Obama reaches out to gamers though in-game ads

The Obama campaign has done it again and gotten all "mavericky" (as Tina Fey would say) in order to reach young voters playing video games online. No, Obama won't be holding a tacky rally in Second Life, but he will be buying advertising space in eighteen online video games that will appear in the final weeks before the election.

Giga Om says gamers have already spotted an Obama billboard in a racing game called "Burnout Paradise," and according to Holly Rockwood, an Electronic Arts spokeswoman, other Xbox Live games that support dynamic advertising will also run ads purchased by the Obama campaign from now until November 3. These games include "Skate," "Nascar 09," "NHL 09," and "Madden 09" to name a few.

The ads will run only in states that allow early voting such as Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin. This is a clever way to reach young males between the ages of 18 and 34, which Rockwood says is typically a very hard to reach audience.

I'm not sure this will get gamers off to the couch and into the voting booth, but one thing is for sure: Barack Obama is officially the first presidential candidate to advertise in a game, and that alone will get some votes.

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