Last weekend, we posted about a website featuring something called “Slavery the Game,” which seemed to be a viral ad for a fake video game. It turns out the grim, weird site was a viral ad, but not for a video game. Rather, it’s a project put together by a Dutch public television network named NTR, designed to promote an upcoming series talking about “the European and Dutch involvement in trans-Atlantic slavery.”
There’s more explanation in this YouTube video, in which one of the researchers behind the series explains that the goal of the project was to raise awareness in the Netherlands about the historical issue of slavery, and “create attention” about the issue. He also says that the American media “reacted much heavier” to the trailer, “because the topic of slavery has had much more attention.”
So it sounds like a culture clash of sorts, with a message meant for Netherlands viewers sneaking out to a much larger, and somewhat more sensitive, audience. The NTR series is set to start up on Dutch TV later on this month, and there is even a “children’s version” of the series, called “De Slavernij Junior” starting at the same time.
[Thanks, Jim N]
‘Slavery the Game’ revealed as a viral ad for Dutch TV history series originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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