Obama ad appears in Burnout Paradise [Update]

by Alan Tsang { Oct 14th 2008 at 3:45PM }

[Update -- Though Ms. Rockwood was unclear in her response to Gigaom, MTV Multiplayer has discovered that, for whatever reason, the ad only appears in the Xbox 360 version. Furthermore, a certain AlexW at Criterion Games have stepped forward to say the advertising in Burnout Paradise do not fund the awesome updates they've been providing. So now the question is, what do they fund? Thanks, Enrique!]

Enjoying those free Burnout Paradise updates? Well, they are free partly due to the in-game advertisements, such as this one placed by Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama. Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts, has confirmed that the above ad is an official one placed by Senator Obama's campaign team.

Rockwood explains that EA will "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."

Obama's use of in-game campaign ads strikes us as a bit strange -- because as of yesterday, Senator Obama is still placing television and video games (and yes, bad parenting too) at the forefront of the causes for underachievement.

[Via Joystiq]

Tags: barack-obama, burnout-paradise, criterion-games, ea, electronic-arts, obama

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

-Jad- @ Oct 14th 2008 3:50PM

I don't notice any of those ads on the game yesterday except for the COMP USA everywhere on my burnout game yesterday.

Kevin PSN: Keviseg15 @ Oct 14th 2008 4:17PM

ditto.

Jonathan @ Oct 14th 2008 3:51PM

GOOOOO-BAMA!

decompiler @ Oct 14th 2008 4:08PM

barack me, obama-deus!

The_Icon @ Oct 14th 2008 3:53PM

Too bad its only for the 360 version, the PS3 version doesn't have the ads and its only available in 10 states. Also, driving this fast...will people really notice the ads?

decompiler @ Oct 14th 2008 4:06PM

yeah, you notice... i've played bop on 360 and like -jad- said, you see comp usa all over the place.

rgoff31 @ Oct 14th 2008 3:55PM

I will have to check that out. It is a very usual/obscure way to get to voters, but I guess it creates some buzz. I've just re-earned my Class B license since the trophy patch. The amount of easy trophies in that game is ridicules (thats a good thing).

jeff28 @ Oct 14th 2008 4:58PM

Haas is right, Obama is a socialist...and socialism is something we absolutely don;t need here. If you like socialism you need to move to Canada, or better yet France.

NicoloPicolo @ Oct 14th 2008 5:22PM

"If you like socialism you need to move to Canada, or better yet France"
Ah ah ah !
You have no idea what you're talking about.
Your sentence is so stupid.

Replica23 @ Oct 14th 2008 5:38PM

"If you like socialism you need to move to Canada"

Our economy didn't implode and I don't need a loan to go to the hospital. Who's really better off?

benny boy @ Oct 15th 2008 12:04PM

The people of thoses two countries are actually better off than the US citizens at the moment so I wouldn't complain too much.

Get_It_Together @ Oct 14th 2008 3:54PM

Well this is enough to keep me from playing Burnout for a while.

uh-oh polio @ Oct 14th 2008 4:16PM

couldnt agree more. This is simply ridiculous. Video games is the last place i want to see politics. My son was watching Nickelodeon and an Obama ad came on ripping on McCain. on NICKELODEON!You know, the kids network.Absurd.

Hife @ Oct 14th 2008 5:06PM

I don't know. If it were any other game I would agree, but it seems to make some kind of sense in Burnout. Something about the environment of the game seems to justify ads.

Definitely agree with uh-oh-polio about the Nickelodean ads though.

Kyle @ Oct 14th 2008 5:09PM

Yeah, because you're not engulfed in advertising in every day life anyways. You might as well stop driving, because roads are no places for advertisements!

If they integrate advertisements into games seamlessly, than why complain. More free stuff for us and unless you're a total indignant prick, you won't be bothered enough by it to care.

Blatant and annoying product placement kills me, but when it's realistic and takes a second seat to the actual game, it doesn't bother me much.

