I’ll admit that I didn’t know the people who weren’t Robert Downey, Jr. in Activision’s “Surprise” commercial for Call of Duty. You, like me, can learn how the publisher filled the ad with “personalities” of all types in a behind-the-scenes video that shows director Guy Ritchie at work.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":580636,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"B"}']Ritchie is famous for the recent Sherlock Holmes films as well as Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. You can see Ritchie working with people like Downey, iJustine, and FPS Russia in the video below:
Downey worked with Ritchie as the lead character in the Holmes movies. Justine “iJustine” Ezarik is a viral-video comedian and a “lifecaster.” If you don’t know what that is, I think this line from Ezarik’s Wikipedia page will make you sad: “Her popularity is such that a video about her wanting to order a cheeseburger received 600,000 YouTube views in a week.” Yeah, and now that video has nearly 7 million views.
Another YouTube personality, FPS Russia, stars in the bombastic Call of Duty spot. The video bills him as a “Professional Russian,” which I thought would mean drinking lots of vodka and hating Ronald Reagan, but it turns out it means he’s an American kid who does a Russian character in web videos.
I don’t want to judge, but I feel like Activision’s marketing budget could have extended a bit beyond someone who does funny voices on the Internet.