AdNausea

Product placement used to be something that people normally saw in movies and television shows. I mean, that’s how commercials started really. The housewife in the old black and whites would put creamer in her husbands coffee and he’d ask, “What kind of creamer is this, honey?” And she’d hold the bottle up to show the audience (and her husband) and shamelessly plug the product. However, times have changed and it’s usually done more tastefully.

Even movies that do it subtly get on my nerves. But the one place I’m really liking it, is in games. More and more video games are plugging products in a way that makes complete sense (and some that aren’t) and here’s a list:

Atari’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure - features Apple iPods and Montana Gold spray paint. Makes sense.

Need for Speed features Castol Syntec quick-lube shops, as well as Best Buy, Cingular Wireless, Burger King and Old Spice.

CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder is a crime-solving game that features Visa’s fraud-protection service. It helps players crack cases by sending notices when a credit card is stolen. I love this sample because it’s not just a product placement, it’s a feature placement, too.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow has players using Sony Ericcson phones to receive clues.

In The Sims Online, you can buy McDonald’s food for your character when they get hungry and the computers they use in the game have Intel sounds.

True Crime: Streets of Los Angeles features various Puma products.

Which ones do you guys play? Have you noticed it in other games?

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