Fox Home Entertainment and Ottawa-based Fuel Industries have spawned a new online mash-up to grab and engage tweens/teens and non-boomer men. To tout the release of American Dad Season One DVD Collection, they’ve created a game that pits the animated characters of American Dad and The Family Guy series against each other in no-holds-barred combat, and in a crossover move, the winner faces console game hero Ryu from the original Capcom ‘Streetfighter’ series. It went live April 20 and is already viralling out of control with 175,000 unique hits in less than a week at press time. It was initially seeded by staff sending it to family and friends, and the team at Fox’s L.A. office planted it in chat rooms and blogs. Users are also pushed to the game by online ads.
It was a Canadian idea which grew from American office interest in the successful Canuck-born Stewie Live project(eight million hits), and a desire to do something similarly sticky. Fuel came up with the original idea of a kung fu game between the two TV families, wherein each character has weapons distinctive to their personality, like Stewie Griffin’s Diaper Bomb or American zealot Stan Smith’s Heart of Justice in which he stabs opponents with a U.S. flag. The target demo skews male 18-49; also 12-17s skewing male. www.americandadvsfamilyguy.com.
