Marketing Department

The conference hall of the department.

“Let the eggheads in marketing worry about selling it to the chumps.”

― Frank Fontaine

The Marketing Department, or the Marketing Administration, was a division of the Fontaine Futuristics headquarters in Rapture, located on the building's second floor.

History

Release dates for Plasmids.

With the discovery of the Sea Slug, Frank Fontaine managed to build a business empire in the underwater capitalist utopia, under the name Fontaine Futuristics. Although his products, like Plasmids, were groundbreaking, there wouldn't be any profit unless they were known to the public. That job was left to the marketing department of his business. Hard working men and women would spend hours in a "Madison Avenue" environment, coming up with ideas on how to pitch Fontaine's products in a creative and effective manner. As well as creating conspicuous advertisements for the various products and even businesses, like Fontaine Clinics, they also strategized on when the Plasmids would be released and when to start marketing them. Before the nationalization of Fontaine Futuristics by Ryan Industries, the main focus in the department was the Teleportation Plasmid.

BioShock 2

Inside the boardroom.

Main article: BioShock 2

Subject Delta is just a few steps away from reaching Persephone where Eleanor Lamb is held captive by her mother and The Rapture Family. The only thing in his way is Alex the Great (the ADAM-crazed persona of Dr. Gilbert Alexander), who with his modified Security Bot, keeps Delta from progressing further. In order to subvert his control of the building's security systems, Delta will need to locate Signal Relays, wired to Bot Shutdown Panels across the headquarters and destroy them. One of these Relays is located in the Marketing Department.

Conference Hall

Brainstorming.

The conference hall was where important meetings were held and employees showcased their ideas to the supervisor or prospective clients. The large table is filled with various advertising concepts. At the far end of the room is a large blood-splattered window looking over the abyss, with a corpse of a Splicer rich in ADAM in front of it. Not surprisingly for to the era, a small bar with alcohol is set next to the table and above it is a board for future Plasmid releases.

As Subject Delta enters the boardroom, he sees three figures seated around the seven-person conference table. Are these simply the bodies of the long-deceased or more Splicers playing dead? Delta gets his answer when he steps inward and they attack. The female carries a machine gun, while one of the males has a shotgun, and the one sitting at the head of the table is a Houdini Splicer. After dealing with them, Delta may press on and explore the department, in search of the Signal Relay. Behind two dividing walls on each side of the table are the doors to the supervisor's office and marketing offices. A Gene Bank and a Health Station are set up on the dividing wall opposite the Supervisor's office door.

After destroying the Signal Relay, Delta will return from the marketing offices to find a surprise from Alex the Great. He has forced one of his employees to install a Grenade Launcher Turret behind the sofa by the entrance as a parting gift for Delta. His bot zaps the launcher to life (and in the processes kills the Splicer fiddling with the turret) before flying off. If the relay in the Marketing Department is the last one to be destroyed, then Gil's control over the security systems is ended, and consequentially, the turret will not be set up.

Supervisor's Office

The Head of Marketing is not seeing anyone.

The Head of Marketing oversaw the work of the department and creative team. The administrator had his own spacious office where he handled the department's daily reports. Said office is off limits due to a malfunctioning door, but zapping the access control with Electro Bolt will fix the problem. As Delta enters, there is a chance the Accu-Vox Personal Voice Recorder advertisement will fall off the wall, revealing the supervisor's personal safe (containing 3 Mini-Turrets, 4 Solid Slugs, and 26 Drill Fuel) and liquor/cigar supply. In addition to the desk and filing cabinets, the room is scattered with loose paper. The corpse of the presumed supervisor rests by the window on the floor. Before he perished, he built a house of cards out of 56 dollars worth of bills, having no use for them in the destabilized city.

The most eye-catching thing in the room would be the color-changing Plasmid flask on the supervisor's desk, which turns out to be the Unstable Teleportation Plasmid. Touching this flask will cause it to disappear and re-appear on the desk and by touching it again, the Plasmid will disappear. What follows is a game of tag: if the player touches it again the Plasmid teleports to the couch at the department's entrance, to the broken column in halls of Fontaine Futuristics, to the ledge by Circus of Values, and then to the couch at the base of the staircase. Touching it a final time sends Delta on a wild tour of Rapture.

Marketing Offices

A water hazard.

So much for a pink slip.

The marketing offices were where the department's creative and advertising teams thought up advertising concepts, planned out media campaigns, and filed paperwork. Art for the Teleportation Plasmid has been placed on the walls. By the time Subject Delta enters, the office has become flooded to about knee-height from the leaking windows, ceiling, and walls. Only a few cubicles are still standing and most furniture has been moved around. Alex the Great appears to have gone on a firing spree, figuratively and literally terminating the employees and burning dismissal notices on the walls nearby them. The water and a malfunctioning electric panel have become a deadly combination, as the panel regularly spurts out sparks into the flooding office.

Trapped at the north-east cubicle.

Delta can use a few steps that lead down from the entrance to the electrified water as a base while planning how to navigate the area. Delta can jump to two desks near the stairs to avoid the water. He can either go left or right around a load bearing wall in the center of the room. The right leads to two "closed cubicles" by the southeastern windows. On the desk by the window is a Shotgun and a teddy bear with a hat on it, suggesting the employee stationed there had a child. A deceased Splicer can be found on the desk in the northeastern cubicle, along with a gramophone, Rocket Spears, and two EVE Hypos.

The Signal Relay is closely guarded.

Heading to the left from the entrance leads to an elevated part of the office, which has not yet been flooded. The area can easily be reached by leaping across toppled furniture. The Audio Diary Source of Volunteers can be picked up along the way. In the dry area, Alex the Great has fired one of his employees and burned the words "I HAVE to let you GO!" on the wall above his corpse. On the other side of the load bearing wall, Delta will find the Signal Relay attached to the Bot Shutdown Panel along the malfunctioning panel, both of which are guarded by a Security Camera. Hacking the camera will cause Alex the Great to send in Splicers. Subject Delta destroys the Relay and continues.

At the conclusion of BioShock 2, the Marketing Department sank with all of Fontaine Futuristics into the depths of the sea.

Strategy

A shocking turn of events.

• Delta can try out his "the floor is lava" strategy described above or use Electric Flesh to walk in the flooded Marketing Offices without getting shocked.
• The malfunctioning panel in the Marketing Offices can be hacked from the entrance by shooting a Hack Dart through the hole in the load bearing wall.
• It may be useful not to hack the malfunctioning panel in the Marketing Offices immediately as the electrified water will kill any Splicer that runs into the office.

New Discoveries

Single Use Events

• Signal Relay - Marketing Offices, in the back on the Bot Shutdown Panel.

New Plasmid

• Teleportation (unobtainable) - Supervisor's Office, on the desk.

Audio Diary

1. Gilbert Alexander - Source of Volunteers - Marketing Offices, on a filing cabinet in the flooded section.

Gallery

Advertising Concepts

Concepts for businesses and products, found scattered in the department.

Concept art for the Teleportation advertisement.

In-Game Images

Corpses or conspirators?

Killer view.

A corner cubicle.

Behind the Scenes

• On the loading screen for Fontaine Futuristics, an image of an Accu-Vox office with Audio Diary equipment lying around sometimes shows. Level Designer Dean Tate confirmed in a thread on the official 2K BioShock 2 Forums that this section was cut from the game but originally had been part of the Marketing Offices. The desk with the advertisement still exists in-game in the south-west corner of the offices.