Corporate Schlock: Advertising Tie-Ins to Video Games

Why just play a game when you can also be advertised at?

By: Seth Macy
October 28, 2011

We see our hero, Nathan Drake, dangling precariously from the belly of an airborne cargo plane; one hand secures his life, while the other holds a refreshing drink from Subway, America’s premier home for sandwich artistry. The scene quickly changes to Drake running from a deluge down a hallway, drink in hand, asking viewers if they share his taste for adventure. From there he tumbles from the open hatch of an airplane, grabbing onto a handful of cargo netting at the last second, using his free hand to catch his 16 ounce beverage before it plummets to the dry desert below.

The commercial is a tie-in between Subway and Sony — publisher of Uncharted 3 — and rather than use a celebrity spokesperson, the advertising agency instead opted to employ a fictional character who also happens to star in a blockbuster videogame. When this commercial first began airing, quite a few people could barely muster more than an emphatic “Huh?” It seemed an unusual fit, Subway and Nathan Drake, and many fans of the series felt that this corporate cross-over in some way cheapened what’s arguably considered one of the PS3’s most important titles. But it’s nothing new — oh, not by a long shot. Corporations have been using videogames as a way to advertise for years, often with embarrassing results.