Anti-drunk driving ads to appear in Xbox 360 games

December 28th, 2007, 22:48 Posted By: Triv1um

Via Geek.com

The Scottish government has decided to use the advertising potential in videogames. It has allocated US$19,778 for videogame advertising to send out a message to youngsters about the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol.

The advertisements will be seen by Scottish gamers in popular games on the Xbox 360 console. The specific games are
Need for Speed: Carbon, Project Gotham Racing 4, and the soccer game Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.

Speaking of the advertising initiative, Stewart Stevenson, Transport Minister, said:

With statistics showing that road deaths, particularly among young people, are continuing to rise, it is clear we must look at new ways of getting road safety messages across. This is exactly the kind of initiative we should be trying … It is innovative, it is new, and it is far removed from the more traditional methods we have been using. I believe that is what we need if we are to reverse the number of Scots families suffering the tragedy of a loved one being lost.

If this initial campaign turns out to be successful, then road safety advertising may be expanded in videogames.

I think using videogames to get important messages across to teenagers through advertising is a good idea. In the U.K., the driving age is 17, and the drinking age is 18, so teenagers are gaining access to two desirable activities very close together.

I’m not sure the choice of games is the best, however. In racing games, you are usually traveling at fairly high speeds, and therefore advertisements will be passing you at a rate that may make them unreadable. Hopefully, clever positioning at the starts of races and during loading or story progression sections should alleviate this problem.

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