20 Truly Embarrassing Product Placements In Video Games

Not all advertising in video games is bad. If it's subtle or it fits with the game's world, then it can sometimes help immersion. However, there have been plenty of heavy-handed and totally overbearing examples that made players feel uncomfortable. After all, nobody wants to drop their paycheck on entertainment and then wind up being advertised to non-stop. I'm Sy for WhatCulture.com and these are the 10 most embarrassing product placements in video games. 10. Death Stranding advertises while you poop Oh that Hideo Kojima, what will he think of next? During his time directing Metal Gear Solid, there was always an interesting discussion to be had about what Kojima would do if totally taken off the leash. Sure, MGS had some completely outlandish moments but Konami seemed to be the one with the stamp of final approval. So when Death Stranding finally released, his first work as an independent creator, we could finally see what Kojima was capable of. And it was bodily functions. Oh good. Not only can you pee in Death Stranding, or protagonist Sam Bridges, portrayed by Norman Reedus, will get visibly uncomfortable. Additionally, you can also go for number two in a certain room of the game which then presents a supremely weird advertisement. As the glass door closes, players are treated to an advert for AMC's ride with Norman Reedus. There are so many questions about this. If this is a secret facility, who is this commercial even for? But perhaps more pressing, AMC and Kojima Productions apparently organised a contract for and presumably agreed to place it around when Sam Bridges drops Trow. Either way, it didn't work. The season four ride with Norman Reedus following the release of Death Stranding had lower viewing figures than ever, presumably because a triple A game just crapped on it. Eh? Eh? Number nine, Fight Night Round Three swears loyalty to the king. Sports, by their very nature, are advertising heavy. As such, you should expect to see familiar brand names in video game adaptations of them. After all, it would actually be a little immersion breaking if they weren't there. Boxing is no exception and as such, Fight Night Round Three contains nods to the usual affair of Under Armour and Everlast sporting goods. However, there are also a few more interesting choices like Dodge and big banners for Burger King of all things. But that's not remotely where it ends. See, like many games of its ilk, Fight Night has unlockable fighters but it also has an unlockable trainer who can follow you to the ring and give you advice between rounds. And that man? The king himself. No, not Elvis. The Burger King. What makes this so weird is that there is literally nothing else like this in the game, or really in the series. The original Fight Night had miniature fighters and big head modes but, as cute as they are, they're a far cry from the absolute mind-bending weirdness of seeing the terrifying grin of Mr. Whopper himself trundling down to the ring. There was also a Burger King challenge to unlock him which just stunk of a lazy paid-off promotion that had been crowbarred into the game. Number eight, James Pond 2's favourite chocolate. A quaint and often forgotten platforming mascot of the early 90s, James Pond excelled in UK markets. For one thing, its developers Millennium Interactive were British, but it also had a bit of a silly British sense of humour to boot. To that point, James Pond 2 Robocod actually have some screens in it that are unique to the UK release, specifically because they are product placements for a chocolate bar that is not necessarily sold all around the world. In the UK version of the game, players are treated to an endearing opening cutscene that reintroduces Pond himself as well as a panicky group of penguins who are under threat from the returning villain Dr. Maybe. Suddenly, for absolutely no reason at all, they all strike a pose in front of candy wrappers and the logo for the chocolate bar Penguin appears above them, along with a guarantee that it's one of the chocolatiest biscuits in the world. Pond goes through a variety of zany locations in the game, with the first hour being dedicated to a lot of confectionery. Ignoring the enemy that looks like a legally distinct version of the Bertie Bassett's logo, there's an entire stage the player navigates a world made of unwrapped penguin bars. Quite literally floor-to-wall advertising for the chocolate. 7. EA Games gets political As previously mentioned, advertising in video games is okay if it's done right and if it fits, not just on sporting kits, but also on the billboards you might fly by in racing games. It's an established part of our real world that needs to be reflected in a decent digital representation of it. However, President Obama's face gawking at you is not exactly subtle. As part of his attempts to gain and retain political office, Barack Obama and his team struck a deal with Electronic Arts to include advertising for his campaigns in their games. It was a clear attempt to reach a demographic that got their entertainment from video games rather than TV. Gamers largely weren't particularly happy with this. Regardless of one's personal politics, it can be generally agreed that it was a gaudy move. Whilst it's completely fine for some games to have a political message in their story, seeing the real-life faces of smiling politicians that were campaigning for office was a hell of a way to detract from a medium that often serves as a distraction from the stresses of the real world. Then again, Obama won both of his presidential campaigns, so maybe it did connect with otherwise ambivalent EA players. 