Averna @ Oct 14th 2008 10:05PM

Like pepsi stickers on your COD4 guns? or the lead character taking a break every cutscene to to have some taco bell?

Jonathan @ Oct 14th 2008 3:58PM

And I just read the article, he's not placing television and video games at the forefront of the causes for underachievement. He's saying that parents need to make sure that their kids are doing their homework and that they'll need to turn off the TV and video games for them to do so. He's not saying to turn off TV and video games forever, just until they're done with their homework. Sounds more like he's supporting more parental involvement with their kids and better time management for the kids.

I hate when people misinterpret people's comments and then make posts read by hundreds, if not thousands, of people repeating their misinterpretations.

Mr. Joe @ Oct 14th 2008 4:28PM

thank you for sharing this. you saved me from typing it.

Art @ Oct 14th 2008 4:41PM

PS3Fanboy,

I am in total agreement with Jonathan.

How does this ad strike you as strange? Obama's actual words from the article were:

"You know, I will invest in education. We'll make sure government gets behind the schools. But it won't make much of a difference if parents aren't turning off the television set and putting away the video games and making sure that our children are doing their homework."

What message are you reading into his words and then erroneously passing on to the rest of us, your readers? For shame! How is he placing TV and video games "at the forefront of the causes for underachievement?" It sounds like to me that if parents are making sure that their kids are doing their homework and studying before turning the TV on, it would be quite alright for them to either watch some programming or play some video games afterwards.

I'm not saying I support Obama, but I, much like Jonathan stated before me, hate it when this type of misinterpretation takes place and then passed along as stated fact to a viewing audience.

This kind of update makes the site feel more like one of those sleazy tabloids at the supermarket that simply tries to rile up reader emotions with comments like those.

To think that I've deeply enjoyed reading these updates up till now, even the stuff that didn't pertain to me at all like PSP updates (the PSP being a peripheral I don't plan on getting). Thanks for the reality check of how highly I should regard what's posted on this site.

Alan Tsang @ Oct 14th 2008 4:56PM

I am not misinterpreting anything. Yes, Senator Obama is supporting parental involvement. But he's still using TV and video games as the prime examples of what kids shouldn't be doing, which reflects badly upon those examples.

Jonathan @ Oct 14th 2008 5:19PM

No, he's just using those things as examples of what kids are normally doing instead of their homework. He's saying they should not be doing these things instead of their homework, not that they shouldn't be doing these things.

Alan Tsang @ Oct 14th 2008 9:09PM

You must be realistic. Regardless of his "true" stance on video games (which Senator Obama has never been clear on), statements like the ones made by Senator Obama increase the paranoia the general public have about video games. Whether he is aware of it or not, these statements are extremely harmful to the public perception of video games.

Jonathan @ Oct 14th 2008 9:24PM

That may be true, but your article implies that Obama is blaming TV and video games for children's underachievement. Just because people may misconstrue that statement and use it to attack video games does not mean that you get to say that Obama is attacking video games. The fact is, Obama was not blaming TV and video games for children's underachievement; he was blaming the parents for not setting appropriate priorities for their children.

Alan Tsang @ Oct 14th 2008 9:31PM

The problem remains -- the end result is people will have a negative perception of my favorite pastime. I don't want that. As a politician, he is well aware of the effect his words will have, whether those effects are direct or indirect. You have no history of posting on this blog, so I am not going to argue with every random person who just decided to post anonymously to complain. Apparently, you are not the only one, hot button issues like this tend to attract a lot of anonymous posting. We have different opinions regarding this, so let's just leave it at that.

