Thinly veiled PR stunt of the month

Press releases can be a great source of both amusement and depression. This month, vaguely game related FpsBrain takes the cake and rams it up the anal cavity of our soul. Why exactly? Because FpsBrain – the drink that claims to increase your mental powers for gaming performance (kind of like Red Bull, but made for German FPS gamers) – now claims to be supporting Tibet by not being produced in China.

Righto. I recognise that most things in the world are manufactured in China nowadays, however this doesn’t apply to food and drinks. Said products tend to be produced near the market they’re sold in, for a variety of sensible reasons, and China doesn’t have a sparkly clean reputation in regards to food production – indeed, here in Hong Kong, ‘Mainland Chinese Food Danger!’ is pretty much a weekly headline, as we’re informed of yet another suspicious artificial food substance to avoid due to high levels of MSG or lead paint.

So the point is, FpsBrain would never have been produced in China in the first place, unless its producers stupidly thought shipping cans of sugar water halfway around the world made sense. Their press release claiming to “boycott China” as an act of support for Tibet, is essentially self publicising bullshit, because it’s not a boycott at all.

On the positive side, FpsBrain will be donating €1 from every order to the Tibet Initiative Deutschland. It’s not really like Tibet’s got a lack of high profile backing though.

In other news, Games Asylum has revealed to cheering onlookers that we’re boycotting fascist regimes and using only, erm, ourselves, to write these words. Indeed. Ni hao. Ni baba, mama shenti hao ma?

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