Corporate Logos as Costume Bits?

Here's what brought this to mind:

I went into Free Realms after a few days' absence and discovered that it was raining meatballs. This was unusual even for Free Realms. After asking around, it turned out that Sony Pictures Animation is releasing an animated film called "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs". They "hired" Sony Online Entertainment, the MMO division that runs Everquest, Free Realms and other games, to promote the movie in Free Realms. SOE setup an event where food falls from the sky and players collect various bits to turn in for one or more tee-shirts with the movie logo on the chest.

As my avatar put on his in-game movie shirt and proudly became a corporate shill, I got to thinking of Captain Amazing from the film _Mystery Men_. Those who have seen the movie will recall that his uniform was covered in logos of the corporations that sponsored him, so that he looked more like a race car driver than a superhero.

How would you feel about real-life corporations paying to have their logo added to the game as a costume bit? What if it was a semi-cool looking costume like Pepsiman? What about something that resembled a racing jacket?

Would it be the height of selling out or would it be "cool" at all to have costume parts themed around a real-life corporate logo? Would it make a difference if the real-life logos were added as part of a pack of in-game logos like Crey Corporation or Hero Corp?

Corporate logos, even if only for ingame factions would be nice. The idea of a company sponsored team of heroes is hilarious and even more so if you choose to do it Crey. Hey, whole RP stick there, with the heroes not knowing the truth of their sponsors!

I have always thought NC Soft should lease the in-game billboards for real advertising. Would be non-intrusive advertising, so much more consumer friendly than spam mail, pop ups, edge blocks (the silly ads that occupy space along one or more edges of the screen, obstructing the user's view), and other methods. It would provide good exposure for the product as well.

As for corporate logos on costumes, if it were done in the same "non-intrusive" method and was a matter of choice, then I'd be cool with it. I wouldn't want some company's logo showing up on my costumes without my consent though. There are some companies that I just don't believe in endorsing.

As for in-game faction logos, ummm.... those already exist (Crey, Vindicators, Council, and a few others).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

there should be free accounts that force your characters to wear corporate branding

you can play without a monthly fee if you agree to be captain cheerios

ICK, NO. Fake ads are fine (Chris Jenkins, attorney at law), anything else is intrusive on my gameplay experience. I'm not playing this game so I can have ads for sneakers and energy drinks tossed in my face.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garielle I have always thought NC Soft should lease the in-game billboards for real advertising.

They already tried that. It failed miserably and I believe the ad company even went out of business.

The League of Everyday Heroes is a super-group created by the powerful and enigmatic "Chamber of Commerce". Each member of the League represents or is sponsored by companies which do business within Paragon City.

The League is dedicated to protecting the citizens (and customer-base) of Paragon City. Members of the League make frequent appearances at store openings and various street festivals throughout the city. All inquiries into the League, including arrangements at your next big event, are made through the Rotarian.

DISCLAIMER: Please be aware that the team roster does change as members retire, have their contracts ended or lose sponsorship. Recently, Micky de Clown and her sidekick Fry Guy, had to leave the term when the sponsors of the Burger Sovereign signed an exclusivity contract with the League.

Tar-Jay


Wally World


Barista


D.I.Y.


GeekDrone-1


ThinkGeek 5000


Burger Sovereign and Squire Fryer




Mickey DeClown and Fry Guy

Those screenshots remind me, this game needs better faces. And better hairstyles.

To be fair, I think that when I took those screenshots, I hadn't optimized the graphic settings for my system.

That being said, a graphic update would be nice.

And the problem with corporate logos is that this game is also City of Villains.

It's already hilarious seeing corporations buying advertising space in an amazingly corrupt, crime-ridden, hostile to the US military dictatorship.

When I worked for General Electric, the manual on where and how the corporate logo (the swirly GE monogram, which is in fact called "the meatball" by GE employees) could be used - on products, on business cards, on letterhead, on anything - was a couple of inches thick. Unauthorized use, we were assured, endangered the company's tradeark rights and would be sternly disciplined if done by an employee and vigorously prosecuted by legal if done outside the corporation.

Every major corporation has a similar manual, depend on it.

News stories abound on corporations engaging in legal fights, whether a battle of giants as in Kellog's v Exxon (over the Exxon Tiger diluting the trademark value of Tony the Tiger - which Kellog's won), or Goliath stamping David into the mud, as in Sony Corp forcing a woman named Sony (pronounced Sunny) to change the name of her small town restaurant, Sony's Diner.

McDonald's, notoriously, reacts to the use of Ronald like unto a piranha in the presence of two all beef patties - there is a lengthy training course for people who will be appearing dressed as Ronald in commercials and at company events, and any deviation from the manual on how to create the look, or perform the character, gets smacked down.

In short, unauthorized use of any corporate logo by Cryptic would be subject to legal challenge by the company in question. Indeed, the structure of trademark laws would virtually require the company to take action to protect its trademark from unauthorized use, as just letting it slide would endanger the owner's control of the trademark.

It could potentially be like the Marvel suit, probably writ larger.

as always, it's depressing how many people embrace corporate advertising as natural and fun, a neat option for a fictional universe.

Happily their billboard idea was an abject failure.
Hopefully that will spare our little corner of the MMO universe further predation.

When you do the costume missions one of the tailors (I think the one in FF) does actually tell your hero that he needs a new costume if he wants to get corporate sponsorship .

Any real company willing to put it's logo on costumes is going to have to risk one of the game players having an ax to grind.

So, probably never.

While I tend to agree that corporations like control over their image, the example in my OP is a real-life example that has all of the dangers mentioned above. Someone decided to go ahead with it anyway.

Granted, there is a pretty srs bsns word filter in Free Realms, there's still nothing preventing anyone from putting on one of their "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" logo shirts and standing around in Sanctuary (Atlas Park equivalent) shouting about how awful the movie is or just generally being a jerk while wearing the movie logo.

For that matter, there's nothing preventing me from putting on a tee-shirt with a Pepsi logo and murdering somebody with an axe while I'm wearing it. Regardless, Pepsi still licenses logo tee-shirts.

I don't think the "corps are scared that people will act evil and cast the company in a bad light" argument is really all that strong. It's more a question of how effective it is rather than a question of risk.

I couldn't favor external corporate sponsorship. Having more in-game logos available wouldn't be a bad thing.