Well PLAYED Obama

I could be mistaken, but I have yet to see any reference to this in any blog outside of the tech/video games sphere. Gamers on the Xbox 360 version of Burnout Paradise will have the joys of driving their cars through a billboard with presidential candidate Barack Obama on it. Some of the  in game billboards now feature an Obama ad that urges voters to vote early (directing them to the vote for change website).

A spokeswoman for EA has this to say:

“Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates” 

 “Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.”

Some are claiming that this ad is a hypocritical move on behalf of the Obama team. Citing parts of his speeches, they claim that a man that has equated video games with underachievement should not be using video games for advertising.

Though I am no supporter of Obama, I have two problems with these claims. Firstly, when Obama takes aim at video games, he usually does so by suggesting that parents need to be more engaged, and for lack of better words, better parents.

We’re going to have to parent better, and turn off the television set, and put the video games away, and instill a sense of excellence in our children, and that’s going to take some time.

As you can see, this doesn’t have as much to do with video games as it does with effective and ACTUAL parenting. I think most would agree that parenting, or lack there of, is a major concern for our youth (a concern that trumps video games)

Secondly, the advertisement is clearly targeting a demographic that has seen a continual decline in voter turnout and responsiveness. I think that this represents (even if only for political gain) a step in the right direction to get these disengaged youth back into the realm of politics. If it takes an untraditional in game ad to get the attention of these voters, then by all means be untraditional.