Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has taken political advertising into uncharted waters this month. In an advertising first, political ads for the Illinois senator have begun appearing on billboards in "Burnout: Paradise City," a car-racing video game on the Xbox 360 console.
The game features a multiplayer element in which users can play against each other if they hook their Xbox consoles up to the Internet. When the game is connected to the Web, new advertisements can be placed on billboards that players see as they race through the streets.
Obama's ad reads "Early voting has begun. Voteforchange.com. Paid for by Obama for President."
Although Weide cannot predict the effectiveness of political online ads in general, he believes the Obama in-game ads will work to grab the attention of game-playing voters.
"This Barack Obama ad is going to be very effective, because it is an unusual ad in a new and unusual marketing channel -- in-game ads -- so it is bound to get a lot of attention in the target group. Plus, because of this, it is also bound to get a lot of press coverage and indirect PR for the Obama campaign," he pointed out.
No comments:
Post a Comment