Vote Obama ads appear in EA games

By Robert Purchese Published 15 October, 2008

McCain not so keen on the whole idea.

Adverts promoting American presidential candidate Barack Obama have appeared in Burnout Paradise and a reported eight other EA games.

The in-game campaign posters were spotted in the Criterion racer last week. They were put there by Microsoft-owned ad company Massive, according to The Seattle Times.

As such, the adverts appear only in Xbox 360 versions of Burnout Paradise, Madden 09, NASCAR 09, NBA Live 08, Need for Speed Carbon, Need for Speed ProStreet, NFL On Tour, NHL 09 and Skate.

Each game must also be connected to Xbox Live from one of 10 states in North America for the adverts to be viewed.

Massive apparently approached both Barack Obama and rival presidential hopeful John McCain about running in-game campaigns. The latter declined. Perhaps he was busy making chips.

The US presidential election will take place on 4th November this year.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    I don't know, voter turnout is higher in the US. There will be quite a bit of overlap there. Whether it'll actually sway anyone is another matter.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #2 3 years ago

    I expect to see Gordon Brown's mug leering down at me from a billboard in Pacific City any day now...

  • NickJC1 #3 3 years ago

    Obama lol, the guy hates whites as does his wife, (and his preacher) and he's a pro abortion radical who voted to kill babies who survived the abortion procedure. America will not vote a Muslim into power, not in a million years,yeah he says he's Christian...lol he prays at a Muslim temple, always has since he was a kid.

    If America votes him in we are all fucked.
    Edited by 1 at 15/10/08 @ 11:21

  • Waffleaber #4 3 years ago

    Can you drive a car through his stupid grinning face?

  • chrisjm #5 3 years ago

    eurogamers rush to vote following the in game ad's, oh wait.

  • dazrichards #6 3 years ago

    This is really scary. Thankfully I am impervious to adverts but I would still feel a little sick that I was being targeted in this way. I can see a future where Microsoft and Sony will be able to sell my details to businesses. These details could include what I've downloaded and bought plus which games I own (due to being connected to Live or PSN) and how long I play them.

  • dr_faulk #7 3 years ago

    I don't get the chips joke...

  • NickJC1 #8 3 years ago

    Obama is a enemy of all that America stands for. He will not be voted in by sane American people.

  • jahred13 #9 3 years ago

    Its a very dry joke:

    McCains oven chips - very famous er...oven chips.

  • Sucram #10 3 years ago

    I saw a screenshot of the adverts, they read "Early voting has begun"


    Damn, political filth I tell ya.

  • NickJC1 #11 3 years ago

    A top official at the Pentagon during former-President George H. W. Bush’s Administration and a former CIA intelligence officer maintain that Barack Obama funneled money to Professor Rashid Khalidi, a known terrorist sympathizer.

    [link url=http://m ensnewsdaily.com/2008/03/22/exclusive-obama-connection-to-te rrorists-revealed-by-talk-show-host/
    ]http://me nsnewsdaily.com/2008/03/22/excl...[/link]

    Vote Obama and you may as well be voting Bin Laden into power.

  • LHH #12 3 years ago

    LOL, creeping around the Ishimura in Dead Space when you suddenly turn a corner and BAM! a Vote Obama advert.

  • Eighthours #13 3 years ago

    I can't believe you actually did the chip gag. :)

  • Dizzy #14 3 years ago

    "This is really scary. Thankfully I am impervious to adverts but I would still feel a little sick that I was being targeted in this way. I can see a future where Microsoft and Sony will be able to sell my details to businesses. These details could include what I've downloaded and bought plus which games I own (due to being connected to Live or PSN) and how long I play them. "

    You can be 100% sure this is what "they" are planning. I prefer my games ad free. Ads are the new DRM!

  • iokthemonkey #15 3 years ago

    I saw a screenshot of the adverts, they read "Early voting has begun"

    ----

    I believe in the US you can "vote early" if you're going to be out of the country.

    Regardless of your political leanings, it's good to see a politician reaching out to the apathetic generation in an attempt to get them to vote by using other means. And it's no worse than a campaign ad on TV. I mean, do people find it offensive that some games have commercials for real-world products in them? Of course not. So why get so upset when a campaign ad appears?

  • CARL05 #16 3 years ago

    Stupid American politics!
    Why should we care?

    They'll probably get shot anyway! That's America for ya, voting for people and then shooting them with magic bullets!

  • mcmonkeyplc #17 3 years ago

    YES WE CAN! Make this jump.

  • asphaltcowboy #18 3 years ago

    Something to look out for on Burnout Friday then!

  • myk #19 3 years ago

    vote or die would be a better campaign

  • Garulon #20 3 years ago

    I'm just happy the politicians realise video games exist and are a legitimate entertainment medium, it's going to look weird if the whole Ban This Sick Filth starts again for whatever reason and the Obama administration starts pretending games are like some kind of Evil Pac-Man like McCain probably imagines.

  • Putty-Man #21 3 years ago

    "Perhaps he was busy making chips. "

    Fantastic.

  • Mudo #22 3 years ago

    "This is really scary. Thankfully I am impervious to adverts but I would still feel a little sick that I was being targeted in this way."


    Wow. Watching television must be a nightmare for you.

  • bonker #23 3 years ago

    Do the ads have him dressed as an 'arab' toting an RPG?

    2-1 Obama is dead before the month's out ...

  • KreyAtiv #24 3 years ago

    I'm doubt he's on any of the destructible billboards. But you do have to give him credit for covering the bases, as I'm sure that's what the majority would be playing. Soon it'll be Obama gamer pictures. LOL

  • kangarootoo #25 3 years ago

    "Thankfully I am impervious to adverts"

    No. Such. Thing.

