What do Activision and the US government have in common? Plenty, according to former Call of Duty director Dave Anthony. The Black Ops 2 veteran told a think-tank forum in Washington this week that unpopular national security measures could be sold to the public in the same way new CoD mechanics are marketed to fans.
“When we have a new product that has elements that we’re not sure how people will respond to, what do we do as a corporation?” he asked.
“We market it, and we market it as much as we can – so that whether people like it or not, we do all the things we can to essentially brainwash people into liking it before it actually comes out.”
Anthony once worked on both Black Ops and its sequel. Now, he’s a fellow in international security for the Atlantic Council think-tank. His recent talk, attended by Business Week, covered potentially controversial solutions to America’s terrorism problems.
He told his audience that US policy-makers should learn from videogame marketing when it came to promoting unpopular decisions. The hypthetical example he gave? Stationing undercover US soldiers in schools to counter homegrown threats.
“The public won’t like it, they’ll think it’s a police state,” said Anthony. “[But] all of these are solvable problems.”
Anthony went on to claim that the US military and government share problems with the Call of Duty series.
“We are both on top of our game,” he explained. “We are both the best in the world at what we do. We both have enemies who are trying to take us down at any possible opportunity. But the difference is, we know how to react to that.”
Gosh. Er. What do you make of that, then?