6. EverQuest 2's Pizza Delivery Command The original EverQuest is seen as an important milestone in the MMORPG genre, but its sequel unfortunately didn't keep up the momentum. With World of Warcraft releasing around the same time and going on to scoop up the vast majority of MMO players, EverQuest's publishers had to find new ways to stand out. Starting in 2005, the game began a relationship with Pizza Hut. It almost seems like a gag command, but EverQuest players could type forward slash pizza to pull up a browser window to place an order for dinner whilst continuing their grind towards the game's level cap. Wow, what a feat of engineering. It's not like players couldn't simply alt-tab out of the window and go to the Pizza Hut website themselves. Firstly, it speaks down to players, but more than that, it almost seems to reinforce the stereotype of the slothful gamer who can't fend for themselves or take a break. That being said, as apparently seamless as this idea was, you'd still have to actually get up to answer the door to receive this mystical pizza. The whole thing seems not only forced, not sure what fast food has to do with medieval fantasy, but so supremely lazy. If you're going to commit to ridiculous synergy between brands, then at least go all in. 5. Phantasy Star Portable 2 is Finger Lickin' Weird Okay, wait, maybe not this kind of all-in. Sega's Phantasy Star series was the company's answer to the blossoming success of the Dragon Quest games. Starting off as classic turn-based RPGs, around the Dreamcast era it morphed into one of the earliest examples of console MMOs. And whilst the series has always had a certain sense of humour, it's Phantasy Star Portable 2 which went flying headfirst into the wacky end of the pool. Who cares about ordering a pizza through a video game when you can adorn with it. In Japan the game had a crossover event with Yum Brands who own Pizza Hut and thus players could kit themselves up with an actual set of pizza weapons, a cardboard box shield and some kind of bludgeoning device that is essentially a pizza on a serving board. It didn't end there however as the event was actually a tie-in for the 40th anniversary of KFC opening in Japan. As such, Colonel Sanders appears in his full glory as a summonable assist for battle. Forget your overpowered weapons and abilities, I have a roundhouse kicking chicken master. KFC is massive in Japan, noticeably being a bit of a Christmas tradition, but this might be a step in the direction of, I can't possibly take this game seriously now. 4. Alan Wake's Energizer Issues Alan Wake's 2021 remaster famously removed the product placement that the game originally had, which largely was met with positivity as players at the time had gotten a little sick of constantly seeing Verizon billboards. But whilst they were oftentimes in your face, at least the product placements weren't totally out of left field like many of the examples on this list. In particular, Alan's reliance on his flashlight made for a logical opportunity to partner with Energizer. Except you sort of have to wonder how Energizer felt about this upon release because it didn't exactly paint their products in a positive light, no pun intended. The simple most important aspect you'll look for when buying batteries is longevity, however a big part of Alan Wake's gameplay is using the flashlight to lead you forwards and to expose and stun enemies lurching out of the darkness. As a horror game then it would be all too simple if our protagonist's batteries were reliable. As such you will go through packs of the stuff at a time. If these were generic off-brand batteries then fine, but these are one of the most recognisable names in the game. Are you telling me Energizer can't help me fight off nightmare creatures? Well if so then what am I even buying them for? 3. Battlefield 2142's Targeted Advertisements EA didn't just rent their digital billboards out to politicians, they were open to anyone with a checkbook. Battlefield 2142 is a particularly good example because it used spyware to figure out how to advertise to you. At this point we humans have evolved to be wary of the very word because it just sounds ominous. As such when gamers received physical copies of the new Battlefield game in 2006 that came with a paper disclaimer in the box, they were understandably worried. It actually turned into a bit of a controversy for EA who had to release clarifying statements alongside their partner IGA Worldwide who were assisting them on this. In their words it wasn't collecting unique data so much as what demographic you were part of, what part of the world you were in and what time it was to better advertise to you. That's all well and good then