Guitar Hero Metallica wouldn’t have needed a big-budget ad campaign to become a hit. As development for the title kicked off in mid-2008, Guitar Hero had just become the first billion-dollar series in videogame history, and its offshoot Guitar Hero Aerosmith was about to reportedly make more money than any one of the hard rockers’ albums. Plus, after almost a decade of upheavals and St Anger, Metallica had just become cool again, having re-embraced thrash with the album Death Magnetic.
But, the higher-ups at Activision still decided to invest hard in promoting their collab with the biggest band in heavy metal history. Thank God they did. The ad campaign for Guitar Hero Metallica was nothing short of glorious in its over-the-top, late-noughties machismo.
