GameStop Wants The Girls To Spend The Night With John Madden

It's Madden Day — and video game retailer GameStop is hoping to soak up some of those "pink ocean" dollars, tapping into what it think is a currently untapped market of women gamers who not only love the Wii, but also love NFL football. GameStop has launched the "Girls Night In" device, a site "designed to help educate wives, moms and girlfriends about the Madden phenomenon." It highlights the requisite activities all women love — cooking, dressing up, accessorizing, eating — meeting the thrill of playing virtual football, something you didn't know you adored until marketing said so. GameStop asks, and we assume not rhetorically, "Why not change up the typical 'girls night out' with a Madden-packed 'girls night in?'"What exactly does a "girls night in" consist of? Playing Madden NFL '09 All Play for the Wii apparently, with its big-headed players, simplified play-calling and waggle-friendly controls, all the while becoming fluent in football vocabulary and learned in gridiron trivia. If playing the expanded audience version of Madden doesn't appeal to you, ladies, perhaps the hot crab dip will! That's just one of many "delicious, health-conscious and easy-to-make snacks" that you'll find at the GameStop's female online reeducation program. You will, of course eat said snacks off of cute sports themed partyware and use the approved cute names ("Quarterback Quesadillas", "Fumble-Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies", etc). Like many of GameStop's efforts to attract female gamers young, old and fond of pink handhelds, the Madden Girls Night In endeavor is an awkward effort. Honestly, we have no idea if this is even remotely appealing or patently offensive, given that our thick foreheads block this sort of critical information from reaching our pea-brains. What we think we do know, however, is the real reason someone felt this warranted Gamestop.com front page prominence — the "Submit Your Party Photo" link, through which Maddenettes are asked to "attach images from your Girls Night In experience" and send in. Someone at GameStop corporate is assuredly hoping for candid photos of the bra and panties pillow fight that concludes every all-woman party. Those do happen, right? Girls Night In [GameStop]