Microsoft moves XBox Europe sccount to McCann
Reuters | at | by Mike
Microsoft said on Friday it had dropped London-based Bartle Bogle Hegarty Limited as the European advertising agency for its Xbox video game system, moving the account to Interpublic's McCann-Erickson unit. Microsoft slashed Xbox prices in Europe last month amid a fierce battle for market share with Sony's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's Game Cube.
London-based BBH, 49-percent owned by France's Publicis, won several awards for its Xbox ads, and recently launched a campaign for Xbox Live in March. One commercial, however, that graphically showed the birth of a baby who then fast-forwarded through life and slammed into the grave -- the slogan was "Life is short. Play more." -- was banned by British regulators.