Has advertising gone too far?

It would seem that life has been based around advertisment and not the other way around nowadays. Advertising has become very powerful and it would seem that whereever you go there is no escape from it anymore.

When it comes to computer games, advertisment has slowly been creeping in over the past few years. The first game to actually feature an “in game” advertisement was way back in 1978 and was called Adventureland. The advertisement itself was merely showing off the next game that was on the way by the maker of Adventureland itself.

Football games started to set a trend as with each addition of FIFA came a new set of advertisments. Now games featuring cities in which you can explore like Prototype are using in game advertisements as well as shooters like Ghost Recon. Splinter Cell even had a giant billboard advertisement that you couldn’t avoid seeing as you had to climb over it.

Something that has started to cause huge arguments is the envolvment of corportate companies advertising within schools. Is it just there to get a bit of extra business or is it slowly forcing children into buying in a specific brand for the rest of their lives?

The business world has marked its presence in our schools in the following way:

• Sweet and candy companies have created educational posters which contain their advertisements.

• Many school canteens have started to become subsidised by food brands in return for advertising.

• The humble school bus has now become another medium for advertising to be served up to schoolchildren.

• More recently and perhaps most worryingly we have begun seeing sponsored lessons taking place within schools, with subtle and not so subtle branding taking place within the lesson plans. This does not sound too different to the times of Nazi Germany in which the dictator Adolf Hitler forced people to read and write about the Nazis, does it?

There are a wide range of advertisements around the globe, ranging from managed print services to branding. Exhibition stands are seen as one of the more effective traditional branding mediums during a corporate event or trade fair.