Is advertisement going too far?  I got my idea for this blog when I recently watched “Inside Man.” I couldn’t help but notice the close-up shots of the Apple, Juicy Fruit and Ipod logos.  Normally I wouldn’t notice the advertising as much, but this movie was pretty obvious in its intentions.  They subbed out good camera angles for bad ones.  For example:  When Jodie Foster was sitting at her desk, they could have shot her from the front and have the monitor in the background.  Instead they shot from behind the apple monitor, putting Jodie in the background.  All I focused on was the logo for a good five seconds.  Now this was great for the advertisers, their method totally worked on me.

Like the movies, video games are guilty of this method as well. Product placement in games has been around since the 1980’s.  Ubisoft and other developers have been notorious for product placement.  Whenever I roam the maps of Rainbow Six Lockdown, I will be reminded of Prince of Persia.  When I play Fight night I will think of Burger King.  My point is… Advertising is everywhere now days.  On one hand I appreciate the realism the advertisements give to the maps, but on the other hand the product placement is getting so out of hand that at times I feel it takes away from the game.

I know it always comes down to money and if someone offered me a lot of money to just add a banner in my videogame, I would be tempted to say yes.  My only requirements would be I place the banner in a subtle way.  I would not forget that the videogame is my main focus and advertisement should be a last worry.  Also I wouldn’t be so quick to jump on any deal that came along.  If you start advertising too many products, the company will come off looking like money grabbers who will promote anything for a buck.  According to USA today article, “Sega was placing banners advertising Marlboro in its auto-racing arcade games.” Now there is no way Sega can tell me they did this with good intent… I won’t buy the idea that they would promote Marlboro when the majority of their consumers are children. Obviously it was for the money!

There’s a way to advertise in a tasteful way, but when a game or a movie gets so cluttered with ads that you can’t focus on the game itself I feel like its hurting the game more than helping.

b