Mr. Joe @ Oct 14th 2008 10:43PM

i'm sorry alan, but jonathan is correct on this. obama was using video games and tv as examples of america's favorite past time, which how can you argue this? the amount of tv and video games for anyone up to the age of about 40 is staggering. the problem is when parents don't set boundaries on their kids' play times. you admitted you are uncertain about obama's opinion on gaming, but construed an obama metaphor meant to attack parenting skills, not video games.

if he is really against video games, why would he be soliciting votes within a video game? i'm sure he realizes the voting age is 18. his metaphor says nothing about over 18ers to stop playing. this shows he's taking gamers as a very serious audience and is encouraging us to get out and vote.

Jonathan @ Oct 14th 2008 10:51PM

How are you going to say that I'm an anonymous poster? I'm using my name. I've made a couple comments before this thread. I don't comment a lot because I don't feel the need to, but in this case, I do feel the need to.

Let's say Obama instead said "Parents should not be putting sports as a higher priority for their kids than education. Kids won't be doing their homework if all they are doing is playing basketball." With your logic, Obama just denounced the sport of basketball. However, that's not the case at all.

glafflin @ Oct 14th 2008 4:08PM

Your a moron. Obama is a communist now? What is bush, the gov is buying up bank stocks and all how is that not communist? Well obama will be our next president and will do an amazing job, dont like it? get the hell outta the country

decompiler @ Oct 14th 2008 4:12PM

you should learn how to spell your v.p. candidate's last name... or not, since you're not likely to hear from her again after nov. 4th. obama '08!

Anthony-E @ Oct 14th 2008 4:16PM

Dumb move on EA's part. I know a lot of people who would hate seeing Obama's face every time they wanted to play Burnout, myself included.

I really feel bad for everyone who's supporting this guy, and I feel especially bad for all of those who aren't, but are going to be left with the consequences of him being elected. If you all thought Carter was bad, just brace yourselves.

Actually, speaking of Carter, this election season does have a lot of similarities to when Carter was elected. What Obama fanboys don't seem to understand is that most of the people voting for him are not voting Democrat, they are voting against the Republicans. It's really disappointing too because John McCain has a lot of potential.

The only shred of hope I can see from Obama getting elected is that his failed policies will most likely lead to an outstanding Republican president in 2012 (same as how Carter's failure led to Reagan being elected).

And hey, I'm not even American. Go figure.

Izzie E @ Oct 14th 2008 4:52PM

First off, Carter wasn't the train wreck of a president that most Republicans portray him to be. He was actually the lone voice who warned us about our dependance on foreign oil. In his state of the union address he called for us to invest in alternative form of energy. What happened the day after that speech. Big oil execs donated hundreds of thousands to Ronald Reagan's campaign. Someone with that much foresight in my mind could have been a visionary. Moreover Ronald Reagan's economic policies lead us into a recession, the crash of our stock market, and basically set up Wall for its current crisis with his deregulation of the credt, finance, and energy industries. Yes he helped us win the Cold War by spending all of the taxpayer's money on the military meanwhile our economy was left to sh*t. You see I attribute Americans obsession with spending, borrowing, I want it cheap and now, way of thinking to Reagan's whole push for us to all live outside of our means.

Obama is not the perfect cut out of a politician that we all expect these days but with his proposed medical, economic, and foreign policy plans it seems like an approach that our government has never attempted. These issues have pretty much been neglected for the last 30 years and look at where it has gotten us. We have the lowest life expectancy out of all industrialized countries, a shrinking middle class, cost of living is going up while wages are going down.

Mccain to me could have a decent candidate but he sold his soul to please the conservative base.

Mr. Joe @ Oct 14th 2008 4:48PM

hey thanks for your input. and here's a rebuttal. obama is by far the best choice this year because of several key issues. he has a better health care plan, which wouldn't leave children behind. he has a better tax increase plan, which is taxing the rich and large corporations at rates that make sense. he has a better plan for the middle east conflict and isn't worried about "victory" but is worried about saving lives. he has biden as a running mate who carries much experience needed at this desperate time, compared to palin which is obviously a poor decision by mccain based on her lack of knowledge about anything washington related.

i don't know where you're from but that really isn't the point. my point is most republicans really don't have the people in mind. unless you're a large business owner, there is no reason to vote red. mccain is a standup guy, but if you look at his campaign through the last few weeks, it's apparent he doesn't want to win. he keeps saying things like "never give up" which in my mind, means they're admitting it's over and trying to keep morale high. and by declaring reagan as an outstanding president is just scary.

