The SimCity Toothpaste Promo
A lot of people (including noted video game reviewer Ben Kuchera) are furious with EA over the newest DLC cross-promotion, wherein buying specially marked boxes of Crest or OralB toothpaste will get you five special SimCity DLC tourist attractions. But to be fair, a lot of people feel that EA can do no right. In fact, The Consumerist readers voted EA "Worst Company in America" for the second year in a row, partly because of the SimCity launch debacle.
(Sidebar: I get the nerd rage, but WORST company? Really? Worse than the pharmaceutical companies? Worse than the agricultural pesticide producers like Bayer who are blithely destroying the world's honeybee population? Worse than the financial institutions that charge crippling fees, prey on the poor, and tanked our economy with their bad lending practices? Get a grip.)
One of the things they keep saying is that the promotion makes no sense. Except that I assume most SimCity players have teeth. And if you have teeth, you should be brushing them. Also, it's not like EA is asking players to buy a car or anything. It's a $4 tube of toothpaste. Again I say, get a grip.
Sorry to go off on this tangent, and believe me I am no fan of EA's corporate practices. But I'm getting a little tired of hearing nothing but negativity from the games media, for a game which has sold like crazy, and which a lot of people (including myself) are having a lot of fun playing. SimCity is just the latest punching bag, and they will move on to something else in a few months.
Anyway! The free content! To find it, look for packages of Crest and OralB toothpaste which are marked with an orange EA promotional badge. The official site recommends searching at Target and Walmart stores. (I found a promo package of Crest at my local Target today, and if it's at my tiny rural Target, it's probably at yours too.)
The package has a code you can redeem for the DLC pack which includes five tourist attractions:
- World's Largest Ball of Twine
- Giant Garden Gnome
- Dolly the Dinosaur
- Llarry the Llama
- MaxisMan Statue
Frankly, I'm pretty stoked about the ball of twine.
The attractions will improve the happiness of low wealth Sims, and will attract more tourists of all wealth classes to your city. I have also read that the attractions will be free to place in your city, but I'm skeptical of that claim. I will have to try it and report back.