Okay, it’s not actually called the Battleship commercial, but it might as well be. You see, we see Xelganz represented as red cylindrical thingies that look like the “hit” indicator pegs in the board game Battleship twice in the ad. In fact, it’s so striking to me that that’s what it looks like, at the point where they show us a cell, and it gets filled with these red cylinders, blocking the inflammation, I think they should say: “Xelganz makes inflammation say: ‘You sank my battleship!’”
(The spot is completely black & white, so these red plastic Battleship “hit” indicators stand out like a sore thumb.)
Here’s the inflammation battling spot that’s a “hit” with Battleship fans:
And this is what those Battleship “hit” indicator pegs look like in the game:
(Actually, this isn’t a bad ad. Apart from the Battleship “hit” indicator thingies, it’s kind of sweet. But it’s also very much like many other ads of this type, so my guess is that they wanted to do something to make them stand out from the rest. And they certainly did that with the Battleship thingies. But if they were going to use Battleship “hit” indicators, I think they should have said their medicine “targets” the inflammation and “hits it hard”, “sinking” its effects. {No? Not a good idea? Then how about using a video game reference, like Pac Man, and saying Xelganz scares all the inflammation out of your system, while showing the pill, represented by Pac Man, who is shaped like a tablet, chasing the inflammation-causing “ghosts” out of the maze. And I know Battleship is a bit old, but people with rheumatoid arthritis likely know that game better than newer video game titles, so maybe it’s not so farfetched of an idea to connect with potential customers after all, on second thought.})
