These body is free, so get one now advertising and branding in social vitrual worlds

“These bodies are FREE, so get one NOW!”: Advertising & Branding in Social Virtual Worlds Betsy Book April 2004 This paper is based on a presentation given at the 2003 Interactive Media Forum: Identity & Cultures in Cyberspace at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio on October 27, 2003 It is available online through the SSRN.com web site For more information about virtual worlds please visit Virtual Worlds Review at: http://www.virtualworldsreview.com What Is a Virtual World? The term “virtual world” encompasses a wide variety of interactive online environments Virtual worlds are created in many different formats and designed in a variety of styles, ranging from a 2D or “2-1/2 D” cartoon style (Fig 1) to more realistic 3D creations (Fig 2) 2D virtual worlds are constructed from a series of rooms loaded separately by each visitor, while 3D worlds allow users to move continuously through a landscape or cityscape The thematic content of virtual worlds also varies widely, from fantasy role playing game settings to futuristic science fiction sites to suburban domestic spaces Some emphasize gaming activities while others are accurately be described as next generation chat rooms.1 Fig 1: Habbo Hotel is a social virtual world with an Fig 2: Second Life’s 3D design allows visitors to fly isometric design style (http://www.habbohotel.com) through a virtual landscape (http://www.secondlife.com) Visitors to virtual worlds interact with each other by typing text into a chat window or, in some cases, speaking to each other through a live voice chat application They are represented visually by an image called an “avatar” which can take the form of almost anything, from human to animal to a can of spam, depending on the mood of the visitor and the technical capabilities of the virtual environment As representations of each visitor, avatars play a pivotal role in a virtual world’s community formation and social structure Many activities in virtual worlds foreground For a comprehensive history and summary of many types of virtual worlds, see Richard Bartle’s Designing Virtual Worlds, New Riders Press, 2003 the avatar, including avatar customization classes, avatar clothing sales, costume contests, and fashion shows A great deal of time, energy, and even money is spent on these virtual bodies Some people like to create avatars that are extremely different from their real bodies, personalities, or even gender while others prefer avatars that more accurately represent their offline appearance No matter how closely an avatar mirrors its creator’s offline physical appearance, the act of creating an avatar can be an experience of selfdiscovery for its creator.2 Virtual worlds typically offer a default “starter” avatar, which most users immediately change to avoid the dreaded stigma of looking like a “newbie.” Recently launched worlds like There and Second Life allow avatars to be customized to the nth degree with menus and sliders that alter an avatar’s shape, size, gender, race, and physical features (Fig 3) Fig 3: In Second Life avatars can be customized through many menus of buttons and sliders (http://www.secondlife.com) Advertising and Avatars in Virtual Worlds Several companies that own and operate virtual worlds have realized that while some visitors may not necessarily pay much, if anything, to access the world itself, they will For greater insight into the specific ways in which avatars affect both individual identity formation and a virtual world’s social structure, see Taylor, T.L., “Living Digitally: Embodiment in Virtual Worlds,” in R Shroeder (Ed.), The Social Life of Avatars: Presence and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments: London: Springer-Verlag, 2002, pp 40 - 62 and Suler, J., “The Psychology of Avatars and Graphical Space in Multimedia Chat Communities,” available online at http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psyav.html pay for the ability to customize their avatars with special physical features, clothing and accessories This, of course, is where advertising and branding enter the picture Fig 4: Choosing a body in VZones (http://www.vzones.com) Fig is a screen shot from a virtual world called VZones, where new visitors are offered a selection of six basic body types Extra bodies are available in VZones but they require additional payment The prominent statement in the avatar selection room alerts users: “These bodies are FREE, so get one NOW!” When a visitor decides to become a member of VZones for a monthly fee ranging from $5.95 to $20.95 (USD)3, he or she may then purchase other avatar bodies from an online store Figs and illustrate examples of the types of alternate bodies offered by VZones The bodies in Fig are priced at $27.50 (USD) The “SuperScott Body” in Fig goes for as high as $40.00, although apparently those who already own the regular “Scott Body” can upgrade to “Super Scott” for $12.50 Monthly fee data for VZones is current as of April 2004 See http://www.vzones.com/join.htm for current rates Fig 5: Sample bodies for sale in VZones Fig 6: The SuperScott Body in VZones (http://www.vzones.com) (http://www.vzones.com) SuperScott is an interesting example of a gender stereotype not only being reinscribed online, but done so in a rather extreme way SuperScott is hyper-masculine, with muscles literally bulging out of his leather and denim clothing Obviously someone who purchases SuperScott Body is looking to make a very particular impression on others in VZones This sort of hyper-masculinity (and, to be fair, the hyper-femininity displayed in many of the female avatars) is typical of the visual exaggeration of gender found often in virtual worlds SuperScott is also presented as part of