For the advertising campaign, 200 women were selected for their conservative values and lack of familiarity with video games. Their reactions to a screening of the game were featured in EA's web and TV advertisements with the campaign slogan called "Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2".
The campaign was criticized as sexist and reinforcing stereotypes against female and older gamers. As the game is M rated and only 17+ can purchase it, others thought the advertisements were pointless and would hurt market share. Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon.com wrote: "The video game's campaign hinges on a unique premise – one that ignores how much the culture of gaming has changed." The Approval Matrix published by New York Magazine placed the campaign in the Lowbrow but Brilliant quadrant.
On the other hand, notable voices in the video game industry defended the campaign. Kotaku's Brian Crecente asked "Are that many people really taking the Dead Space 2's moms campaign that literally? When did gamers become so humorless?" Steven Hodson of The Inquisitr wrote, "Granted it took a lot of guts for EA to even go down this road but the idea of pulling in 200 middle-aged moms into an individual focus group situation to evaluate a new game – title unknown – was awesome."
More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Space_2#Advertising.
