Throughout this week, we’re reviewing the weird mobile game ads we get served on TikTok to see if we can learn something from them. Wish us luck.
There was a flurry of headlines at the start of the year around Mickey Mouse – as depicted in 1928 cartoon Steamboat Willie – entering the public domain.
And so cheeky interactive narrative / life sim BitLife has taken full advantage with a startling TikTok creative we scrolled past last week.
It promises spicy exclusive behind-the-scenes content from onboard that famous steamboat through Mickey’s “OF account”, which is perhaps not what Walt Disney had intended back in 1928:
That’s the deal with BitLife ads on TikTok – the game is effectively a kind of trashy drama simulator so it is well suited to provocative ad creatives.
This one begins “I’m glad my wife cheated on me with my dad”, and escalates further from there:
Besides Mickey making it rain through OnlyFans, there are nods to pop culture in other creatives, including this one about some guy called ‘Donled Troomp’, a businessman who runs for president:
It’s eye-catching but largely inoffensive stuff, and there’s also more memey, TikTok-native ads, but with that added BitLife spice. This one below has one of those aspirational Instagram-style shots overlaid with a fun(?) joke about divorce:
Verdict: fair game?
I actually don’t find anything too offensive here, and the ads do actually give the player a solid idea of what they’re getting when they download. Cheeky, yes, but a blight on the mobile games business? Not really.
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