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 Boys TV series/Opera GX web browser

The Promotion:

The Pitch:
Who better to trust with your data than a nefarious corporate conspiracy with an army of superpowered murderers?

This is an ad for two different things.

As an ad for the Amazon TV series The Boys, it does its job just fine. It doesn’t make me want to watch the show, necessarily, but it got me thinking about the show. And that’s really the goal of a promo like this: bring it to the forefront of people’s minds, so whether they’re someone who’s heard about it but hasn’t taken the plunge yet, or who’s an old fan but hasn’t been keeping track of when the new season starts, they’re more likely to tune in now.

That’s all well and good. But this is also an ad for the web browser Opera GX, and there we run into an issue.

I have never watched The Boys, or read the comic it’s based on, but even I’m aware that Vought International is up there with Lexcorp and Weyland-Yutani for ultra-evil sci-fi corporations. So it’s kind of an odd move for Opera GX to position themselves as firm allies of this villainous institution, practically begging viewers to see them as being just as evil as Vought.

They even lean into how a web browser company like them could victimize its customers: “Your personal data and identity stay safely in your hands … and ours. And Homelander’s.”

I wonder if this is a case where the company felt that, as long as a fictional villain is popular enough, being associated with them is still a plus. Or if maybe this is like when Subway bought some product placement on Community: all they asked was for the series to showcase Subway restaurants, but gave no directives as to how – so Community used the Subway corporation as a stand-in for Big Brother from 1984.

Regardless, does anyone here feel more comfortable using Opera GX after seeing this ad?