You want to give them the benefit of the doubt. You want to believe, if you clap your hands enough, that the corporations will not act like total dipshits.

You want to believe that a contest, sponsored by XBox, wherein children aged 13 and older write 250 words about their mom, the gamer, for the chance to win an XBox360 Elite, could be more altruistic than just a marketing ploy. You believe them that it’s a sweet way to maybe get something for your gamer mom on Mother’s Day without too much effort, and then you read their copy:

Is your mom a gamer? Here’s your chance to show her some Mother’s Day love and take a shot at winning Mother’s Day flowers for your mom and an Xbox 360™ Elite system for yourself!

“Don’t worry kids! Your mom (the gamer, nudge nudge, wink wink), would much rather have those flowers than the XBox Elite. We totally swear it! In fact, getting an XBox Elite™ for yourself on Mother’s Day that you will get years of enjoyment out of won’t totally eclipse a vaseful of flowers your Mom got (the kind that will whither and die within a couple of days), so it’s a win-win situation!”

I mean, if they’d just said “an XBox 360™ Elite system that the two of you can play together” it could have at least paid lipservice to the fact that this contest is ostensibly all about mom.

Man, I’m glad I have cats. If I had a kid and they pulled this crap on me, I’d feed them liver and cow’s tongue for a month.

Mighty Ponygirl posted this entry on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 9:38 am and filed it under Microsoft (XBox). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.