Lindens Advertise Second Life With Avatar Like Avatar From *Avatar* (But Not For Much Longer) - Updated: User Activity in Second Life Increases During Campaign, Says Tateru Nino

A number of Residents have noticed this web-based ad for Second Life showing up on various websites, which is notable partly because Linden Lab rarely engages in advertising campaigns, but mostly because the ad depicting an avatar bears more than a passing resemblance to, well, an avatar from Avatar, the James Cameron blockbuster. At first I thought the ad wasn't actually produced by the Lindens, maybe by a Resident-run website in a bid to earn money through the company's third party affiliate program. But as it turns out, it is a Linden-produced campaign. I discovered this when I checked with company PR rep Peter Linden, asking about the ad, and its similarity to elements from the Cameron movie. Here's what he told me:

"While we’re certainly fans of the Avatar film and of blue avatars (not to mention pink, green, yellow, and robot avatars), we do not want to cause any confusion between Second Life and the movie with this advertisement, and we plan to change it to avoid any misunderstanding."

Notwithstanding that, numerous Residents are still making their own Avatar-like avatars (often inspired by the ad campaign), or even full-fledged role-playing games based on the film.

Update, 9:15am: Tateru Nino, who closely tracks Second Life demographic data, says user concurrency and in-world transactions have increased substantially around the time this ad campaign was launched.

Thanks to Iris Ophelia for the tip; screencap by Ina Centaur.

Comments

[Loki]

cunning, i like ;-)

[lufpleh]

IMVU have been running similar adverts for a while http://bit.ly/87R1WN

[Not You]

Well, the least Second Life can do is use the blue avatar concept considering Avatar stole the whole 10 foot tall avatar idea from Second Life :D

Seriously, did anyone not notice this? I mean, where else would he come up with a concept like that?

[Juko Tempel]

Not You - there is a huge wealth of sources in art and film and literature, especially in science fiction, which inspires films like Avatar and of course is also realised creatively in virtual worlds like Second Life. It is way too narrow to consider this 'stealing', (except where actual copyright is infringed of course). Here is a blog post which gives you some ideas about that, but there are many others http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/12/10-possible-sources-of-avatar-in.html

[Lap Liberty]

The point is, not everybody knows of Virtual Worlds. However, everybody now will want an Avatar and where do we get one?

[Jura Shepherd]

"...we do not want to cause any confusion between Second Life and the movie with this advertisement..."

/me blinks

lol, oh come on. Still though, it's good to see them actually advertising.

[Spanki]

I think the ad could be a little misleading in so far as people may imagine their 'free avatar' could look that good when they sign up, when in fact it costs time and money to escape the unattractive (IMO) noob avatar we are all born with in SL. As far as I know there is no free avi representing the Navi from the movie.
That said, creating a look(s) is so much fun, I love that Second Life is so limitless as far as avatar look/shape etc., so in a way I'm glad we start out with something real basic, it encourages you to experiment and create.

[Gogo]

The ad is totally misleading. When I blogged about the banners, I had several people IM me to inquire where they can get a "Free avatar" LOL -- I have no idea.

[Ann Otoole]

They should use my reptilian avatar. Except people with Ophidiophobia get upset when they see it in world. If interested you can find me on youtube and there is a video.

Basically LL needs to expand beyond showing sexy girl avatars. IMHO anyway.

[Crap Mariner]

"...we do not want to cause any confusion between Second Life and the movie with this advertisement..."

I'm more confused about all the claims last year that they were working on a content protection roadmap, then pulling this stunt with an Avatar movie rip-off campaign.

*sigh*

-ls/cm

[Moggs Oceanlane]

I found it more amusing given that LL made a lot of noise about residents including replica's of real life products (and celebrities - skins/shapes) on XStreet last year and then... err... hello? *grins and skips off to bed*

[Ewan Mureaux]

Yep but the first thing I saw visiting this page was an imvu ad using exactly the same stunt http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk190/ewan_mureaux/imvuavatar.jpg

[Doreen Garrigus]

Not You, I noticed a whole bunch of very SL things in the movie Avatar, not the least of which was the giant avatars with little bitty heads and long, long legs. They are just *shaped like* SL avatars---and that shape is so strange that it is difficult to do by accident.

[Galena Qi]

This explains the blue-skinned newbie that I met in an infohub last week. He spoke only Russian (thank goodness for translators!) but managed to explain that he was looking for Pandora.

Good to know where to direct people, although I am surprised that the heavy hand of the copyright enforcers hasn't descended yet.

[Ann Otoole]

Yea well I used to give away (since around 10/2008) a full body tattoo skin for men that included facial tattoos that was pretty much identical to the Romulan tattoos in the new Star Trek film. Now where did they get that from? I bet if I tried to sell that line today I'd get sued despite the original works date.

[Nonameforyou]

interesting. i have been interested in virtual world forever since i was a little kid. wow. i think i am still in too it:0,.[im 16]

[ripped off]

while the IMVU ad on THIS BLOG is the one they have been using fo a few weeks..

IT although attempts some "creative" visual differences. ala the sea monkey antenna and lack of "pandoran moon and glowy plants...

con job rippoff web2.0
we dont pay for creative, only for code...
get the picture folks?

or are you confused?

[James Short]

This whole issue is stupidity at its finest. There have been blue characters in Star Wars (the character Aayla Secura), Farscape (the character Zhaan), Star Trek (the Andorians), comic books (the characters Bamf and Mystique as well as the Kree race of the Marvel Comics universe), the Smurfs, Captain Planet, and Krishna (one of the Hindu Gods depicted in paintings for over 1000 years as having blue skin). I hope someone from Linden Labs reads this and fights back. I know if they come after me for marketing blue skins for SL avatars, they might as well set a court date because I WON'T back down. With all the prior art of blue-skinned characters available, they have no right to claim an exclusive copyright on the concept.