the “Scott” brand, “Scott” being a particular line of avatars in VZones This recalls Neal Stephenson’s description of branded avatars in an online world called the Metaverse in the 1992 novel Snow Crash The Metaverse’s default avatars are called “Brandies” and “Clints” and are described as “popular, off the shelf models” with bland good looks but a limited range of facial expressions.4 In a way, SuperScott serves as VZones’ very own Clint upgrade In Snow Crash, two social groups own the best avatars: hackers (who have the technical skills to create them) and the financially well off (who can afford to purchase them) This dynamic plays out in a similar way in “real” virtual Stephenson, N., Snow Crash, New York: Bantam Books, 1992, p 37 worlds today Those who have large quantities of time, money, and/or technical skills are likely to possess the most impressive avatars Fig 7: Shopping for virtual products in There (http://www.there.com) Fig shows examples of official virtual clothing advertisements within the virtual world There These products and their ads were created by professional graphic designers employed by the company The style and composition of the posters are based on the visual styles of traditional offline retail posters and catalogue ads using a visual theme consistent with There’s corporate branding The posters are placed in shopping pavilions throughout There where members may purchase each product by clicking on a poster Indecisive shoppers are offered a chance to “try on” the item first Some virtual worlds like There and Second Life also provide design tools that allow members to create and sell their own self-branded avatar clothing products and other items.5 This leads to a wider selection of clothing choices for other members and results in the production of self-branded clothing product lines with accompanying “homemade” advertisements To create widespread brand recognition and inform potential customers about their products, virtual clothing designers use the same techniques that clothing For more information about the currencies and economies of virtual worlds, see Castronova, E., “Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier,” Social Science Research Network Electronic Library, December 2001, available online at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=294828 and Reynolds, Ren, “Commodification of Identity in Online Communities,” Association of Internet Researchers conference paper, October 2003, available online at: http://www.ren-reynolds.com/downloads/RReynolds_AoIR_2003.htm companies and ad agencies use to promote products offline They develop a uniquely identifiable brand, often choosing to specialize in a specific item or style (e.g shoe makers or “goth” style clothing specialists), and they create web sites and logos with fonts, colors, and designs that are visually consistent with this brand The next step is to market the wares to potential customers While some prefer the “word of mouth” method, others get the word out by placing billboard ads throughout the world, which can look like a simple black and white sign or a more complex juxtaposition of ad copy and visual imagery commonly seen in offline advertising billboards (Figs and 9) Virtual billboards have the added sales advantage of allowing interested customers to click on them to receive more information about the product or store and, in some cases, a link or bookmark that will transport the customer instantly to the store Fig 8: Billboard advertisements in There Fig 9: A billboard advertisement in Second Life (http://www.there.com) (http://www.secondlife.com) Community members embarking on entrepreneurial projects generally receive a great deal of support from other members, as they are viewed as adding something original and valuable to the community However, sometimes an overly enthusiastic advertiser who “spams” the landscape with too many billboards elicits negative reactions The worst offenders are targeted with anti-ad protests One tactic used by protesters is to limit the effectiveness of the ads by placing blank signs over ads, rendering them unreadable (Fig 10) Other common tactics include posting “graffiti” on a billboard, placing another sign in the general vicinity of the ad that publicly criticizes the advertiser, and attempts to tarnish the seller’s reputation on the community’s message boards by painting him or her as someone who places their own entrepreneurial interests above the general community’s wishes for moderation in advertising practices Anti-advertising protests generally tend to occur in reaction to extreme situations in which too many ads are placed in a single area or when the billboards physically block a favorite virtual landscape, view, major pathway, or entrance to a building Fig 10: A billboard is covered with a blank sign to protest a member’s excessive placement of ads throughout There (http://www.there.com) Branded Products for Virtual Homes Most virtual worlds offer members the opportunity to rent or purchase real estate properties within the world In worlds where these properties take the form of domestic spaces, home furnishings are another popular category of products created, branded, and sold in the virtual marketplace For example, in Habbo Hotel each new member is automatically given a “hotel room” and invited to decorate it with a variety of furniture and accessories like rugs, lamps, posters and plants Members of The Sims Online, There, and Second Life are not immediately presented with real estate property, but are instead given a stipend of virtual currency upon sign-up and encouraged to use this to rent or purchase a plot of land and/or a home for their avatars For several months I visited The Sims Online and remained a homeless nomad I simply preferred to visit other avatars’ homes and socialize with them, but many visitors were confused when they learned I did not own a home For them, home ownership was the entire point of the TSO experience Not wanting to miss out on such a vital part of the world, I eventually decided to create my own house and, in the process, discovered a whole new array of product purchasing menus (Fig 11) Fig 11: A vast array of product purchasing menus awaits new home owners in The Sims Online (http://www.eagames.com/official/thesims/thesimsonline/home/index.jsp) The vast selection of furniture, rugs, lamps, mirrors, plants, and other products in The Sims Online is quite impressive, but the most interesting aspect of TSO’s home furnishings catalogue is the use of witty, fantastic descriptions of the most mundane objects For example, the description of an exceedingly plain, round brown table identified as the “Circuisine Dining Table” reads: “From the days of Arthurian legend, the power of the circle to enhance mealtimes and meetings stands unchallenged No head or foot and room for all This is the egalitarian pleasure of Circuisine.” This playful use of over-the-top ad copy inspired by the “salesy” tone of offline catalogues and commercials can be found in other virtual worlds as well Like The Sims Online, Habbo Hotel places great emphasis on the ownership and customization of personal domestic space In fact, members even have a cute nickname for furniture (“furni”) Cool furni is the most highly valued economic and social currency within Habbo Hotel Furni is packaged and marketed in sets, with each set differentiated by an exotic custom brand name, reminiscent of the merchandising style of an IKEA catalogue 10 Fig 12 displays the online catalogue page for a line of virtual furniture called Mode, presented to the customer in a style reminiscent of online e-commerce sites, print catalogues, and television commercials A product description and image of a “spokesavatar” recommending the product to potential customers greets the viewer in a large window that covers the rest of the screen, demanding the full attention of the viewer The description of Mode reads: “Steely gray functionality combined with sleek designer upholstery The Habbo who chooses this furniture is a cool urban cat – streetwise, sassy, and so slightly untouchable.” Meanwhile, the spokesavatar touches a virtual chair with his virtual arm and declares it to be “Oooh, so shiny and new.” How could any Habbo not want to buy a Mode chair after seeing this? This presentation of a virtual product line draws a direct connection between the product and the personal identity of the customer, assuring potential Mode owners that they will be “streetwise,” “sassy,” and “cool urban cats” as Mode furni owners The other lines of furniture in Habbo Hotel are presented in similar ways, with playful, tongue-in-cheek descriptions based on traditional offline commercial advertising copy The product catalogues of Habbo Hotel and The Sims Online share a playful, campy writing style that indicates these companies realize that the choices involved in the furnishing of a virtual personal space can be as important to the creation and projection of members’ online identities as the choices made during the creation of their avatars 19 Fig 20: Members hold a modeling contest in Habbo Hotel (http://www.habbohotel.com) For example, Fig 20 shows a Habbo Hotel room owned by a young lady called “No1~BPR~M0del”14 who included the names of two well-known clothing brands into her room’s name It was called “BabyPhat + Rocawear Modelz” with plenty of register and copyright marks thrown in for good measure No1~BPR~M0del had, in fact, carefully constructed this room for the express purpose of holding virtual modeling contests She and her clique comprised the “inner circle” of avatars on this particular occasion, a social position visually delineated by their location at the back of the room, where they sat on couches and observed and commented on the other avatars’ activities Their space was protected by not one, but two sets of barriers and doors Only those invited could enter into the inner sanctum The modeling contestants, who had carefully chosen their outfits (conveniently ignoring the fact that their cartoon-style clothing items were actually not branded and chosen from the same basic menu as every other avatar in Habbo Hotel) paraded around the makeshift runway in the center of the room, hoping for favorable judgment by No1~BPR~M0del and her crew Outside the first barrier, other avatars lined up, hoping to be granted entry into the next modeling competition Meanwhile I sat silently on the sidelines with another observer, waiting to see who would 14 All member screen names have been changed in the text and removed from the images 20 be chosen As I waited, I clicked on each avatar to see how they identified themselves Nearly all of them used a brand name or the word “model” in their avatar’s descriptors One of them described herself as a “Fubu model @ BabyPhat.” She was doubly branded and, not coincidentally, part of the inner circle, wielding her brands as a testament to her popularity and acceptance.15 This “modeling contest” game is one that is played out repeatedly, day after day, in Habbo Hotel The brands used may vary from room to room, but the use of brands as personal and social identifiers is one of Habbo Hotel’s most striking trends Sulake Labs, the company that owns and operates Habbo Hotel, has also produced a fully branded world targeted to kids and teens called Coke Music The Coca-Cola logo had appeared before in virtual worlds (as in the Active Worlds examples) but Coke Music is a whole new ballgame Almost every item in this world is branded with the signature red and white Coca-Cola colors and logos From the furni to the wall decorations to