Advergaming

Advergames are simple; they're advertisements of certain products within video games. Just like in television that utilizes product placement and other forms of advertising, advergames are built around a similar concept. The biggest difference though, is that advergames don't have any restriction on how long the consumer can interact with the advertisements within the game. Now, is this an issue? It definitely can be, for children. Adults can easily stay away from the pressures of big companies and their advertisements. Children on the other hand might struggle. In 2006 Burger King partnered with Blitz Gaming and made such high quality Burger King based video games that they were selling them in Burger King stores for $3.99. The promotion of fast food and video games are a poor combo when:

So, Advergames are broken up into three different types, all of which reach the consumer in sneaky ways.

1) Associative: putting the product in a game that revolves around the lifestyle of the product. These are the most popular, they're all over online games (poker, billiards, chess etc.). An example would be how the chips at the online poker table have the Bud Light logo on them.

2) Demostrative: a game that is entirely built around a product, and produced by the company to sell their product directly to the consumer. An example would be a game built by McDonald's where you have to serve Big Macs to certain customers before time runs out.

3) Illustrative: basically just a billboard within the game. An example would be a Nike ad on the side of the street in Grand Theft Auto.

Here is my verdict to the question, are advergames bad? My answer, is no. Personally, in video games like NBA 2K, or FIFA, NHL, MADDEN etc. the inclusion of these advertisements make the game much more realistic. They add a real life factor that would be missing if the video game sponsored "PepCee" with a red bottle instead of the "Pepsi" we all know and love. That being said, not all advergames are good. As I said before, Burger King built a video game for kids based around the Burger King king. All this does is promote bad eating habits and a couch potato lifestyle.

Check out the blog below if you're interested in learning more about the negative aspects of advergames that I briefly explained:

http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/06/29/legal-loophole-advergames/#gref