but considering the game takes place over 100 years into the future it was more than a little weird to see billboards for current day products like Intel processors or the fact that I Am Legend was coming to Blu-ray. Still most players would take this immersion breaking product placement over games that are basically just microtransaction factories so there is that. 2. Zool and the World of Chupa Chups Like James Pond, Zool was another early 90s wannabe mascot platformer because at the time you pretty much couldn't go around any street corner without bumping into a new one. Attempting to steal the limelight of Sonic the Hedgehog, this alien gremlin with attitude found himself on the Amiga and many other consoles attempting to conquer six lands to ascend to the rank of ninja. Whilst it's a weird design and premise it's the kind of thing expected out of a small startup development team. Also the game makes no instant allusions at being bought and paid for. It's not mentioned on the box at all but upon booting up the game it appears that Zool 2 has a particular sweet tooth. In some versions of the game Zool stands awkwardly next to the Chupa Chups logo leaning on it. If he wasn't wearing a mask you can imagine him grimacing at selling out to the man. The game's first stage, appropriately titled Sweet World, is covered in candy. Moreover you basically can't go 10 feet through the level without another signpost with Chupa Chups' logo on it appearing, lording over and overshadowing Zool. This is the first stage of your Sonic Rivaling Platformer. Sorry, I thought it was a commercial come to life. At number one, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker sells its soul. The Metal Gear Solid series has a long-standing history with product placement and MGS4 has a particularly weird moment where characters extol the virtues of the iPod. But it's PSP spin-off Peace Walker that went from walking a line to throwing itself over it asking for capitalist kisses from Big Corpo Mummy and Daddy. The Japanese version of the game features Doritos, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Axe, Uniqlo, Sony Walkmans and Weekly Shonen Magazine. Kojima actually explained that the reason for this was, and we are meant to believe he said this with some degree of sincerity, to surprise players. Yes, in the sense that it's akin to opening the case on a new game and seeing a skid mark on the disc. Or in the sense that players should be surprised and enthralled that Pepsi Next somehow appears in a game set in the 1970s. How pleasantly preposterous. It was all ridiculous and to make things worse these product placements were key to the gameplay. Doritos and Mountain Dew were important to keeping Snake healthy and spraying himself with Axe body spray was needed to restore his psyche, a metre which promotes regenerating health. So apparently in the Metal Gear universe the 1970s were a time when all soldiers were ludicrously unhealthy and smelled like 14 year old boys. Recently CEO of Electronic Arts Andrew Wilson stated the EA wants to implement quote thoughtful advertisement into games to quote harness the power of gaming communities so that can use them as quote meaningful drivers of growth in the future. Which is a speech that sounds like it was ripped directly out of a Deus Ex cutscene. Unfortunately they're far from the only company to have comboed their video games with advertising deals. Some work and others, well there's enough bad examples that we already made a list and now we're doing another. Because I'm Si for whatculture.com and here are 10 more embarrassing product placements in video games. 10. Diesel Devil May Cry 2 Devil May Cry 2 is nobody's favourite game and let's not pretend otherwise. Heck it's more likely that the DMC Devil May Cry 2013 reboot has more fans than DMC2 at this point. Which feels like a bizarre thing to say considering the reboot's initial announcement had fans throffing at the mouth with rage over its protagonist's haircut. A small part of the fanbase's apathy towards Devil May Cry 2 might have something to do with their reward, if you call it that, for beating the game. After making your way through DMC2 as Dante on normal mode and saving your data, you'll immediately be hit with a full screen advertisement for the diesel clothing brand. There's no buffer here, you can beat the last level, credits roll then bam, buy some diesel clothes you fashion oblivious nerd. Both protagonist Dante and Lucia have diesel branded outfits that you can unlock by beating the game with them. Which is the justification for why these adverts are in the game in the first place. A clothing advert probably wasn't the cherry on top that the DMC megafans were looking for at the conclusion of a disappointing sequel though. 