Through force or fraud (Erin)

So a video game company makes a game and wants to market it. What to do, what to do...oh, hey, how about we hire a bunch of fake Christian protesters to campaign against the game and create interest?

Sounds like the plot of a second-rate movie, right? Except it actually happened:

Los Angeles, Calif., Jun 9, 2009 / 04:52 am (CNA).- Video game giant Electronic Arts has admitted it funded a group of fake protesters who pretended to be Christians as a publicity stunt to spur interest in its upcoming action game very loosely based on Dante's "Inferno."

The game company hired a group of almost 20 people to stand outside the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the Associated Press says. The phony protesters passed out amateurish material and held signs bearing slogans such as "Trade in Your PlayStation for a PrayStation," "Hell is not a Game" and "EA = Electronic Anti-Christ."

Holly Rockwood, an EA spokeswoman, said the charade was arranged by a viral marketing agency hired by the company.

A web page in the crude style of 1990s web design was also created in connection with the stunt. It depicted crosses crushing the word "sin" and placed images of the King James Bible among phony condemnations and thinly-veiled promotions of the game.

"A video game hero does not have the authority to save and damn... ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE. and he will not judge the sinners who play this game kindly," the site said.

Hard to believe, isn't it? Well, not really, but it does make me wonder whether, among all the various religious protesters who have turned up recently to clamor against entertainment industry offerings and the like there weren't a handful of professionals here and there scattered among the legitimately concerned citizens.

The article goes on to talk about the game:

EA's video game "Dante's Inferno" claims to be inspired by the first book of Dante Alighieri's theological poem "The Divine Comedy." Its character uses a cross as a weapon.

While Dante's epic poem placed his beloved Beatrice in Paradise, the EA game makes its Dante character rescue Beatrice's soul from Lucifer, USA Today says.

Given that information, I wonder that EA didn't hire a bunch of irate literature majors to protest instead. They probably would have worked cheaper than the phony Christians, and would have brought enough actual anger and annoyance with them to create a sense of verisimilitude.