In 2007 Rockstar Games teased Grand Theft Auto IV with a series of late night ads appearing on channels like FX. All ads amounted to 30 minutes of watching a clock, with every second interrupted by a gunshot. The young Zack, once the dork, fell hard for the hype.
Yes, think back to the old days of 2007. Specifically, March 2007. Just like March 2021, many people around the world were waiting for the next big game in the GTA series. Unlike where we don’t have any news or information about the next game right now, in 2007 we knew GTA IV was coming. And Rockstar was happy to have fans counting down every second until the very first trailer dropped.
To be clear, this clock is ticking ad was not countdown to game release. No, this clock was simply counting down and ringing every second until the first trailer was to be released.
And yet the stupid younger Zack watched a lot of this countdown ad, switching between Adult Swim and counting. Why? Because I thought maybe, just could be, if I watched it, Rockstar would show a teaser for the game early and I’d get a taste! It never happened. These ads ran for a few nights, although the exact details of them are hard to find online. I am genuinely shocked that someone even recorded and uploaded it to YouTube in 2007
When the counting stopped and the trailer finally dropped, Rockstar’s website crashed and people couldn’t even watch it right away. It was a frustrating ending to a bizarre teaser campaign that we probably won’t see again.
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