plans to give Phelps and Rodriguez a ring for its future commercials. Then again, the company went ahead with the ad although one of its featured athletes is an accused rapist.The newspaper also chatted with sports-business consultant Marc Ganis, who said:

"The target market for Guitar Hero is younger counterculture youth for whom this kind of behavior is not considered very negative."

Yeah, because all Guitar Hero players think it's positive to take steroids and human-growth hormone.

Anyone else find it amusing that the cleanest person in the commercial is the skateboarder? I mean, they're supposed to be the lazy, stoned ones at best and criminals (Christian Hosoi, Mark "Gator" Rogowski, Jay "J-Boy" Adams, etc.) at worst. Cheers to Tony for keeping it real!

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