Xbox gamers urged don't get smashed
Scottish Government drives home anti-drink message in racing games
The Scottish Government is to spend £10,000 on a trial scheme to place anti-drink adverts directly into Xbox 360 games across Scotland. The adverts will be seen by gamers playing the online versions of titles including Need for Speed: Carbon, Project Gotham Racing 4 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.
The Scottish Government hopes to keep the natives off the booze long enough for them to finish the race
This campaign comes as many will be playing console games at home and at a time of year that always presents problems with drink and drive related incidents all across the country: the in-game billboards will carry the Safer Scotland logo. Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson said that with road accidents continuing to rise, it was time to look at innovative solutions.
Xbox 360 drivers are encouraged not to drink and drive: you'll spill it...
"With statistics showing that road deaths, particularly among young people, are continuing to rise, it is clear we must look at new ways of getting road safety messages across," Stevenson said.
"This is a huge opportunity to try and reach a new audience - 73 per cent of UK 15-24 year olds have access to a gaming console in their home. The technology is non-intrusive, subtle, but the message can be seen in the background, loud and clear."
The Scottish Government said the adverts would be non-intrusive and subtle, while still getting this important message across. If the trial is successful, the same strategy could be used to deliver a wide range of road safety messages.
COMMENTS
Why not...
... have messages in first person shooters saying "don't kill people" whilst we're at it...?
This is getting ridiculous
The Health & Safety facism in the UK appears to know no bounds. How soon will it be before reruns of Inspector Morse are banned, because him stopping off for a lunchtime pint before driving off to solve a case are deemed to be "sending the wrong message"?
Great idea
Regardless of who it's aimed at etc if they've genuinely only spent £10k on it and they've had how much media coverage because of the idea, it's a bargain!
Surprisingly sensible
Your main target audience is young drivers you're likely to get at least as much exposure as you would spending that amount of money on bilbords or TV ads.
It's definitely a step up from the "young people crash more, young people play more games - therefore games make you a bad driver" line of reasoning that we often see.
Jurisdiction
Ah! But these adverts are in cyberspace, on THE INTERNET, since the internet is American turf (Well that's what they keep saying, and they tend to get shitty when you doubt their claims to ownership.) this means that Scotland has delivered a governmental message to US citizens. Next they'll be trying to tax those citizens, and tax them WITHOUT representation!
More seriously, it's possible that some hand-eye tasks do get easier when you're too stoned to get bored with them, the problem with real driving is that you have other drivers being complete fuckwits, which tends to fall outside of the nice smooth driving experience.
