It had been rumoured prior to his performance, but yes, Kendrick Lamar squeezed a subtle PlayStation reference into his Super Bowl half-time show.
While the Philadelphia Eagles proceeded to rout favourites Kansas City Chiefs, the rapper took to the world’s biggest stage atop four platforms inspired by PlayStation’s infamous controller symbols.
According to a Wired article, which delves deep into the development of the performance, Lamar opted for the PlayStation symbols to help “portray his life as a video game”. The show also started with a drone light show which spelled the famous phrase ‘Game Over’, perhaps in reference to his highly publicised feud with fellow star Drake.
To be honest, while we have no real opinion on the show itself, it somewhat annoyed us that the shapes were in the wrong order. Sony always lists the symbols in their clockwise formation from the controller, so the sequence is usually Triangle Circle Cross Square. But the half-time show had them Circle Cross Triangle Square, at least from the perspective of the broadcast camera.
Anyway, small details. Perhaps the main thing here is that the simple geometric shapes are iconic enough to be associated with PlayStation, and that’s testament to the incredible branding effort Sony’s made over the years.
[source wired.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 30
Partridge shrugging gif*
@FleetCasual This comment has already made my week. 😂
Free advertising for Sony. They will be happy with that…even if symbols are wrong order
Fun fact - the GTAV soundtrack on Xbox has a uniquely censored version of his song "ADHD", namely it obscures the when he says "PlayStation".
For those unfamiliar with the comment by @FleetCasual:
It's the appropriate response to this article IMO.
Xbox players aren't like us...
From that perspective the triangle is upside down ( top right of picture ), so if you start at the triangle and go clockwise its the correct order.
Circle Cross Triangle Square isnt even an option, it would be Circle Cross Square Triangle if you start at that point. Complaining about the wrong order while having the order wrong yourself.
I know it may not be as obvious what a good piece of marketing this is to those outside the U.S., but to have the PS brand placement in front of the largest TV audience of the year is a nice perk. It may not mean much to our friends in the UK and Europe, but a lot of eyes were on the Super Bowl, many of which were only watching to see Lamar.
As a related aside for our British audience, shout-out to David Beckham’s commercial. I can’t remember what the product was (some kind of beer I think?) but he and his ‘lost American twin’ Matt Damon were hilarious. 😄
@Nalim Well why didn’t they put it the right away around for the broadcast cameras? 😂
@get2sammyb Because they always have all angles in Stadiums, this shot is just taken from behind as the triangle clearly shows. There were plenty of shots from the front as well ofc. Pretty standard stuff.
Also doesnt change the fact you have the order wrong yourself. The way you see it it shouldve been the Square after the Cross, not the Triangle.
PS reference this year...hopefully a JoJo reference next year.
Noticed it right away.
Was literally looking for this article on Push Square this morning just to see I'm not crazy
N.i.c.e. i enjoy the kendrick lamar performance.and he destroy that studio gangster drake😄.im happy that eagles won.and im a Pittsburgh Steelers 💛🖤 fan.congratulations to Philadelphia Eagles.word up son
Loved it. Happy to see Philly take it after Trump backed KC haha
i have no idea who he is
I had more fun watching the closed captions go at warp speed trying to keep up with whatever this person was saying
@ButterySmooth30FPS This person?
Hedley Lamar - loved blazing saddles.
Said that to my wife right away. Well technically I said “Look, he’s doing Pushsquare.” but she knew what I meant. 😂
bc it's a artistic expression. Once u watch the whole show, u would understand why design like this. And it's truly bout playstation, when Samuel bridge the live, it's like a video game boss fighting.
@Stevemalkpus I don't know anything about hip-hop!
I preferred to watch the FA Cup. Real football.
Welp that was kool
Certified Lover Boy Certified Pedantic
`
Cool reference to ps...but think it was more to do with more subliminal messaging to drake
@Toot1st That's kind of impressive. Dude's been winning stacks of Grammys for over a decade, has released what is regarded as the best hip hop album this century, has won the first Pulitzer Prize for Music they wasn't jazz or classical.
I've been listening to him since 2013 as he had two songs in GTAV, and I say that as someone whose favourite genre is death metal.
@Ajfennell77 Someone pointed out that Drake and J. Cole started the beef with a song called "First Person Shooter". So Kendrick has a Playstation inspired stage with a game going and at the end it says "Game Over".
@MrPeanutbutterz im a metal head in Europe i dont really follow the same circles lol guy sounds talented though but yeah never heard of him
@Toot1st Lol, I'm also a metalhead in Europe, today so far I've spun High On Fire's "Death Is This Communion", Necrophobic's "The Nocturnal Silence", Gorguts' "The Erosion of Sanity" and uh, Kendrick Lamar's "2 Pimp A Butterfly". He's really that good.
Fun fact about that album of his - Thundercat plays bass on it. Thundercat played bass with Suicidal Tendencies for a decade (while his brother was their drummer).
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