In-game advertising

It's nothing new.

But if it’s anything like Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign for the White House, he is all about change. In the video game world, it’s no different. Currently in ten swing states, spanning 19 video games for the Xbox 360, Obama is placing in-game advertisements for is campaign.
Obama’s push to gain more support from youth voters shows the degree at which the Obama campaign is willing to win the race.

Yearly entries into pop culture gaming like the Madden NFL franchise has been chocked full of product-placement and in-game advertising for years. Previously, products like Powerade, which are not time-sensitive, are statically placed inside the game. Generally, once a game is launched, the ads will never change.

Messages will have to be brief and to the point. Negative ads and long-winded statements will be impossible to see in games like Burnout, which include people racing at over 100 miles per hour. So, a quick message like “early voting has begun…Paid for by Obama for President” accompanied by a photo go right to the point.

Obama’s ads though are not static. Games that have been released as early as January now have billboards placed in various locations. When a user connects to Xbox Live to race a friend, or play some one-on-one basketball, the game’s software is updated. Part of the software updates includes advertising, and in this case, they are images super-imposed on certain parts of the games as advertisements.

Youth voters have always been a problem for candidates. History has shown they usually have better things to do on Election Day, like play video games. While Obama has previously derided video games, this ad campaign is probably the best way to attract the attention to youth.
TV advertisements, and Web ads have been littered all over the media spectrum for the last nine months, the switch to games is actually a bit of fresh air.

On top of that, the hardcore gamer demographic isn’t known for their intense reading or TV watching, so the Obama campaign has actually found the best way to move into a group of people that was otherwise hard to reach.

- John, editor
Lunch today: burrito

Cha-Cha

I was at a family BBQ last weekend, sitting in my usual spot at the kid’s table, when my 15-year-old cousin whipped out his cell phone and told me to ask him anything. He’s always been “the smart cousin,” and was my source for entertainment at the family functions, so I was more than happy to play along.

“Are June Bugs blind?” I asked.

He punched a bunch of buttons on his phone, got a text message, and reciprocated a lengthy response that summed up the answer “No.” Since I knew he wasn’t coming up with these scientific answers on his own, and was more than amused, I told my uncle to try one.

“What is the greatest noise in the world?” he asked.

Once again, my cousin hastily sent a text and minutes later we go a response saying “Music” with an explanation.

Enough. I needed to know what this thing was. My cousin was a little skeptical to reveal his source, but it turns out it’s a search engine called “Cha Cha.” You simply type “Cha Cha” (242242) as the recipient and ask it any question, from random facts to the temperature in far off countries. Apparently your response in received and generated by a real-life human!

The service is free for now and a pretty great way to kill time. Or talk to someone if you’re lonely. www.chacha.com

-Richelle, editor
Lunch today - every kind of vegetable

Under Construction

Please stay tuned as the Premise Blog is in transition to a new format. We will be back with more hot topics and our lunch menus shortly...

Orange: the color of decaffeinated coffee

"Is that decaf? "I attended a function at my son's school and as usual had to check out the desert table to see what all the great domestic parents had brought to share. I fill my plate with a few samples and find myself headed for the much needed coffee. When I approach there are 6-7 standard coffee carafes. I quickly scan them and instinctively reach over and between those marked with a small orange circle and pick up the solid black carafe. As I begin to pour, I hear someone say to the random group mixing coffees "is the orange decaf?" several responses come back, "ya, I think so" - "pretty sure" - "I hope so, that's what I wanted" moments later another person approaches asking the same question. I start thinking to myself, how is it that I, along with several others, have declared orange the official color of decaf? Why orange and why is it so deep in my brain that I didn't even think twice. I knew that by selecting the all black vs the all black with the small orange circle I was getting the dose of caffeine I needed. What if one day someone decided to reverse the brews? Decaf with no mark and regular with the orange mark. What would happen? Would everyone just assume the orange was decaf?

When I returned home I started doing some research. I discovered that the color orange and decaf go all the way back to 1923 when Sanka (derived from the French words words sans caféine "without caffeine")one of the earliest decaffeinated coffees was launched. The Sanka label was a distinct orange and the company gave away orange handles to attach to coffee pots so servers could identify the decaf from the regular. Pretty brilliant don't you think. Over 80's years later orange is still a staple identifier for decaf coffee. Alas, orange was tied to decaf long before I had my first sip! But who still drinks Sanka anyway?


Kristine
Lunch today: 2 side salads from Organic To Go and Honey Dijon chips.