Advertising has gone too far

Advertisement is a part of life. Everywhere you go there is an advertisement of some kind whether it is on the bus, on the internet, in video games and in even in schools.

When it comes to computer games, advertisment has slowly been creeping in over the past few years. The first game to actually feature an "in game" advertisement was way back in 1978 and was called Adventureland. The advertisement itself was merely showing off the next game that was on the way by the maker of Adventureland itself.

Football games started to set a trend as with each addition of FIFA came a new set of advertisments. Now games featuring cities in which you can explore like Prototype are using in game advertisements as well as shooters like Ghost Recon. One of the ones that annoyed many gamers was Splinter Cell as irt contained a giant bilboard that you couldnt possibly ignore as you had to climb over it to pass through part of the level itself.

Schools are the one that has always caused a big debate but advertisement has been around in schools for many years. Is it just there to get a bit of extra business or is it slowly forcing children into buying in a specific brand for the rest of their lives?

The corporate world has managed to infiltrate the education system in a number of ways:

• Candy and chocolate manufacturers have begun printing branded educational posters.

• Many school canteens have started to become subsidised by food brands in return for advertising.

• Advertisers have begun placing display ads and posters on school buses so that kids are now seeing these advertisements at the beginning and end of each school day.

• A recent and rather disturbing dystopian trend has been for actual lessons to be sponsored by a big corporation, so that in return for educational funding our children are seeing branded lesson plans, handouts and worksheets. This does not sound too different to the times of Nazi Germany in which the dictator Adolf Hitler forced people to read and write about the Nazis, does it?

There are a wide range of advertisements around the globe, ranging from Print management to corporate branding. Exhibition stands are frequently used at trade fairs and industry events as another branding opportunity.