 Valve created a series of television commercials to promote Portal 2 . Valve had worked with advertising agencies in the past , but Lombardi found the advertisements created had shown little ingenuity . Valve 's Doug Lombardi had been disappointed by " Copycat treatments . Cliché treatments . Treatments that reveal the agency wasn 't listening in the initial meeting . " Using viewer feedback , Valve tailored the ad content until they were satisfied with the results . The ads took eight weeks to complete . Valve also developed online promotional videos featuring J. K. Simmons narrating as Cave Johnson , to promote new elements of Portal 2 's gameplay . These videos were part of a larger effort described by Newell as a " documentary @-@ style investment opportunity " for Portal 2 . An earlier video released on February 14 , 2011 , promoted the cooperative aspect of Portal 2 as a St.Valentine 's gift and " lit up our preorders , our buzz , all the metrics that are used and collected by publishers and retailers " . Lombardi said the videos " dwarfed the demos and interviews we did " . Valve also offered Portal 2 @-@ themed merchandise , such as posters , drinking glasses , and T @-@ shirts . 
