by Sean O'Leary

Created on: May 11, 2008   Last Updated: October 27, 2008

As an avid video gamer, and hard-core supporter of the rights involved for all partys, I have to say that I do see far too much advertising directed at young children. Let's face it, any gamer with half a brain knows that it's the responisbilty of the parents or gaurdians to tell their children that, no, it's not okay to go out steal a car, gun down the police, chainsaw their friends and devour the corpses.

But we also know that kids are going to at the very least ATTEMPT to do whatever they want to do, despite their parents best efforts. Right, I'm not talking about the stupid parents that are out there that buy an Xbox 360 for their 8 year old and then let it babysit them while they go out for a night of binge drinking. And no, I don't have any kids but I'm the eldest of four brothers, and the majority of my friends are married with families of their own. I'm calling it like I see it. I'm talking about the GOOD parents that actually monitor what their children are playing and watching on television. What are they supposed to do when their child's gaming magazine has an advertisment for Gears of War right next to a article previewing a wholesome family Wii game? Is the parent supposed to change the channel every time a commercial airs featuring Grand Theft Auto VI during an episode of Teen Titans? This arguement goes all the way back to Joe Camel. If kids can identify it as a video game, they're going to want to play it.
And how many Adult gamers want to take the mature games out of the hands of the kids? I can tell you I do, and not only because they emulate their heros. Seriously, do you want your child to develop an attitude like Family Guy's Peter Griffen, or repeat half the dialoge they hear come out of Gears Of War's Marcus Pheonix?
No, I don't want them to play the mature games because the little buggers annoy me to no end! Do you know how difficult it is to communicate with your teamates in an online ranked match of...well ANYTHING, when someone's larva is screaming "OLEYOLEYOLEYOLEYOOOOOOOOHHHH" into his microphone? We have enough "mature" players who perform that kind of malicious nonsense, without getting the tweens involved.
Frankly, there's enough trash talking in in the online play of any video game that if you're going to let your child play it you might as well go ahead and enlist them in the US Navy while you're at it, because if he or she repeats anything they hear ME say when I start trash-talking, they're going to peel the paint off your walls. And I consider myself tame.

The fact of the matter is, children want to be treated like adults, for whatever reason, and adults want to retain their youth. So somewhere in there, the game publishers who want to get their games to their target demographic of "mature" gamers need to find the happy medium of advertising to the adults while skirting the awareness of the little children.

So who's to blame? THe publishers, for buying advertising space where it shouldn't be? The commercial artists who design the advertisment? Or perhaps the magazine editors and network directors who place the advertisments where they fit rather than attempting to understand the content? Maybe all of them. But if the cigerette companies can figure it out - and granted, that is debateable in and of itself- then the gaming industry can too.

Welcome to mainstream marketing guys.

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