It's just another day getting knocked on your ass by hordes of medieval soldiers and a fire-breathing dragon, and then Mariah Carey suddenly comes along and saves you.
A new ad from mobile role-playing game Game of War: Fire Age, riffs on the pop singer's 1993 hit "Hero"—with a cameo from the star herself. The approach adds a bit of humor to the barely cogent sex-sells melodrama of Kate Upton's blitz for the brand. Case in point—the sight gag of a large, angry man pancaking an enemy with a giant hammer, while Carey sweetly croons in the background.
Mariah looks oddly squished in the spot, like the aspect ratio was messed with. And she doesn't exactly look like a warrior as she runs off to kill more fire-breathing dragons. But the spot could certainly have been a whole lot worse.
The use of another huge celebrity is sure to further raise the profile of a micro-payment-hungry strategy game that's found a perhaps-surprising degree of success, given that it makes some players feel like nothing more than an ATM.
Hopefully, Machine Zone, the game's publisher, doesn't run this ad to the point where it drives everyone insane. But given what the endorsement probably cost, that's probably wishful thinking.