- what advergames have you played? did they influence a purchase?
- I’m not sure if I actually played the games but Bazooka candy brands (they make push-pops, ring pops, juicy drop pops, etc) has a site where you can play numerous games featuring their products. I remembered hearing about this as a kid. Back then, it probably wouldn’t have influenced a purchased but I might have asked someone else to buy it for me.
- Similarly, I’ve also played the M&M Kart Racing on the Wii, which probably made me want to eat M&Ms as a small child; however, I’m not sure if that tactic would work on me now. I also played Minion Rush, the Temple Run like game, but I’m not sure that convinced me to want to watch the movies, I likely played because of the movie.
- Another game I’m not sure counts is Bring Me the Horizon’s Scream Star. This game is a generic rhythm game but it connects to Spotify to stream their newest album. The game essentially just tries to get you to listen to their new album more than anything. I wouldn’t say that this influenced a purchase but probably made me stream the album a little bit more.
- A few years back, the Olympics also had their own games on Google and you could go around and play a lot of the different Olympic sports and compete with others across the world. I think that this was encouraging people to watch and support the Olympics. I loved the game but I don’t think I ended up watching the Olympics.
- why do the advergames tooth protector and escape work? What makes chase the chuckwagon and shark bait fail?
- Tooth Protector and Escape have deeper meaning embedded into the game rather than just creating a game to try to sell more of a product. In Tooth Protector, it actually taught children the importance and process of maintaining good oral health and it even made it seem that having sweets or junkfood at one time is not the end of the world. You used Johnson & Johnson products to protect and take care of the teeth. This also made the game better because it situated the products in a manner where it provides a solution to a problem, one that can be applied to real life at the same time. Escape’s deeper meaning is that the game is found only by pressing the escape button on Google, which people are likely to only do if they are in a stressful situation and bored out of their minds. The mountain bike brand that the game is by offers an escape from daily troubles, very much like the game.
- On the other hand, Chase the Chuckwagon was just trying to get kids to convince their parents to buy the Purina dog food so they could get the game and there was really no reason other than that. It didn’t really seem like it had much of a purpose other than to sell more dog food. Like Chase the Chuckwagon, McDonald’s Shark Bait game also has nothing to do with the product that is being advertised, Fish Filet sandwiches, and it was merely trying to get people to know that McDonald’s has them all year round, but the gameplay was not related.
- what does volvo’s drive for life accomplish? Volvo’s Drive for Life demonstrates one of the key features of Volvo cars—their safety—and turns it into a game. The game allows you to drive three different Volvo cars and you can test them out with and without the safety features. This demonstrates what Volvo’s safety actually does in a way that is more understandable, interactive, and fun than statistics and test videos. It also allows users to drive the cars in somewhat realistic scenarios unlike standard racing games and it helps demonstrate Volvo’s traffic safety as well.
- what company used in-advergame advertising? Bed Bath and Beyond was advertised in the Dodge Stow n’ Go Challenge game.
- what was one if the first home-console advergames and what beverage was it for? Kool-Aid Man on the Atari by General Foods.
- what makes the toilet training game sophisticated and do you agree? Ian Boogost argues that the toilet training game is sophisticated not just because of its mechanics, but because of its ability to portray drunkenness in one manner—that is having to relieve yourself. It takes one product feature of J2O and amplifies it. It almost offers a realistic experience. I suppose I would agree with this statement. The game directly relates to the product and the product is seen as a “hero” or “solution” that makes this game effective.
what do advergames and anti-advergames have in common, and what principles do they share? They both are trying to persuade people, but in different ways. One is to persuade people not to support a company or product and the other is the exact opposite. Bogost says “Even though such games seem to contradict the goals of advergames that promote rather than depose, both types actually share fundamental principles: they demonstrate claims about the function (or dysfunction) of products and services, giving the player a first-person account of how the features and functions of those products and services intersect with his wants and needs” (p. 230).