9. Domino's Pizza – Code Vein This one might be a bit too mean to include because it never actually saw the light of day, but it's so awful that it deserves a spot on this list. Hidden within the files of Code Vein are some unused voice lines that feature the English voice cast absolutely gushing over Domino's Pizza. Look, there's no sugar coating this one, prepare for cringe. Editor, play a short clip please but know that you've all been warned. The fact that someone forced some poor voice actor to say, you can see the soul of an uncompromising artisan in this pizza when referring to Domino's should be a criminal offence. That's like calling a Tesco's Carbonara ready meal the height of Italian cuisine. There isn't much information as to why the promotion wasn't featured in the full release, but some have theorised that it fell through when the game was delayed from 2018 to 2019. All that remains of the promotion's existence are the unused voice lines and a Domino's logo in the game's files. Good grief. 8. Jake from State Farm – NBA 2K22 The NBA games are chock full of in-game advertisements. I could probably spend this entire video talking about it and still keep going and going and going and going and to a certain extent it makes sense. That being said, one of these is slightly more embarrassing than the rest and honestly, just talking about it feels gross. In NBA 2K22's online mode, The City, players are given a quest to speak to Jake from State Farm. If you're unsure who Jake from State Farm is, good for you. Unfortunately for everyone though, further context will now be provided. State Farm is an insurance company in America and Jake is a character from their adverts and apparently they're quite popular in America because it's, you know, totally normal to be a fan of an insurance company over there. The quest that you're given to speak to Jake sees you rock up to an honest-to-goodness State Farm shop selling insurance company apparel no less, wherein Jake will throw State Farm catchphrases at you. Imagine playing $60 for a game stuffed with microtransactions just to have an insurance company advertised to you. Might need some mouthwash after this one. Or maybe some Airwaves gum. 7. Gum, PCs and Body Spray – Splinter Cell Chaos Theory It could be argued that the Splinter Cell series is really just an endless procession of commercials disguised as video games. Although Splinter Cell Double Agent's obsession with everything Nokia related is probably the most well-known example, the previous entry in the franchise is the best example of a title that blurs the line between a video game and a playable advert. In Chaos Theory, there genuinely might not be a single level without some form of product placement. There several instances of Sam Fisher alluding to how much he loves Airwaves gum, and even a cheeky little reference from Tuga to discuss how Prince of Persia is one of the greatest games ever made. The absolute worst of these has to be the Axe Body Spray you can find in the New York penthouse of a crime lord. Sorry, you're saying this guy can afford to rent, or much worse buy, a penthouse in one of the most expensive cities in the world, but he uses Axe Body Spray. Well, my immersion is just ruined, because everybody knows that rich people use the tears of poor people in aerosol form to clean their pits. 6. Cup Noodle – Final Fantasy XV Final Fantasy XV has so many examples of in-game ads that it's impossible to know where to start. Your party uses Coleman-branded camping gear, Noctis drives a real Aldi, and there's a side quest based around Vivian Westwood. There's even an advertisement for American Express somewhere in the game, which kind of implies that America is a real place within Final Fantasy XV's world. That probably has some incredible implications for the in-game lore that Square Enix willfully ignored when American Express' check cleared. Yet somehow, the worst, most egregious of all of these has to be the Cup Noodle side quest. You can genuinely hear the voice actors in the English dub struggling to keep a straight face throughout the dialogue in this quest, as they take on the challenge trying to convince Noctis to search for the perfect ingredient to put in his instant ramen. The quest itself wasn't the last we'd see of Cup Noodles, however, as Square Enix added a DLC that allowed Noctis to equip a giant Cup Noodle hat. On the plus side, the wearable adverts inclusion really added to the levity of some of the more heartfelt scenes in the game. 5. Ikea – The Sims 2 The Sims games are no strangers to a bit of in-game advertising, but the Ikea Home & H&M Fashion Stuff DLC for The Sims 2 really feel like they're pushing it, even by EA's standards. As the Ikea and H&M branding would suggest, these are advertisements that you can pay to put into your game. For the low cost of roughly £10 per DLC, you too can be the proud digital owner of branded clothes and furniture from multi-million dollar companies, oh yes. No but seriously, why wasn't this content released for free? Assuming the EA got paid to advertise these other companies as players anyway, so it's a bit odd they chose to charge them for the pleasure. Thankfully, the reaction to these DLCs were unfavourable, to say the least. EA were dragged by several different outlets and reviewers, including one now-infamous review from PCZone, who gave the H&M pack a 5 out of 100. Supposedly, although unconfirmed, EA were so furious with the review that they contacted PCZone directly about this. So this resulted in PCZone publishing a follow-up to the Ikea Home DLC, where Stephen Hogerty simply listed Ikea