Obama Campaign Ads Appear In Burnout Paradise

An in-game advertising campaign for Barack Obama’s U.S. presidential campaign has appeared in Electronic Arts racing title Burnout Paradise. First confirmed by technology website GigaOm, the campaign appears to use Massive Inc.’s standard dynamic in-game advertising technology. This allows for virtual billboards featuring an image of Obama with the text “Early Voting Has Begun: voteforchange.com” to appear in the Xbox 360 version of the game, which debuted in January 2008. “I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout,” said Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at EA, to Gigaom. “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,” she added. A recent Xbox Live vote involving 100,000 online users saw Obama and running mate Joe Biden take 43 percent of the vote, ahead of Republican ticket John McCain and Sarah Palin on 31 percent.