What do you do when you are marketing a football video game but just about every aspect of the sport that makes it popular is owned by another gaming company? You call in the hip-hop luminaries. In a play I believe they took directly from Sun Tzu's The Art of War, 2K Sports, being unable to associate All-Pro Football 2K8 with anything resembling organized football have launched their "Football Resurrected " campaign in preparation for the game's launch on July 17th.

This is one of the two vignettes currently available at the website, www.footballresurrected.com, part of a series of videos directed by music video director Maz Makhani featuring artists like Rakim, Aceyalone, and several other people I don't know but am sure are very good at what they do.

2K Sports is also very good at what they do, though I wonder if this campaign will be enough to break them off a sizeable piece of the Madden-dominated football market. You have to admire them for trying, and if anyone can pull it off, these are the guys.

2K Sports Announces the "Football Resurrected" Campaign for All-Pro Football 2K8

Today publisher 2K Sports proudly announces the "Football Resurrected" campaign, a multi-platform marketing campaign in support of All-Pro Football 2K8, available on July 17 for the Xbox 360 and PS3. The campaign, which spans the online, print and broadcast mediums, is designed to attract fans of video games, hip-hop and football with engaging content that celebrates 2K Sports' return to the virtual football arena with All-Pro Football 2K8.

Kicking off the "Football Resurrected" campaign is an innovative episodic online video series featuring past and present hip-hop luminaries who sound off about different aspects of All-Pro Football 2K8. The six, two-minute episodes were shot by legendary music video director, Maz Makhani, and feature artists such as Rakim, Chali 2Na from Jurassic 5, Pep Love & Casual of Hieroglyphics, M-1 from Dead Prez, and Aceyalone.

The first two episodes, "Rice Returns" and "Give Me Real Football" can be viewed now at www.footballresurrected.com.

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