Barack Obama is the first African-American president-elect of the United States, but that is not the only way he made history…
Obama also made political history by being the first to place presidential campaign ads in online video games. Obama featured Internet ads in 18 games through Microsoft Corp's Xbox Live service to promote his online voter registration and early balloting drive in 10 states – Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin. All of which are swing states won over by President Bush in 2004, interestingly enough.
Appearing in the games as banners or billboards, the ads featured an image of Obama, the slogan "Early voting has begun" and a reference to his VoteForChange.com website. On this site users were able to register online to vote, obtain absentee voter information and/or find a polling location. Obama also ran a 30-minute ad on CBS, NBC and Fox on October 29.
Obviously Obama being elected president is the ultimate indicator of success, but I would like to know some hard statistics and the real correlation between these ads and Obama's victory. How were they tracked? How many of the people exposed to both the video game ads and TV ads voted for Obama? Did voting rates for males 18-25 (the target audience for the ads) increase? By how much? What was their attitude toward the ads? Will this become the norm for future presidential elections?
Amy Mengel, Engagement Coordinator
