September 17th, 2002
Product Placements Go Interactive in Video Games
By Matt Richtel
The New York Times
Advertisers are increasingly integrating soda cans, cellphones, food and other products into movies, television shows and even rap songs. Now big-league product placement is coming to video games, where consumers will not just see these items, but interact and play with them—and eat them.
The development has given Tom Adkins food for thought, and criticism. Mr. Adkins, the deputy director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit agency that advocates keeping commercialism “in its proper sphere,” said the growing use of advertisements in video games is inherently deceptive because consumers “don’t know they’re paying $40 for a video game that’s got advertising in it.”