Presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s reach has extended to inside EA’s “Burnout Paradise.”
It’s one thing to insert an ad for Verizon in our “30 Rock,” but destroy the sanctity of “Madden NFL?”
Of course, ads in video games are nothing new, but Crunch Gear says that Barack Obama has been spotted in several EA games. Sadly, he’s not an unlockable character or anything; the Obama campaign has purchased ad space in nine EA titles, including “Madden NFL 09,” “Need For Speed: Carbon,” and “Burnout Paradise.”
Rest easy, though. If Obama wins or loses, you won’t have to stare at that old ad two years from now—assuming you haven’t already sent those titles to the great garage sale in the sky. The ads are only appearing when connected to Xbox Live, which means they will probably get swapped out at some point.
The Obama ads direct gamers to his website. Also kind of interesting: The ads only appear in the 10 swing states—Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin.
According to Holly Rockwood, EA’s director of corporate communications (via The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room), the ads started popping up on October 6 and will run until November 3.
Ads may very well add to the “realism” of a game, but this is something I’ve bought and paid for. It’s like if HBO had commercials in the middle of programming. It’s OK for NBC to do it, because that’s how the programming stays free. If the games were solely supported by ad revenue, then that’d be great too. But not both.
In our everyday lives as consumers we are bombarded with advertisements of all kinds, at all times. In this particular case, the game price isn’t supplemented by any means. It is just another way for the makers to pad their profits at your and my expense. When I sit down to play a video game the last thing I want to think about is politics or my soda choice.
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Just an assinine marketing process as perhaps it belongs on those private jets for… 
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This is innovative as long as it does not interfere with the game. HBO has product placement. I see no difference here. NFL teams (and players) are for profit and sell rights, just like every car manufacturer, weapon manufacturer etc… Isn’t that what Madden and any other ‘realistic’ games are all about? I think that if there is an argument to be made it would be that you are paying for your internet connection and also paying for Xbox Live to put ads in your games. Even that is super weak. It is splitting hairs to argue that billboards in a game that are for something real is any different than the one for brand x, the game manufacturer, the game console, other game manufacturer titles, or made up stuff like Bait magazine.