Serena Williams' Butt Stars in 'Unauthorized' Tennis Video Game Ad

Serena Williams as "The World's Sexiest Tennis Player" (Source: Some guys who think of sex while watching tennis) and Rileah Vanderbilt as "The World's Sexiest Tennis Gamer" (Source: The Department of Making Up Unnecessary Honors for Advertising) pair up to advertise 2K Sports' "Top Spin 4" tennis video game. The result is about a minute long video of the two wearing skimpy faux leather outfits that an S&M practitioner would be embarrassed to be seen in as they over dramatically waggle a PS Move controller that gives gratuitous slow motion or close up shots of their stiletto heels, fishnet stockings and low cut tops. And all of this is in sync with a techno beat full of grunts, groans and pounding.

I know from the use of the word "sexiest" that "Top Spin 4" was aiming for "sex sells," but all I can think after watching the ad was how many beer cans Serena could crush with her butt. (My thoughts do wander when I am forced to watch really bad programming.)

While it is not exactly the sexiest ad created, and chances are "Top Spin 4" may never be blamed for influencing a high school shooting unless you're John McEnroe, this really does not help in boosting the video game industry's rep beyond pandering to people who will enjoy anything with aesthetically pleasing and bouncing erogenous zones. I mean, this is a sports game; leave the jiggle physics and explosions to the immature games.

But just as quickly as the video popped up, it gained some backlash, and 2K Sports finally decided to distance itself from the ad with a boilerplate dismissal:

"As part of the process for creating marketing campaigns to support our titles, we pursue a variety of creative avenues," 2K Sports told Joystiq. "This video is not part of the title's final marketing campaign, and its distribution was unauthorized." The cynic in me theorizes that this is an attempt at a viral campaign that may be backfiring. They release the video and quickly try to denounce it as soon as reaction turns ugly. The ad gains buzz, people watch, and 2K Sports can wash its hands of the affair whether it is successful or not. I've seen the same thing happen when politicians run smear campaigns against their opponents. It's quite a classic passive-aggressive strategy.

Another thought is that perhaps they really did not approve of the ad's release after realizing it was a bad idea. But that's even worse. It means that at some point 2K Sports and the ad agency thought watching a sweaty Serena Williams hawking a motion control waggling game while trying to be sexy was a good idea at some point. Who's running the marketing department?

In any case, judge for yourself by watching the video here or here before 2K Sports really cracks down and decides to take the video down.