October 14, 2008

Obama Runs Ads in 'Madden'

@ 2:40 pm by Walter Alarkon

Barack Obama's ads are now appearing in several sports video games, including the granddaddy of them all, Madden football.

The Obama campaign has purchased space in the popular Xbox 360 game "Madden NFL 09″ and nine other titles by video game maker Electronic Arts, said Holly Rockwood, the company's director of corporate communications.

Only gamers playing online in 10 states can see the ads, which appear as stadium signage or billboards, Rockwood said. (The ads are downloaded when gamers log on to the Xbox Internet service.) Unsurprisingly, all 10 states are swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin. President Bush won all of those states in 2004 except for Wisconsin.

The ads began running Oct. 6 and will be visible until Nov. 3, the day before Election Day, Rockwood said.

The other Xbox games where the ads appear are "Burnout Paradise," "NASCAR 09," "NHL 09," "NBA Live 08," "Need For Speed: Carbon," "Need For Speed: ProStreet," "NFL Tour," and "Skate."

Technology blogs this week had reported on ads popping up in the racing game "Burnout Paradise." In the game, racers drive by a billboard that features the Obama's mug next to the words "Early Voting Has Begun/VoteForChange.com."

GamePolitics.com has a screenshot of the billboard.

Rockwood said that Obama's ads are the first presidential advertising to run in Electronic Arts games, which has an audience made largely of young males between 18 and 34. She said that the company accepts ads from "credible advertisers" and that the messages do not reflect the views or policies of the company. She added that one advertising agency that works with Electronic Arts had contacted the McCain campaign about advertising, but that the Republican's camp passed.

Archived under: Campaigns, News, Presidential Campaigns
Tags: Barack Obama, Burnout Paradise, Electronic Arts

18 Comments »

1. I wonder if Obama would have the money to do this had he not broken his promise to use public campaign financing?

   Comment by Jim — October 14, 2008 @ 4:13 pm

2. well if there weren't sleazy 527 groups set to try and tear him down then he probably wouldn't have had to opt out.

   Have to have the funds to counter the attacks and try and get your message out.

   This is a smart use of funds to try and reach a different segment of the population.

   Comment by Mike — October 14, 2008 @ 5:22 pm

3. Perhaps if the Republicans and McCain had stuck to the letter and intent of the Campaign Finance laws, not used 527s to collect untold millions and used them to SwiftBoat people with blatant lies– Obama could have done so.

   why take money from the tax base when the gov't is running a half TRILLION deficit a year?
   Obama has the support of ordinary ppl - 200 million in donations under $200 baby - democracy in action.

   Republicans just can't stand that the doddering old fool you have nominated, his boneheaded VP pick and his 7 Lobbyist Dwarves are getting their butts kicked by a modern, intelligent, well-educated young black man who knows how the world works in the year 2008.

   not 58, 68, or 78 - OBAMA08

   Comment by Rhomea — October 14, 2008 @ 7:00 pm

4. dear jim,
   if you think that McCain wouldnt take advantage of opting out of public campaign financing… then your a fool. simple put. i mean, i understand your bitter but come on… its been like months now. get over it.

   Comment by jOhnson — October 14, 2008 @ 9:17 pm

5. What a brilliant idea!
   Especially since McCain is only "aware" of the internet.

   Comment by Likipedia — October 15, 2008 @ 6:38 am

6. PIXEL POLITICS BY OBAMA

   If one of the crucial demographics in the coming Presidential election turns out to be the usually-disengaged young American male, we'll know what brought him to the polling stations: In-game political advertising on popular Electronic Arts vide…

   Trackback by Population Statistic — October 15, 2008 @ 1:12 pm

7. Have you heard? McCain has followed Obama's lead and is running his own in-game advertising campaign. Czech out the examples here: http://tinyurl.com/4bppkw

   Comment by Zenboy — October 15, 2008 @ 5:36 pm

8. Have you heard? McCain has followed Obama's lead and is running his own in-game advertising campaign. Czech out the examples here: http://tinyurl.com/4bppkw

   

   Comment by Zenboy — October 15, 2008 @ 5:55 pm

9. Not sure who's more stupid, the person who clicks on a tinyurl link, or the one who posts the link, believing that people will click on it.

   Comment by Not Naive — October 16, 2008 @ 3:22 pm

10. Go barack Obama

    Comment by mike — October 21, 2008 @ 9:56 am

11. A Black man in the white house. you guys sould be ashamed!!!!!

    Comment by dano — October 21, 2008 @ 8:43 pm

12. I wonder is Obama uses CelPog when he plays Madden. I also wonder what music he is going to put on his iPod if he is the winner of their contest. Good luck Obama keep on pogging!

    Comment by Mike — November 3, 2008 @ 2:54 pm

13. I wonder if Obama uses CelPog when he plays Madden, I would be shocked! LOL…I also wonder what his iPod would be full of if he wins the contest CelPog is throwing right now…Good luck tomorrow!!

    Comment by Mike — November 3, 2008 @ 2:58 pm

14. Obama's Multichannel Marketing

    Click to continue reading ""
    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "", url: "" });…

    Trackback by e-Strategy Internet Marketing Blog — November 24, 2008 @ 6:04 am

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    Comment by videoconferencing equipments — December 4, 2008 @ 11:56 pm

16. T3FEWW hi! how you doin?

    Comment by mike — January 18, 2009 @ 8:29 am

17. Video conferencing is indeed a great innovation of Information Technology and Communications. I guess the news media is the first user of video conferencing.

    Comment by Advantages of Video Conferencing — February 1, 2009 @ 11:27 pm

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