Hey Young World,

In this new series, we dissect classic ads that inspire us to this day. You can also follow this seris via our Instagram account, @WeAre150.

Viva La Bam

There has been a lot of buzz about including advertisements for real-life products in video games. That, of course, make sense, as video games have become a major source of entertainment for many people. Placing ads for your products in TV shows or movies doesn't help you much if the people you are trying to reach are playing games instead.

An industry that understood this early - way before the aforementioned buzz - is the skateboarding industry. One, if not the, example for that is the iconic Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (THPS) video game series, which has started in 1999 and hasn't left the public consciousness since. From the beginning, the series and the skateboarding industry - which is largely made up of independent equipment, media and apparel companies - have had a synergetic relationship. Whereas the video games provided a huge, worldwide audience to the skateboarding companies, the latter in turn provided the video games with that crucial boost of authenticity needed to turn something into a cultural phenomenon.

This ad that inspired us, an Element (a beloved skateboarding brand) commercial (or promotional video, if you prefer), included as part of the story mode in 2003's Tony Hawk's Underground, the fifth THPS game, is an example of that. Featuring the pro-skater, MTV star and all-around Millennial icon Bam Margera, who's authenticity was never questioned despite his fame, as well as a DIY, anti-marketing aesthetic and message, this promotional video was theoretically meant to make you pick Element as your sponsor within the story of the video game, but we believe that Element was very aware of the fact that its influence would go well beyond the confines of this fictional setting. They were right, of course. At the very least, it made us and our friends pick Element countless time, both in the game as well as in real-world skateshops.

One Love,

Marius | 1520