Activision remakes classic memes to celebrate imminent release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
As far as social media activations go, this one's pretty good, I won't lie.
The Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 hype train has nearly arrived at the station, with the game set to release in a matter of days. In part of the celebration, Activision has created replicas of classic gifs featuring Peter Stormare.
He, in case you aren't aware, plays a recurring character called "The Replacer", a mythical figure that takes your place at various important events during the launch of a Call of Duty game so you can focus on the game. This has resulted in various frankly funny bits of marketing, which catalogue Stormare's wacky adventure at different peoples jobs, weddings, etc.
You can access these gifs yourself at an official Call of Duty Giphy page, with six in total as of writing. Our favourite is of course Drew Scanlon blinking in confusion during his time at Giant Bomb. All in all these are pretty fun, and a creative use of marketing budget if nothing else.
More than anything, on a personal level, I'm glad Peter Stormare is getting paid. He's a wonderful actor. Younger audiences will likely know him mostly from a small role in John Wick 2 (or perhaps Until Dawn), but man does he have an excellent career. Jurassic Park, Armageddon, the Minority Report! He was brilliant in Constantine too. He's one of those actors who doesn't get a lot of love these days, but he's brilliant. He's always been brilliant.
So if you're keen on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and want a wacky way of expressing your love, go ahead and mess around with these custom gifs. Yeah sure, some people will think you're a little cringe, but more Peter Stormare out in the world can only be a good thing.