Episode 5 – Adverse Advertising

I think I am immune to advertising. I can think of only one time where I saw a commercial and was so sold on a product that I left my apartment and purchased that item. It was the Incredibles Happy Meal at McDonalds. And I am not proud of that.

Ignoring that asterisks on my perfect record, commercials tend more to inform me (and I am assuming most people) that a product exists. 90% of the time it is a product I have no use for and will ever need. 10% of the time it is something I could use, and either use it or use something similar. The same goes for those sneaky ads they have tried to slip into movies since before I was born.

Some executive thinks that if the hero of movie is drinking a Budweiser then other people will say “gee I should have a Budweiser so I can be just like him.” The worst offenders are the most recent Bond films. Omega watch, Norelco razor, and of course the Aston Martian car. Things like these don’t bother me. It’s not as if Q says, “Its made by Omega and has a soft leather band that is smooth to the touch. It comes in six different colors,” as he holds it up so the camera gets a good look at it… infomercial style.

These in movie little ads are usually subtle and reassure my sense of reality. I probably wouldn’t notice a COKE machine in the back ground because I see them all the time, whereas a COLA machine might stand out because it is new to me… but don’t tell the Coke-a-Cola executives that.

So along with this trend of advertising within a film and (shortly thereafter) television show, video games are now adorned with “in game advertisements.”

The first time I really noticed in game ads was in Jet Moto for the PlayStation. There were large billboards along the racetrack with real ads. I think one was for some sort of soda, (surge maybe?) and I really don’t recall the others. This is a trend that really has picked up in racing games. Playing Forza Motorsport (Xbox) there are tons of auto themed ads and billboards for aftermarket companies. These companies are guessing that anyone playing a racing simulator will be a car enthusiast and I would say they are correct in this assumption.

Thus far I have not noticed any in game advertising that has bothered me. Even in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter where there are huge billboards for Dodge trucks all over Mexico (I think one says “Viva Dodge”). I thought it was a little much, but why not? The game was great, and though I noticed the ads, they weren’t in my face. And there was not one time were I was ordered to “follow the Dodge(c) that the bad guy is in.”

Obviously some games are worse than others. I think, however, if marketing firms (or who ever makes the decisions on where ads go) have decided that video games are a good place to put ads the it give some validity to what we do. Especially if there are new campaigns are created for in the game. Entire new jobs would be created for marketing products and designing billboards that only exist in a virtual world. And that’s pretty spectacular.

I don’t ever expect there to be so much advertising in games that it causes the final price of the game to drop. No sir. That would be far too much advertising. But I think it can give a game the extra money it needs to be truly great. With companies like Dodge and Coke-a-Cola devoting valuable resources to in game ads it proves more and more that video games and the people who play them are important to our society. We are an untapped resource my friends and a force to be reckoned with. The advertising agencies have learned it, will politicians lean next?

I will say this, I will refuse to pay for a game that contains advertising so in my face it’s distracting. At the point where my character “needs a Powerade(c) to fill up his health,” and “drives a Dodge(c) and has to hold up a Starbucks(c)”… that point is where they should be giving the game away. Just handing them out on the streets of New York, or including them with cereal or peanut butter. That is not something I should pay for. Keep advertisements on billboards, in games, and in real life.