Watch new Halo 3 ad: 'Being Hunted'
The latest commercial from the "Believe" campaign called "Being Hunted" continues the eerie sensation like we're watching The History Channel. "
Two Soldiers Reminisce" may have almost gotten us there, but this latest one feels completely like a documentary. It feels so real because they implement that classic cringe-inducing device of making the subject feel like they're back in their horrible circumstance they're talking about. You've definitely seen the concept used before in Holocaust and Rwanda genocide documentaries — if you watch those sorts of things.
What makes the "Believe" campaign work well is it comes close to touching documentary clichés we know very well without crossing a line. Think they'll have one with a Michael Moore-type character busting into a corporate building and demanding who profited off the Halo wars? We're waiting for the one where a soldier holds a picture of his wife and says the Master Chief helped make it possible to see her again — oh come on, you know it's coming!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]