Time for something new!  I'm hoping to create a new discussion on the advertising of games and how effective you think they are or are not.  (Why the goal of advertising is to increase sales, I decided to throw this topic here so we can leave actual sales numbers and such in that area.)

Let's start things off with some of the launch commercials for the major three consoles:

Playstation 3 'Baby' Commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqkNPcUMffU

Wii 'Wii Would Like to Play' Commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkS2DJ6VX_g

Xbox 360 'Water Balloons' Commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsrB0jep4-M

What do you think of them?  Effective or not?  What could/should be changed?  Try to keep the criticism constructive and focused.

Please also let me know if you think I should break this thread into separate ones based on systems. games, topics, etc.  I also welcome any additional links and other topics you'd like to branch out in.  And you can also tell me that you don't like the idea, but can just do that by just not posting a reply.

The Wii commercials are aimed at older people.

The PS3 comercials suck.

and I havent seen the 360 comercial (not gonna watch it on my PC becuase flash audio is broke) 

The PS3 commercials makes normal people believe that the PS3 is for mad people, The 360 commercial was good, but not as good to make get interested on the 360(and makes me think if you put another background music on it like a requiem or a castlevania symphony can make people look how people like violence and hurt another people with something simple like water), the Wii commercial was good too.

You should ad the PSP bathroom commercial, it is too funny, I like that one. I haven't seen a DS commercial, you can put one too.

ps3 commercials do one thing - get u to pay attention.

You see those commercials on TV u watch them and think...wtf?? Then you watch them and realise its about the ps3.

Sony are trying to sell on brand alone it seems 

How insane this may sound I must say that I agree with Kwaad

PS3 advertisment is awfull, and I didn't like the xbox360 advertisment either. Wii on the other hand showed people gaiming, this one youth like myself around 20. (they have with elder people also). It felt like Sony tried to create some odd advertisment to get people intressted in the playstation brand (which I felt is insane, they should just have showed some great games instead). Microsoft seems to try to sell in the multiplayer online thing, but if I weren't intressted in gaiming I would have no idea what they were talking about. So I would say that I more and more understand why PS3 has failed so far (relative). Had they showed some games things could be different.

EDIT: Not only that Wii shows the whole family playing together as it wouldn't be anything odd with playing tv-games with you mum. Something like that clearly can sell to an big amount of people.

Definately some different strategies. The Wii and 360 are advertising the experience, while the PS3 is advertising the brand.

The 360 add is a pretty fun commercial, but I'm not sure if it really gets across its message (which is that 360 is all about playing online with your friends). It might have worked better if they could actually tie in some videogames! 

The Wii adds are pure marketing gold. They nail the experience factor, while being easy to continually update to tailor to specific games. Throw in a catchy song, the Smart car(is that being sold in the U.S. yet?) and those two guys who have become mascots, and they've really got a successful and well known campaign.

The PS3 add... I guess Sony figured that most people already thought " The PS3 is going to be amazing!" So thats what they went for. And yes, it's stupid. On the plus side, they've gotten better. While they're still doing stupid PS3 in a white room adds, the Motorstorm one atleast includes lots of ingame footage. 

The Halo 3 ESPN ad was one of the best gaming commercials I've seen, but maybe it will backfire because the actual graphics and atmosphere are probably nowhere near the heights seen in the ad. It's very hard to show the superiority of 1080p games and movies through standard-def televisions, so I partially understand why the PS3 commercials were like they were. Nintendo has probably benefited from Youtube and television commercials for the same reason.

There has been some weird commercials here in Finland of Motorstorm and Resistance. There's a country song and actual footage in the Motorstorm ad and a finnish comedian saying some unintentionally hilarious stuff with actual footage too in the Resistance ad. I don't know about rest of Europe, but I guess Sony changed the advertising style because people in the US didn't respond well with the american commercials.

the Wii and 360 commercials are great. The PS3 commercials, however, suck.  Sony is trying to convey the message that no one understands the power of the PS3. However, with the exception of tech geeks, no one cares about system specs, they just want good games. Therefore, with the fact that sony doesn't showcase games in their commercials, players don't see anything in the commercial that makes them say "wow, that looks fun" and ultimately that is what a console ad should do. You see a wii/360 commercial and say "wow, that looks fun" but when your watching a PS3 commercial you say "uhh...wtf is... oh, right, a PS3"

Anyone remember the commercial for the Xbox, the one that was banned in the UK? This was the one where a baby was born, shot out of the building, flew until it got too old and drop in the grave. I though that was a strange...but amusing advert. This did not make me buy a system though!