Bizarre Gaming/Product tie-ins

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

So I was in the bathroom this morning and noticed for the first time that there was a symbol on my dad's shaving cream can that looked oddly familiar. Sure enough:

Spoiler: 'Nothing is true, everything is permitted... except stubble. Assassinate it with Edge!

Including a code for some exclusive DLC content.

It seemed both appropriate and not, advertising such a game on a product you'll be doing some cutting with (but hopefully not too much), but I was slightly thrown in that it was probably the first product like that I've seen a direct advertisement for a game on that wasn't a flier. What about you? What's the most bizarre product you've seen have a product tie-in to a game on the container? Bonus points for making a slogan that ties them together.

 

[Queen Michael]

There were these gummy candy figures of Mario and pals. The candy was normal. The weird part was the marketing. The wrapper said it was "3-D candy!" Well, yeah. All candy is 3-D.

EDIT: I just reread the OP and realized this isn't exactly what you meant. Sorry. Still weird though.

 

[SoreWristed]

The Portal underwear. 'Your genitals will never get in the way during testing! A small portal in the front allows you for more room down there so you'll never get embarassed at parties. Aperture science is not responsible for any accidents or dismemberments caused by malfunction of said portals'

lonk : http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/18c8/

 

[Genocidicles]

The oddest thing that comes to mind is when copies of Beyond Good and Evil were given away for free with cheese in Canada.

I believe this was around five years after its release as well. Very strange.

 

[McMarbles]

Pretty much any Mountain Dew tie in, because why on earth is Mountain Dew the official soda of video games? Couldn't we pick a drink that wasn't awful?

 

[Aerosteam]

I crack up at this every time I get reminded of it.


Ow.

 

[Sir Pootis]

Four words: Lu Bu Drinking Pepsi.

Spoiler

Just... that intense stare.

Also, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker had a few product placements in the Japanese version.

Spoiler

All of which were replaced with generic-labeled equivalents in the international version.

 

[Rayce Archer]

I mostly notice ads, which have been with us longer than most folks think.

In Extreme G 2 all the tracks contain advertising for Citizen and Diesel. I could buy overpriced hipster jeans in 400 years, but watches? People barely use watches now.

TMNT2 on NES was nothing but pizza hut ads, including some rather questionable placement in which pizza hut signs would fall on your turtles and kill them. Pizza Hut was all over Nintendo games in the 90s and ran a big, memorable Mario Kart campaign. If you got the game new it came with a pizza hut coupon; a mint condition boxed game that still has that coupon is probably super rare now.

Battlefield 2142 had dynamically loaded ads for modern products, even though the game was set DURING an apocalyptic flood and world-destroying war. To their credit the ads WERE all aged and worn looking. As compared to the ads in the Left Behind game, which all looked new and were all for Gamestop. Because when the minions of hell walk the Earth, GAMESTOP WINS.

There was a contest associated with Cutthroat Island, the SNES game based on the movie Cutthroat Island. If you won there was a phone number to call for a split second and you won money if you were the very first. Of course the movie was so bad nobody got the game; just as well because the game was terrible too.

And of course there was this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swordquest

 

[baddude1337]

I remember back in the day Lucozade had Lara Craft promoting their drink:

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

Ryu Ga Gotoku. The fifth one has promotional feature for Zanmai Sushi. Of course it gets ridiculous when you can go there in Ishin. A side story game in the meiji era with sign and all

 

[CommanderZx2]

I remember back in the day Lucozade had Lara Craft promoting their drink:

For some blatant in game Tomb Raider advertising, see the Ducati advert in Tomb Raider Legend.
https://youtu.be/dO0RVkKz-8M?t=6m5s

 

[TrevHead]

Devil May Cry 2 Diesel Jeans promotion, the HD collection has the adverts as unlockable art.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Pretty much any Mountain Dew tie in, because why on earth is Mountain Dew the official soda of video games? Couldn't we pick a drink that wasn't awful?

In defense of this, at least they offer flavored Mountain Dew which is downright great compared to the original-flavored swill...what really annoys me is how they did away with Pitch Black and refuse to bring that back...bastards...

---

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games on the NES came with coupons for either free or discounted Pizzas at Pizza Hut. It made sense in a way but the odd part was that in the movies from the early 90's, I remember them eating Dominos pizza...really strange. Someone mentioned the InFamous condoms earlier and that definitely wins.

 

[Glongpre]

http://kotaku.com/5967759/fist-of-the-north-star-gets-its-own-condoms

Yes. Fist of the North Star condoms. Not technically a true gaming tie-in, although there are some FOTNS games.

When I first saw this I laughed hysterically because (I saw it on the Shoryuken forums) one of the posters said one of the marketing lines is "You have already cum!".

Some of the Kotaku posts were pretty good too.

hahaha