Product placement is not exclusive to film and television, and there are many video games that exploit this advertising format with more or less success. Thus, you can find from advertising posters Denmark Email List on the streets of the stage or real products in a store, to products -with their well-visible brand- that interact in the story.

In any case, the potential of this commercial technique is clear, both for video game creators, who manage to obtain an extra source of financing, and for advertisers, who manage to reach an audience – that of video game players – that usually spend less time on other media such as television.

But do these placement ads really work in video games?

Apparently, in those with violent content, not much. That’s the conclusion of a new Ohio University study showing that when gamers are focused on killing, they don’t perceive the product placement that appears in video game scenes.

As one of the researchers explains: “Killing characters in video games can be a lot of fun for gamers, but it seems like it’s pretty bad for business.” And it is that violence is an emotional signal that dominates memory, leaving little capacity for other peripheral issues such as the name of brands.

The study was carried out by analyzing brand recall in participants playing a video game in which they had to drive a car through the city, while multiple brands appeared on the facades of multiple stores and businesses along the way. Half of the players were told that they had to kill as many pedestrians as possible, while the other half had to go as fast as possible, but avoiding pedestrians.

All participants were asked to list the marks they remembered seeing (out of a total of 16). Those who had played non-violently managed to remember 51% more marks than those focused on running over people.

Likewise, when given a list of 32 possible brands, nonviolent players were able to recognize 18% more of the signatures.