Obama campaign goes virtual with video game ads
If you thought you could escape the onslaught of political ads in the final weeks of the campaign by avoiding television and just playing video games until Nov. 4, think again.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has brought his bid for the presidency to the virtual world by buying ad space inside numerous popular video games, including "Guitar Hero" and Madden 09."
The in-game ads will appear in 18 video games and will promote VoteforChange.com, an Obama Web site that encourages voter registration for early voting. According to Obama campaign officials, the ads will be targeted to 10 states that allow early voting including some hotly-contested battlegrounds: Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida and Colorado.
"These ads will help us expand the reach of VoteforChange.com, so that more people can use this easy tool to find their early vote location and make sure their voice is heard," Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro told the Associated Press.
The ads, which are targeted primarily to sports video game players, will appear as signage within the games, such as arena signage in sports-related games and billboards in racing games.
Holly Rockwood, a spokesperson for Electronic Arts, Inc., producers of nine of the games in which the Obama ads appear, said these ads target a sometimes elusive and hard to reach audience -- 18-34 year old males. "That's very appealing to our audience," she told the Associated Press.
According to Rockwood, the technology that allows the imbedding of temporary ads in video games has only been in existence for roughly 18 months. The ads are fed to the game though the game console's Internet connection.
