Mysterious Posters Cause a Stir

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the latest release in the Deus Ex video game series from publisher Square Enix. They wanted a guerrilla marketing campaign to fire up the game’s audience and create social buzz.

We brought Deus Ex to real life to intrigue gamers by leveraging a key plot line in the game. The government has relegated the population of people with augmentations (Augs) into ghettos, claiming they are a danger to the rest of society. Kenwood created “propaganda” guerrilla style posters for San Francisco, New York, L.A. and Montreal.

The posters featured Norman-Rockwell-inspired visions of childhood innocence being threatened by Augs. A few weeks later, these were hit with graffiti, from the Augs, asserting their humanity.

The bloggers and discussion boards lit up with reports of sightings, discussions about the meaning of the content, and speculation about what they would find in the upcoming release.