Mr. Joe @ Oct 14th 2008 4:52PM

hey thanks for your input. and here's a rebuttal. obama is by far the best choice this year because of several key issues. he has a better health care plan, which wouldn't leave children behind. he has a better tax increase plan, which is taxing the rich and large corporations at rates that make sense. he has a better plan for the middle east conflict and isn't worried about "victory" but is worried about saving lives. he has biden as a running mate who carries much experience needed at this desperate time, compared to palin which is obviously a poor decision by mccain based on her lack of knowledge about anything washington related.

i don't know where you're from but that really isn't the point. my point is most republicans really don't have the people in mind. unless you're a large business owner, there is no reason to vote red. mccain is a standup guy, but if you look at his campaign through the last few weeks, it's apparent he doesn't want to win. he keeps saying things like "never give up" which in my mind, means they're admitting it's over and trying to keep morale high. mccain has to defend obama because even mccain can't believe the ignorance of his supporters. and by declaring reagan as an outstanding president is just scary.

Ken @ Oct 14th 2008 5:15PM

Yes you are correct that probably most REPUBLICANS are voting against McCain, but for a reason because he has no potential and would be more Bush if he did get in! But most Dems and independents (like myself) have been pulling for Obama since he won the primaries so please stick to your own country's politics please.
I find it funny how some will say he will have failed policies and will be horrible? How would you know? Yes its true must of us are voting for his potential but you haven't been living under Bush for the last 8 yrs or you would understand why we can't afford to keep those policies for another 4 yrs.

ChocoDK @ Oct 14th 2008 4:18PM

I have never seen one ad for anything in Burnout Paradise at all. As someone said above maybe its in the 360 version. I never played the 360 version of Burnout Paradise though so I wouldn't really know.

TVGenius @ Oct 14th 2008 6:43PM

I've had Burnout for the PS3 since it shipped, and you should be getting CompUSA, and EA HD billboards, and I think the disc also had Burger King (it was quite a while before I ever connected my PS3 to the Net). I started noticing a couple Slingbox ads recently too, but I'm not sure if those were there and I never noticed or if they're new. Haven't come across Obama yet, or at least hadn't noticed. Will do some sightseeing tonight (need to get caught up on fences and billboards after restarting for trophies) and see if I catch any. Would be nice if someone had posted where in Paradise City they saw it.

HAAS599 @ Oct 14th 2008 4:20PM

Obama supporters are just a little too sensitive about criticism of Obama. He is a socialist, which isn't that far from a communist if you ask me. His campaign is more about brainwashing than change.

TCampbell76 @ Oct 14th 2008 4:22PM

I just saw him last week at a campaign stop. Managed to be lucky by getting front row and shaking the guy's hand. Amazing presence, eloquent speaker, and soft hands too. :-x

He even brought up his familar talking point about "kids needing to put down the video games and do their homework." Yet, his campaign is in-game advertising. Doh! Oh well, I agree... there is a time to prioritize and education is important - just too bad some wait until their 30's holding a controller to realize it.

CrzyNick @ Oct 14th 2008 4:25PM

A great man in a great game.
At least they didn't put frog looking ass McCain.

Alec @ Oct 14th 2008 5:12PM

True That

HAAS599 @ Oct 14th 2008 4:32PM

Someone edited my first post, maybe cause I had a link in there. Anyway this is what they took out

There is a video on youtube called Obama Kids Singing for Change. Look it up and watch it. Change is great and all but it depends on what the change is. Make an educated desicion this November, not a desicion based on a catchy slogan.

