Topic: Video Games to Promote Products

Much to my suprise as I was walking down the dry goods section of the grocery store yesterday, in the corner of my eye I caught a picture of Lightning from Final Fantasy. Her face was prominently displayed on a Nissen cup of noodles, along with other characters from Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. I think the packaging had Cloud, Squall, and others on it as well. It’s not the first time I’ve seen video game advertising on home or food products before. Taco Bell had Destiny 2 advertising on their cups when the game was first released, as I recall.
It is common to see new big budget movies, TV shows, and comics do the same thing with putting their characters and images all over boxes of cereal, pop tarts, Mac & Cheese, etc. (at least in the U.S. — I can’t speak for Europe or U.K.) But it is pretty uncommon to see video games adopt this form of advertising.
We have seen product placement in video games, and now we are seeing video game placement on products.

So it’s just an interesting topic I was thinking about. No, I didn’t purchase the cup of noodles just because it had Final Fantasy on them, but I was drawn to look at them when I wouldn’t have otherwise. It seems a synergistic effect this can have on selling a product and on selling games, so long as the pairing up of product and game makes sense to be mutually beneficial. For example, people who eat ramen noodles like JPGs evidently, and vice versa.

So as far as discussion, any thoughts on the use of products to promote video games? Does it make you want to buy Destiny 2 when you’re drinking your Cola from a cup with Destiny 2 art all over it?
And more importantly, just for fun, let’s see your creativity —
what product-game partnerships would you propose would go good together?

I’ll start.
I’d love to see Remington Razors and Trimmers partner with God of War. Kratos has that awesome beard and the shaved head. 😂 Perfect spokesman for a shaver.

It's nothing new here in the US recent Post cereal had Mario on it's cereal boxes and no I am not talking about the Mario Amiibo Cereal (which was Kellogg's). Mountain Dew has been doing it for years as well. I remember seeing Halo on Mountain Dew bottles, various Call of Duty games and even World of Warcraft Mountain Dew. I am sure there's alot more stuff that has had video games promote them over the years. You can probably Google them.

I've seen Star Wars items, maybe I've seen Mario... I know the cereal boxes are physical ads these days, but I stay clear of that aisle in the supermarket, so I couldn't tell you.

Brand partnerships wouldn't sway me, but could see some partnerships being quite fun. Maybe filling up at a particular brand of petrol station could net you credits in GT Sport? Eating in a certain diner could get you an unlockable item in FFXV? Buying a box of tissues could unlock a happier ending in The Last Of Us.

I hate to admit it but I bought my first Mountain dew for an xp boost. Nearly gave me a heart attack.

@themcnoisy Did it make you glow in the dark?

to be fair it's not a new thing, Games and Films have been doing it for years on various products including Drinks, Cereals, Crisps (that's Chips for you Americans) and even tinned Spaghetti

That's a joke, right?

@Octane not had tinned spaghetti?

nope

Cereal and Mountain Dew I can see as having a common market with gaming, but spaghettios and instant noodles... I guess gamers tend to be up for instant meals high in carbs.
Evidently I have missed a lot of these product endorsements over the years. I see tons of Star Wars and Marvel paraphernalia in the grocery and fast food places, but haven’t seen the video game stuff. As gaming continues to grow in popularity and gamers age into different product demographics, I expect we start to see more.

@kyleforrester87 I'm still alive and well, so no. I don't even like the instant noodles, I can't even imagine how awful tinned spaghetti would be.

@Octane imagine eating sawdust covered in cheap tomato sauce

"ALPHABETTI SPAGHETTI!!!"

@FullbringIchigo To be fair the canned pasta like that has tie in all the time with pop culture stuff. In the 90s they had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pasta, I remember in the 2000's seeing Sponge Bob pasta and Scooby Doo as well.

@Tasuki i used to get the TMNT one all the time when i was younger, i was really into TMNT back then i would get ANYTHING with it on

@FullbringIchigo Have you tried the Final Fantasy Cup o’ Noodles? Be honest. 😜
I know you’re one of Push Square’s biggest FF fans.

@Th3solution lol is that an actual thing in real life then? The food certainly looked good in FF15 and it always made me hungry playing it!

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, apparently.
I get pretty excited when I see JRPGs in the grocery isle. I expect Monster Hunter World should have some kind of deal with a bacon company or something. And Persona 5 coffee... wouldn’t they be awesome? Think if Starbucks made a “Leblanc special” brew of coffee with a picture of the Heirophant Arcana on the cup.

@Th3solution I can't see an American company doing something like that with a niche game though at least here in the States. I mean Obviously Fina Fantasy characters on a Japanese noodle bowl isn't too far fetched since both are big in Japan. Here in the States though it just seems that only the big well known games get placed on products. Stuff like CoD, Pokemon, Mario, Minecraft, Halo and WoW. Stuff games that the majority of Americans know.