Advertising and Games

1. Advertising and Games

2. Review • Rhetoric = how something is said • art of persuasive communication • Argument = what is said • Claims followed by evidence that lead to a conclusion. • Procedural rhetoric = rhetoric of a system • The use of unit operations, systems, rules, and procedures to persuade or express.

3. Games are systems • Games are systems—they are a combination of rules and units—they embody procedural rhetoric. • Games have persuasive qualities, and some games are designed to be persuasive. • What makes procedural rhetoric better/worse/different at persuasion than static or linear forms?

4. Three types of advertising 1. Demonstrative– communicate tangibles about the nature of a product • Demonstrations and descriptions. • “Let me tell you how it works/how to do it” • Advergames: Use of product in game; descriptions in game • http://www.sexysubaru.ca/index2.php?lang=en 2. Illustrative– indirect information through presentation of product in social or cultural context • Object used or referred to in context • “Let me show you how it works” • Advergames: Communicate existence of the product in gameplay • http://www.allgirlarcade.com/games/play/cupcakemaker/ • http://www.microsoft.com/click/serverquest/ 3. Associative– indirect; focusing on the context/social and intangibles. • Lifestyle marketing; associating product with who buyer wants to be. • “Batman does it and so can you.” • Advergames: Relate activity in life with game/relate game activity with life • http://www.crankfilm.com/adrenaline/

5. Ads have no one strategy • Not mutually exclusive • Rarely is an ad only demonstrative, illustrative, or associative. • Rarely is an ad equal parts demonstrative, illustrative and associative. • We look at the focus of the ad—what is its primary means of communicating.

8. Who created whom? • “Mass media allowed companies to manufacture wants rather than satisfy needs” (Bogost 150). • “Marketing has shifted away from a focus on the procedural rhetoric of media technologies—integrating ads into the rules of programming formats” (Bogost 152). • “Advertisers focus on the procedural rhetoric of the frames themselves—integrating ads into rules of consumers’ perceived cultural station” (Bogost 152).

9. Types of game advertising • Licensing and Product Placement. This perpetuates a recursive network—deepened relationship with product. Game increases exposure to product, exposure increases game sales. • Licensing – sponsoring producer or representative product within game. Illustrative and associative • Product Placement – placement of product in game. A soda machine, baseball bat, or clothing line. Also, static/linear advertisement in game. • Advergames – Any game created specifically to host a procedural rhetoric about the claims of a product or service. Demonstrative, illustrative, associative simulation of product.

10. Advergames • Focus on advergames for this assignment because they (can/should) are based on procedural rhetoric. • They are “persuasive” games. Persuasive games foreground a product, lesson, or ideology.