Gonzo @ Oct 14th 2008 4:40PM

I can't say I'm a big supporter of either political party: they both seem to always just pump out the same dbags answering to different corporate interests/lobbyists.

I think any politician who blames video games for corrupting the youth and urging them to do violent and criminal things is either a complete moron or a complete panderer who doesn't realize that voters play video games not just kids who can't vote.

This is actually a big step as Obama isn't just recognizing that games can only be vilified as a pastime that can be a little too engrossing for some but also recognizing that many gamers are old enough to vote.

@Anthony E-
Carter? Really?
I thought my grandfather (who's had a couple of strokes mind you) was the only one who still complained about Carter. You know Clinton did some unsavory things if you want a democrat to complain about. Neither of them however ran the entire country into the ground. Move here, then you can complain.

NicoloPicolo @ Oct 14th 2008 5:10PM

You must be a kid to say that :)

Turn off your PS3 and go finish your homework !

By the way Obama never said what you put in his mouth...

drdre74 @ Oct 15th 2008 8:34AM

I haven't seen it anywhere. I heard its only in the xbox version so maybe thats why no PS3 people have seen it. If you do see it let me know I want to find it.

TVGenius @ Oct 15th 2008 10:26AM

Drove around for about 60 minutes last night and didn't see him anywhere... must be 360-only.

Twinturbo120 @ Oct 14th 2008 4:41PM

screw obama and screw mccain there both garbage independence will rule one day controlled by ALDO'S

GAME-HERO @ Oct 14th 2008 4:50PM

Does this mean Palin will show up in Outlaw Volleyball! yes!

Maverick Saturn @ Oct 14th 2008 6:06PM

No, DOA :D

Jeffrey Stratton @ Oct 14th 2008 4:53PM

I agree that this has no place in gaming. As a conservative, I would also not agree with John McCain's face in the game. I'm even upset that there's a picture of Ronald Reagan hanging in Mike Adamle's office on Monday Night RAW.

That being said, about the bailout that someone mentioned. More Democrats voted for that. The credit crunch that America is involved in is the public's fault not some failed Bush policy. It's not Bush's fault that someone walks into BestBuy and purchases a $2,000 tv they know they can't afford. Five years ago it wasn't Bush's fault a family decided they couldn't wait until they saved up enough money to buy a house, so they called 1-800 EastWest and entered into an ARM mortgage.

It's so convenient to blame everyone for your own actions than it is to man up. So you put your stock into a candidate that hates Bush and blames him for every injustice in the world.

The President doesn't have as many powers concerning economics as you may think. After Nixon in 1975 Congress stripped a lot more than just implementing the War Powers Act.

I don't hate Obama, I just don't like his policies. However, don't look past that just by falling in love with his rhetoric.

Steve @ Oct 14th 2008 5:10PM

Jeff,

You, thus far, have written the only intelligent comment on this board.

While I am an Obama supporter, I'm also a realist. I know the credit crunch was not President Bush's direct fault (Deregulation didn't help though). I'm voting for Obama, not because I'm bitter about Bush, but because we need a social change.

When I read things like Obama is a communist, I fear where this country will be in 10 years. Socialism, while having ties to Communism, is NOT the same. Go tell a French person, living in a socialist state, that they're a communist. They'll beat the living sh*t out of you.

Saying socialism is bad, is basically saying you don't care about anyone else but you. Because honestly, that's what it comes down to. You don't want to pay more taxes to help other people. You don't want to wait in line for healthcare, because why should you?

Well, because let's face it, your a tiny, insignificant being in the world, and the millions of people like you, are the reason that this entire country is falling apart.

We as Americans want everything for the least, and sooner, rather than later, you will begin to see how that can directly affect you.

Anyways, I beg everyone who reads this, not to blindly vote for anything. Take a good look at both sides, and make an educated decision, not a decision based on party lines.

I love this country, but we really need to take a deep look at ourselves, and see what we really need.

Education HAS to be first.

-Steve