Disney plans to mix ads with video games to target kids

I'm sorry big name developer, but there is game in my advertising....

Wow Disneyland is retarted. When I'm playing any video game I'm into it. It doesnt matter if their are ads everywhere. Disneyland is desperate and this shows their failing, horribly.

Is that opinion based on your extensive market research on the effectiveness of in-game advertising?

---

Wow Disneyland is retarted.

---

The irony is so sweet that I'm about to lapse into a sugar coma. :)

Classic.

In any event, as a relatively new parent I must say that I am much more aware of the advertising aimed at children then I ever was before. When my 2 year old stops what he is doing to watch a toy commercial and then says, "I want that"...a parent takes notice.

Subliminal advertising has been talked about for years and for the most part the respectable companies didn't do it. Times have changed apparently.

Since when has Disney ever been respectable? Honestly, when has Disney never been all about the buck - under a clever facade, but it's still all about the buck.

What business isn't about the buck?

I just read something on ethics for one of my classes the other day, and this sounds like it violates some ethical code, or is it just me?

It sounds like there's nothing subliminal about this-- it looks like it's going to be pretty blatant and right out there. Just like the cartoons on TV that are nothing more than advertisements for products. It may not be "unethical" but it doesn't make it any less repugnant.

definition-- retarted: to turn someone once again into a woman of questionable moral virtue.

Usage: She tried to change her ways and be a good girl, but hanging out with that crowd only "re-tarted" her.

I don't know if anyone has Need for Speed Underground 2 it has plenty of these kind of ads cleverly disguised as....(gasp) billboards....I personally think that the games need some kind of boundries with how much advertising can be used.*** This post was edited by falcon89 1/23/2005 10:17:57 PM ***

Why? In terms of NFS2, it actually ads (pun intended) a lot of realism. Now there are real products on the billboards, instead of generic spoofs on real products. Anyone remember the 80s when movies weren't allowed to include any kind of branding? I remember thinking how much it took away from the realism of the movie. Once product-placement caught on (I believe it started with the Reese's Pieces in E.T.) and movies were allowed to include branding, it added a large touch of realism, not to mention larger budgets for the movie since they make a killing on the advertising.

I think there is a limit, but billboards in a driving game is no far stretch. If you had to watch 4 30-second commercials after playing 2 or 3 levels, yeah, that's just wrong (especially if it's an online-based game on X-Box Live, etc. and they can serve new commercials dynamically in the same manner as TV does now).

Ad companies have always been pressing the envelope on new media in which to advertise. I remember reading an article about a year or 2 ago where companies wanted to sell advertising on NBA players' exposed skin.. like shoulders, arms, etc. (with their ¢on$ent, of course). The NBA was opposed to the idea, and IIRC they made a rule that a player with ads branded on their skin in any fashion are not permitted to play until they are removed. Add in the "Car Wraps" idea (paying average joe to agree to getting a car-sized ad decal added to his car for a specified time period), similar idea on public transit vehicles, those "drivable billboard" trucks, window clings. Yeah, I don't think ad space on billboards in a driving game are in any way "going too far", unethical, or even disgraceful to the industry.