'Bloodvertising' Promotes Game

Innovation has run rampant in the advertising world, giving form to yet another "alterna-advertising" type that only a marketer could love. Joining advergaming, advertainment, adverblogging, dogvertising, bravertising and invertising is bloodvertising. Acclaim Entertainment is promoting their new video game, Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance, with bus shelters in the U.K. that will literally seep blood.

The ads, placed behind plexi-glass for a six-day period, will shoot red dye onto the backside of the plexi-glass, which will then drip down onto the street. Aligning the campaign to the company's marketing strategy, Acclaim Communications Manager Shaun White said, "The concept of 'Bloodvertising' ties in with our marketing strategy and sticks to the theme of blood and carnage, which is consistent throughout the Gladiator video game."

The video game, set in 106AD, is claimed to be the bloodiest ever to hit the gaming space.