Microsoft Fuels Youth Obesity Epidemic via Xbox tie-ins: Digital Product Placement and Beyond

Microsoft is one of the most aggressive online marketing companies targeting teens online.  Across the globe, Microsoft Advertising touts its ability to deliver interactive food and beverage ads on PCs, mobile phones, gaming devices and via IM, Bing, etc.  Teens and young adults are the key target–but so are young children.  In its desperation to catch up with online ad leader Google, Microsoft has strained to be the “yes we will” digital agency.  For several years, Microsoft has had a close tie with Pepsi’s Doritos and Mountain Dew, offering various special games that feature the chip.  Now Microsoft is continuing that alliance, as the new Halo:Reach edition comes to market.  As explained by Variety, “helping build Microsoft’s brand is Madison Avenue, which has fully embraced the franchise’s main character, Master Chief, and turned him into a pitch soldier, with PepsiCo plastering him on 300 million Mountain Dew cans and 30 million bags of Doritos for the launch of the latest game.”

Microsoft officials–and those who play a influential role in the company–should not endorse digital marketing schemes that target youth–and especially contribute to such major public health problems as youth obesity.  For shame, Microsoft.

Author: jeff

Jeff Chester is executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. A former journalist and filmmaker, Jeff's book on U.S. electronic media politics, entitled "Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy" was published by The New Press in January 2007. He is now working on a new book about interactive advertising and the public interest.