Pushing Back: Do Gamers Resent Some Political Ads?
Perhaps it is just anecdotal evidence but the latest political ad from Barack Obama telling citizens to take the day off to vote and knock on doors isn’t sitting very well with some gamers. From sites like Kotaku, Game Politics, and more, readers are sounding off about the political process invading their gaming culture – and it’s not all sunshine and roses.
The latest ad (which you can watch in the Crispy Gamer Community) shows a still of a couch, an office workspace and a Wii Remote, each followed with a comment that “you can’t make history from here.” The ad goes on to encourage everyone to take Election Day off to vote and make phone calls for the campaign. The general tone has been one of mild anger; some gamers find this particular ad insulting because it lightly insinuates a notion that gamers are lazy creatures.
And it seems that ad placement in EA’s games from the Obama campaign aren’t sitting well with everyone either. Some in the community are upset with ad placements in games they have already paid for. The Video Game Voters Network (the ESA’s advocacy group for gamers) is also taking some heat for a statement on its official site about the EA ads that sounds almost like an endorsement of the candidate. Here is what the VGVN posted its web site and emailed to its members.
For too long, politicians have seen video games as a legislative punching bag for regulations in ways they would never regulate books, music or TV. Today we see a clear sign of change.
Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for President has become the first presidential candidate ever to advertise for his campaign inside video games. According to the Associated Press, Sen. Obama is advertising in eighteen video games encouraging gamers to register and vote.
What struck me as interesting was that the post highlights the campaign’s popular theme of change. I was always under the assumption that the VGVN was a non-partisan group that only had an allegiance to gamers and not a particular candidate. Our emails soliciting a response from the ESA have yet to be answered.
As I said in this news story, I take no umbrage with the Obama campaign or any other candidate spending their money wherever they can to get their message out, but doing it via a game ad that consumers are already pissed off about is a risky move.
