Politics

In what has to be a first, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has been placing ads . . . in videogames. According to The Hill, ads are appearing in “Madden NFL 09,” “NASCAR 09,” and seven other games on the Xbox 360 system.

As Walter Alarkon explains:

“Only gamers playing online in 10 states can see the ads, which appear as stadium signage or billboards . . . (The ads are downloaded when gamers log on the Xbox Internet service.) Unsurprisingly, all 10 states are swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin.  President Bush won all of those states in 2004 except for Wisconsin.”

Is it working? Well, recognizing the perils of post hoc ergo propter hoc and all that, the latest Zogby poll says that Obama (a liberal African-American Democrat from a big city!) is now tied with McCain among NASCAR fans.