You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …

The Product:
The exciting field of property management

The Promotion:

The Pitch:
If you can’t afford to give your child high-end real estate this Christmas, at least Monopoly can let them simulate the experience.

Monopoly is in a tough place these days. Once it ruled the board game roost, but over the last decade its dominance has been challenged by games like Catan, Dungeons & Dragons, and a host of others that redefine what the masses believed a tabletop game could be. And as those games gain prominence, they start making people look more harshly at Monopoly’s flaws: gameplay that’s far more about luck than skill – an endgame that turns into a dull, hours-long battle of attrition – eliminated players either having to watch or walk away as everyone else keeps on playing.

There was a time when Monopoly wasn’t something I’d think would ever need advertising. It’s just … Monopoly. Everyone has it, everyone’s played it – you don’t need to sell people on it. But clearly, times have changed.

I don’t think this is exactly what happened, but I like to think that someone at Hasbro saw the rising popularity of D&D, and thought, “Y’know, Monopoly is sort of a roleplaying game, too. Just you’re playing as a wealthy landlord instead of a sword-wielding hobbit halfling. Let’s lean into that.”

Though where D&D is (theoretically) about the players cooperating, both to achieve their in-game goal and to help each other have fun, the nature of Monopoly encourages you to roleplay as a merciless robber baron who’s out to crush everyone else. Leaving your friends and family bankrupt, stripping them of their assets, and casting them out on the street when they can’t afford your exorbitant rents – that’s what the game’s about.

And this commercial goes hard with that. Like, the mom receiving an eviction notice from their own kid didn’t need to be pregnant, too. But the ad goes there, because it recognizes that being the most heartless, ruthless, moustache-twirling baddie around is where the fun comes from.

(It certainly doesn’t come from parsing the rules and math behind mortgages, I can tell you that!)