  • iClaymore #26 3 years ago

    Obama Obama Obama

  • The-Bodybuilder #27 3 years ago

    >"I can see a future where Microsoft and Sony will be able to sell my details to businesses. These details could include what I've downloaded and bought plus which games I own (due to being connected to Live or PSN) and how long I play them. "

    Future?

  • Whizzo #28 3 years ago

    I still remember driving around Paradise City while it was plastered with Open University billboards, that was pretty bizarre.

  • Stuz359 #29 3 years ago

    This is kind of disturbing. I play games to escape the real world. The potential during a general election of seeing campaign ads for Labour or the Tories is a horrible thought. Now the Monster Raving Loonie party on the other hand...

  • IronCladChicken #30 3 years ago

    I love the way Eurogamer forum posters get so deeply morally offended by absolutely every article on the site.

  • IronCladChicken #31 3 years ago

    @DFawkes
    According to National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections and Turnout in UK general elections

    We are pretty much the same as thwe US (maybe a little higher on average?)

    Not that it's interesting, just your comment intreaged me and I thought I'd share the results of my Google search :)

  • iokthemonkey #32 3 years ago

    McCain not so keen on the whole idea.

    ----

    Yeah, but had it been "Ultimate Deer Hunt" he'd have been all over it.

  • Brogan #33 3 years ago

    "Thankfully I am impervious to adverts"

    Worst super power ever. And a total lie.
    Edited by 1 at 15/10/08 @ 14:37

  • Tomo #34 3 years ago

    Awesome chip gag.

  • Nithron #35 3 years ago

    Who the hell would change their voting intentions based on a picture of someone in a random videogame?

    I'm also pretty sure that being impervious to adverts is not exactly difficult. You've seen the usual caliber of advertising these days, right?

    I'm pretty sure they recruit marketing departments directly from soup kitchens.
    Edited by 1 at 15/10/08 @ 15:04

  • the_jamaster #36 3 years ago

    I don't like this but it's clear what Obama's campaign is trying to do, target younger voters and it may succeed. John McCain dosen't know how to use the internet let alone have time to play games.

    That's the differnce between British and American politics. In America you can advertise all you want until the point you drive people insane. Thankfully that isn't happening over here yet.

  • SEVQA #37 3 years ago

    If I pay money for a game then I should have the right to choose if it has adverts and be allowed to skip logos at my leisure 'NO'. The fact that the BurnOut Paradise logo has an altered Great Seal New World Order image with the old EA square, circle and triangle logo at the bottom of the pyramid makes it all that more disturbing.

    I reckon if our games are going to be plastered full of ads and information gathered then games should be a lot cheaper is not free, if we let EA get away with this, then everyone will follow because devs and publishes will have no choice!

    Back to the topic, I hate present American politics, all a bunch of idiots since Jimmy Carter in my opinion.

  • Retroid #38 3 years ago

    Fair enough if it's paying for the EA servers for the game, I don't really care; it's a city, cities have billboards.

  • smelly #39 3 years ago

    "if we let EA get away with this, then everyone will follow because devs and publishes will have no choice! "

    You ARE aware for how long we've HAD ads in games??!?

    This has been happening for a long time now! It's just this is a big (ish) news story about them.



    "Stupid American politics!
    Why should we care? "


    Look at the last 8 years.. Look to see what happens when you have a "certain type" of american president - and how it effected THE WHOLE WORLD.

    (that's presuming you're old enough to remember further back than 8 years)

  • SEVQA #40 3 years ago

    “You ARE aware for how long we've HAD ads in games??!?”

    Yes but not on the scale I reckon is being planned and directed specifically at the small markets and individuals.

    “(that's presuming you're old enough to remember further back than 8 years)”

    Those are the ones who vote for McCain as they don’t believe in dinosaurs for probably the same reasons.lol

  • Lamb #41 3 years ago

    I prefer to peel my own potatoes than procure McCain Home Fries. At the end of the day both U.S. presidential candidates are the same speaking about things in a dumbdowned general roundabout way. I'll go with Obama cause he looks better on a Jazz album cover. :)

  • iokthemonkey #42 3 years ago

    I don't like this but it's clear what Obama's campaign is trying to do, target younger voters and it may succeed

    ----

    It's been their approach all along. There's a massive level of apathy in the USA (and in the UK) regarding the whole procedure but it's time people woke up and started paying attention. You can affect change and this is a great way of bringing it home, regardless of party politics.

  • gruntboy #43 3 years ago

    Don't care about the ads. Just loving Rob's "McCain's chips" line at the end. Class!

  • cyber_nicco #44 3 years ago

    We are expecting a rather large turnout this election. Voter registration is at an all-time high.

  • JediMasterMalik #45 3 years ago

    GOBAMA!

  • yagisencho #46 3 years ago

    (eurogamer interpretted my arrows as markup)
    I am both a game player and a registered voter. Seems like the Obama campaign 'gets' it. But then again, I don't play any of the games that offer up the live ingame advertising.
    Edited by 1 at 15/10/08 @ 20:45

  • dr_lha #47 3 years ago

    "I wonder how much the games playing section and the voting section of America overlap. It can't be very much to be honest"

    Right, also people who like Music, Movies and Books don't vote much I hear.

    What are you on? Gaming is a mainstream activity in the USA and the UK. Of course gamers vote, just not the under 18 ones.

  • cawley1 #48 3 years ago

    Hmm, EA better not let this creep into Spore, or else Will Wright will get pissed...

  • metalangel #49 3 years ago

    Meanwhile, Maddie still isn't in any way connected with Halo: Recon.