British Government Places Ads in Tom Clancy Games.

[Polaris573]

British intelligence agencies are to offer video gamers hooked on espionage-inspired adventures the chance to live out their fantasies. Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the surveillance arm of the intelligence services, will this month become the first spy agency to embed adverts for new recruits inside computer games. The advertisements will appear as billboards in the fictional landscapes of games including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent. They will not be written into the games themselves but will be fed into games when they are played on personal computers and Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles that are connected to the internet. A spokesperson for GCHQ described the potential recruits that it wanted to reach as “computer-savvy, technologically able, quick thinking. “We find increasingly we have to use less conventional means of attracting people . . . to go beyond glossy brochures and milk-round stalls.”

The move into video games demonstrates how the intelligence agencies have moved away from old-boy networks. This summer MI5 advertised for staff on the sides of London buses. GCHQ was consulted on where its adverts would appear but the main decisions were made by its advertising agency, TMP Worldwide. Kate Clemens, head of GCHQ’s digital strategy at TMP, said: Online gaming allows GCHQ to target a captive audience . . . Gamers are loyal and receptive to innovative forms of advertising.” GCHQ was characteristically reticent on the cost of the one-month campaign, but industry sources suggested it was comparable to that of a large recruitment advert in a Sunday broadsheet, which can run into the low tens of thousands of pounds.

Source: The Times

[Sasqui]

"All the world is a computer game" - William Snakespear

[Namslas90]

The British Government needs to place adds for "NHS Dentist Needed, Several positions available."

[Easy Rhino]

what the story doesnt tell you is that the billboards with the government advertisements on them are equipped with specials cameras that follow you around! so now the govt can follow you in the virtual world as well as in the real world!!!!

[Darkrealms]

Originally Posted by Easy Rhino

what the story doesnt tell you is that the billboards with the government advertisements on them are equipped with specials cameras that follow you around! so now the govt can follow you in the virtual world as well as in the real world!!!!

Rofl, I'm not in Britain so I don't want to be followed or recruited. Now Delta or CIA on the other hand . . . ;p

Doesn't suprise me. Technically they are behind the curve. The US Army created a whole game to advertise.

[hat]

boo...

[Helvetica]

I don't know if any of you have played BF2142 recently, but INTEL has a fuckload of billboards all througout the game, and it completely takes away from character and feel of the game.

It's supposed to feel like you're in the future driving tanks and things - but when you see an INTEL Billboard (and believe me, there are a lot of them), you remember that you're only playing a game, and that you should buy a conroe.

[hat]

On top of that, an "extreme" one for $1000