Third Session

Advertising and videogames

As I read Ian Bogost’s discussion of advertising I was curious how he would relate that discussion to procedural rhetoric and videogames. He offers a typology of advertising in his discussion of advertising and videogames. The first type is demonstrative advertising: these give direct information and emphasize the functional utility of the products and services being advertised. Infomercials are the latest example of these. The second type is illustrative advertising: these advertising give indirect information about a product, emphasizing the social and the cultural context. An ad illustrating speed in order to suggest the “liveliness” of a product, according to Bogost, is an example of this type of advertising. The third kind is associative advertising: this kind of advertising also gives indirect information (about the intangible aspects of the product or service). However, if demonstrative advertising aims for a mass market appeal, associative advertising aims for a niche market appeal. This type of advertising is related to “lifestyle marketing.”

How do videogames use these types of advertising? For demonstrative advertising in a videogame a product is used, providing direct information. For illustrative advertising a product’s existence and its “incremental” benefits are communicated. For associative advertising the product is associated with a lifestyle or an activity that the game represents. Bogost argues that although associative games are the most common, demonstrative games utilize the most productive procedural rhetorics.

Bogost suggests that advertising in videogames started with Tron and E.T., as the first film/game tie-ins, and games like Kool-Aid Man, although product placement in media have a longer history than that. As videogames and advertising have developed over time, according to Bogost, the interest in advertising is about an interest in videogames to reach to a particular consumer rather than an interest in the unique properties of the medium.  This means “advergames” have become associative marketing strategies. In other words, the advertisers are after “gamers” as a niche market.  

Here is a video on product placement in film, TV and games.