Double Life (PlayStation ad)


Double Life is a television advertisement released in 1999 by SCE Europe. The 60-second long ad – conceived and written by copywriter James Sinclair, art director, Ed Morris and Trevor Beattie – shows 19 PlayStation players discussing their gaming experience with the console. The ad was the most highly awarded in the world in 1999/2000 and has gone on to gain cult status.

Content

The ad begins with an English-sounding man in a suit who walks through a busy street. He starts the ad by saying "For years, I've lived a double life. In the day, I do my job – I ride the bus, roll up my sleeves with the hoi-polloi.", then a number of different characters are seen including the same man sitting undressed on a bed with a woman, a woman of Asiatic appearance, a middle-aged man on a leather couch with teenage girl who sits down beside him, a young refugee wearing a hat, a man beside a car, and wearing a scary – looking mask, a shirtless boy on a skate ramp, a man in a bathtub, a black man in a wheelchair, and the man in the bath again, a "couch potato", a person with a deep voice in a corset, a foreign sounding woman with a shaved head, a preschool child, a cyclist wearing sunglasses and a scarf over his face, an older man with long white hair, a topless pregnant woman holding a soundless crying baby, the black man spinning in his wheelchair again and finally the first man, in close up before a black screen comes up at the end saying "Do not underestimate the power of PlayStation".

Reception

The ad is internationally known and many people from the US and Asia have commented on its quality. Scott Steinberg, author of Videogame Marketing and PR and founder of Embassy Multimedia Consultants commented on the ad in 2008, saying

Legacy

Double Life has clocked up over half a million views on YouTube and the ad topped Joystiq.com's "Top 10 Best PlayStation Ads". On 11 May 2007, Double Life was added to the Clio Hall of Fame. Also, the first few lines are the first things featured on IGN's podcasts. A small screenshot of the ad was featured in The Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition.