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The Rise Of Adverts In Videogames
Thanks to Evil Avatar for pointing to a brief Fortune article discussing the rise of advertising placement in videogames. A particular example discussed - Intel have struck a deal with EA so that "..when characters on The Sims Online use their PCs, players see the Intel logo and hear the company's signature musical bong." How insidious is too insidious? Mind you, advertisers would have to push to find licensing as plain bizarre as Skittles' product placement in Darkened Skye.
Intel also got their paws on Enter the Matrix, there are various points in the game with big Pentium 4 advert posters in (such as the airport). Thankfully they left out that irritating tune.
Miri it is whil Linux ilast...
Somewhere between 1993-1995 (it ain't gonna get much clearer than that I'm afraid). The lovely people at McD released a game on the amiga (and possibly the atari st as well) based on Ronnie and themselves. Yes you help Ronnie clear up the environment by collecting golden arches.
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Do you want to change your name to Homer Junior? The kids can call you Ho-Ju!
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Domino's Pizza - Avoid the noid
Ford - Ford Simulator
Dunlop - Dunlop 911 TS
KP skips - Action Biker
The last link is to a review. A few choice words:
The most bizarre thing was that they removed all the sponsership for cool spot in europe because 7-up isn't/wasn't advertised by cool spot over here and they didn't want to confuse the market.
We ended up with a pretty cool platformer with an unexplainable (to those that didn't know about American 7-up advertising) bonus section where you are suddenly transported to the inside of what appears to be a large green bottle of fizzy drink. I assume there where 7-up logos on that bottle in the American version?
As an aside 7-up was advertised by a guy called Fido Dido over here who spawned his own unrelated game...
I find it disturbing that even in the games we pay for have advertisements in them. There are good examples though. Like most real-life sporting events have major sponsorship and advertisements all over the place, the same is done as well in the game. The advertisements don't only earn the gane company some nice cash that can be invested into the game and create a realistic atmosphere inside the game world as it carries advertisements like the event they are simulating.
But advertising is a dirty business, I have had lessons in marketing and was able to experience some of the discussions in a marketing agency as an intern. All they care about is product placement, get the brand in the popular media. Taking the bus is the hip thing to do? We'll make a deal with the city or bus agency and spray all busses Pentium blue and orange. This is a example of course.
I think the Pentium ad in Sims online is intrusive, makes me wonder why you can't let your Sim run to the store and get a AMD proc and a Linux distro...
It was Reese's Pieces. M&M didn't want to have their candy used in the movie.
i cant believe no one has mentioned the unholy ET and M&M atari game. not only was it blatant advertising, but the damned game was imposssible to play
E.T. was impossible to play because the only developer had to complete the thing in 6 weeks to cash in on the movie premiere. Now, licensed games are completely different than in-game ads, please don't confuse the issues.
And if you're willing to go back as far as the Atari 2600, you'll find stuff like Kool aid man, Ralston-Purina's Chase the chuckwagon, and one of the worst marketing ideas of all time, Coke wins.