Political advertising moves into new universes:

[mariness]

Obama is campaigning on the XBox 360.

Seriously.

I am of mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, kudos to the Obama campaign for thinking outside the box, followed by, do you really think gamers are going to be paying attention to background billboards during Burnout Paradise,* followed by surely, surely, all of us deserve one place in our

Comments

[fbhjr]

Now I'm worried they're putting a banner up on the walls of Stormwind...

[lordsnotrag]

Don't laugh.

Friend of mine convinced me to try out Anarchy Online for a while. In one of the major cities there were billboards showing real world ads. With sound. It was kinda creepy running around the city hearing ads for the Old spice body wash. You know, the ones with the centaur guy?

[fbhjr]

Actually, in WOW you spend a lot of time killing centaurs. That might work out well. It would make grinding through a few hundred kills more fun.

[dzuunmod]

I heard something recently about how advertisers are starting to wiseup to the TiVo reality - they're making ads with elements that can be digested by the person fast-forwarding through them.

[mariness]

That, and adding a lot more product placement -- take a look at all of the sodas everybody on Heroes keeps consuming, as just one example.

[dewline]

Is Bottlegreen one of the brands on offer in that ficton?

[mariness]

Haven't noticed that one, but so far we've had loud product placements for Sprint telephones and Coke.

[hawkward]

Oh man, now that is awesome. It's really interesting to see how much the campaign itself has changed in the last 12 years, thanks to the internet, broadband, and now videogames. Really shows who's on top of the technology. Is either campaign doing text messaging? Phonecam photo ads? Hm. I guess if you sign up for updates via the website...

[dewline]

We seem to be lagging behind somewhat on that score up here. So far, anyway.

[mariness]

Give it time. Also, you -- and I can't tell you how much I envy you -- seem to enjoy shorter election cycles. I mean, you're ALREADY VOTING. Actually, as I type, I think most of your country already finished voting.

So jealous.

[dewline]

What we've got is unstable minority governments so far over the last five years. First Liberal, now Conservative(ex-Reform, ex-"Canadian" Alliance)...and I'm watching the news in a state of fear right now.

[sylvar]

The Obama campaign is very MMedia-savvy. See, for example, their free iPhone application that makes it easy to phone your contact in battleground states and keep track of which ones you haven't talked to you. It also provides links to new YouTube videos, press releases, platform statements, and so on -- it's a campaign office in your pants, and everybody's invited.

[mariness]

:: freaks ::

[wendigomountain]

I'm getting so sick of the pervasive nature of the whole election. A neighbor keeps hounding me to join him for Obama-lettes and bacon at Barak-fast. (seriously)

And just the other day, I found John McCain in my closet, trying on some of my wife's clothes.

When will they stop!?!

[mariness]

You know, if you'd videotaped McCain at that moment, you just might have inclined me to change my vote :)