furniture items ad nauseum in his 25 out of 100 rating You love to see it. Mercedes Benz make cars, and Mario Kart 8 is a racing game. As far as promotional team-ups go, this one isn't that weird. You could maybe argue that it is a little bit odd that Nintendo agreed to any form of sponsorship deal at all, considering they aren't really known for collaborations at all, especially not like this. However, where we can all agree is that the Super Mario Promotion was definitely out of left field. Putting a car into the car game is passable, but the suits at Nintendo knew they were pushing it when they shoehorned the Mercedes Benz GLA into the Mushroom Stomping Simulator. On the plus side, we did get this advert out of it, featuring an oddly chiselled live-action Mario. Considering how forced the Super Mario Maker collab feels, it does make you wonder what other alternative games Nintendo might have considered smushing the Mercedes Benz GLA into. Maybe a replacement skin for Epona in Twilight Princess HD? Or perhaps even a new form for Kirby to unlock in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. Someone surely asked Sakurai if they could put the Mercedes Benz GLA as a fighter into Smash Bros, right? Because, I mean, duh, it's so obvious. 3. Powerade – Enter the Matrix For the release of The Matrix Reloaded, Warner Bros and Coca-Cola teamed up to slap the Powerade brand across everything and anything Matrix-related. Full-page cross-promotional ads in magazines, an advertisement before showings of the films where an agent tells everyone to get hydrated, there was even a special limited-edition Matrix-coloured Powerade bottle. Enter the Matrix, the video game tie-in that launched alongside The Matrix Reloaded, wasn't immune from this Powerade-fuelled cross-promotional nightmare either. Powerade vending machines can be found in a few locations in Enter the Matrix, sporting the same green and black Matrix-style branding as the special limited-edition Powerade bottles, and will restore your health if you interact with them. In any other game, this kind of marketing ploy would be passable at best, but The Matrix is supposed to be a critique of capitalism, and a not-so-subtle one at that. We all know that executive meddling exists, and that films often have to subsidise production costs through marketing deals, but in The Matrix's case, you'd think they'd try to be clever with it at the very least. Give the audience a little wink and nudge while you force-feed them Coca-Cola branded electrolytes, come on. 2. Final Fantasy – The Spirits Within – Life is Strange In the original Life is Strange, there's a sort of tongue-in-cheek moment where Max makes a comment about wanting to watch Final Fantasy – The Spirits Within on a flat-screen TV that you can interact with. All in all, it's pretty harmless stuff. Square Enix produced Life is Strange, and of course they published the Final Fantasy games, so this is just a cute little reference on behalf of the publisher, right? Actually, it turns out that Square Enix had not much to do with it at all, as the reference directly came from Life is Strange's writer, Christian Devine. When asked about the reference on the Kinda Funny Games podcast, co-director Michael Koch said that the writer considers the movie to be one of the best sci-fis ever made, and that its connection with Square Enix was just a happy accident. Now look, I'm more likely to defend this film than some people, but even I will draw the line. This is a pretty questionable opinion, and apparently Square Enix agreed. Because according to Michael Koch, even the company was confused about the reference as they were worried that players might assume the writers were forced into putting something like this into the game, assumedly because of The Spirits Within's terrible critical reception, and also it was like, what, 15 years old at this point? And number one, PlayStation. FIFA. As I said previously, sports and advertising just go together, so much like you'd see in a real football match, FIFA titles feature a bunch of advertisements in the form of pitch-side ads. Again, this isn't that weird, and you can actually defend the inclusion of these because it makes a more authentic experience all around. McDonald's trying to advertise you their new $6.99 Double McChicken Tower Burger in FIFA 24, it's like you're really there at Old Trafford. The embarrassing in the title of this video has a slight different twist this time, because it depends on which platform you play FIFA on, and it depends who you're embarrassing. Since 1997, PlayStation have been one of the UEFA Champions League's many sponsors, and as a result, the PlayStation logo is often slapped across the side of the pitch when a Champions League match is broadcast on TV. The slightly embarrassing side effect of this sponsorship deal is that the advertisements in FIFA games mirror the ones found in real matches, which means that PlayStation advertisements can be found in countless FIFA games on both Xbox and Nintendo platforms. The Sony ads are so prevalent that Nintendo once basically ran a 30 minute advert for the PS4 Pro at Gamescom, when EA showed off FIFA 19 on the Nintendo Switch. Oops, sorry.