the miniature Coke machines that dispense tiny bottles of Coke in each room, the corporate brand is plentiful and pervasive in Coke Music Fig 21: Coke Music offers tiny decorative corporate logos and brand-inspired furniture (http://www.cokemusic.com) 15 The use of these particular brands, which have strong associations with the hip-hop music industry, may have been meant to serve as symbolic codings of racial identity as well 21 Fig 21 shows a sampling of furniture and decorative objects available to Coke Music members for the furnishing of their private rooms, which are called “studios” here The product designs recall various ad campaigns throughout the history of Coca-Cola, from the “1950s American diner” style of the stools, booth benches and old-fashioned refrigerators to the more recent “polar bear” holiday campaign Meanwhile a Coke Music logo is prominently displayed at the bottom right corner of each room Its design is a subtle variation of the main corporate logo with the addition of a wonderfully ironic oneword ad tagline: “Real.” Coke Music’s young patrons not seem to mind the pervasive branding in their online hangout In fact, they quite happily create studios full of Coca-Cola logos and Cokebranded furniture while using screen names like “all_4_coke” and “coke_l0vah.” However, these kids are not Coca-Cola “drones” mindlessly promoting a product either Member generated social activities in Coke Music not necessarily revolve around Coca-Cola at all Like Habbo Hotel, this teen world’s social structure is based on the constant negotiation of cliques, inner circles, in-crowds and social drama that is enacted throughout a variety of settings The corporate sponsor is just as likely to be completely ignored in the pursuit of these activities, especially when more powerful metaphors can be found One example I found in Coke Music was a room serving as home to a clique calling itself the “US_Army.” The creators of this room kept Coca-Cola imagery to a minimum, opting for “army green” rather than “Coca-Cola red” as a dominant color (Fig 22) The large barrier in the center of the room provided the standard visual delineation between those who were already members of the club and those who were not US_Army members stood shoulder to shoulder at the barrier, a united front facing the rest of the crowd, most of whom were “army recruits” busy clothing themselves in green and lobbying club members for acceptance into the group As I watched the group’s activity I came to understand that the US_Army in Coke Music was simply a different iteration of the same social drama being played out in the modeling contests of Habbo Hotel 22 Fig 22: A teen “army” recruits members Coke Music (http://www.cokemusic.com) This screenshot was taken in August 2003 While the choice of a military theme was undoubtedly influenced by the concurrent American occupation of Iraq and this event’s prominence in the media, I not believe that ultimately the US_Army group in Coke Music was meant to serve as an overtly patriotic or political statement The members of this group made absolutely no references to current events or political views, nor did they engage in discussions of any real military activities Instead, they focused all their attention on issues like sorting out exactly who was part of the club and who was not, who was worthy of access to the club, and who had been in the club for the longest period of time Clearly the army theme used by the US_Army club in Coke Music was not meant to be a literal representation of the real U.S Army, but rather a visual and textual symbol of issues related to inclusion, exclusion, and power However, a virtual world whose existence is entirely dedicated to the promotion of the real United States Army to American teenagers does exist On July 4, 2002, the U.S Army launched a virtual gaming world called America’s Army, which serves as a public relations and marketing tool for the military with the specific goal of recruiting young Americans for volunteer military service America’s Army offers players a glimpse into the life and experiences of army soldiers Those who register for the game may either 23 play anonymously or opt to allow America’s Army to track their progress If a player chooses the tracking option and demonstrates a high level of skill during simulated training and combat exercises, he may be contacted by a recruiter to discuss career opportunities available in the real U.S Army The Army’s strategy of using a virtual world as an advertising, branding and recruiting tool has been wildly successful In a booklet created for an America’s Army presentation and exhibition at the Games Scene exhibition at the Yerba Buena Art Center in January 2004, Colonel E Casey Wardynski writes, Due to its broad appeal, America’s Army has found its way onto the computers of over 2.8 million registered users As a result, a recent survey of the effectiveness of Army marketing and strategic communications found America’s Army to be the Army’s most effective medium for reaching young Americans Indeed, the game engendered positive awareness among twenty-nine percent of young Americans age 16 to 24 Importantly, the game achieved these results at an expenditure of about one-third of one percent of the Army’s total marketing budget.16 While America’s Army has exceeded the expectations of its creators as an effective youth outreach tool for the military, it also incorporates the occasional consumer product endorsement In Fig 23, a Special Forces avatar wields his weapon along with his Oakley sunglasses while the tagline beneath informs site visitors that “Oakley sunglasses are indispensable in the field!” It is unclear whether this is a paid sponsorship or if the Oakley reference is simply incorporated as one detail among many reflecting the everyday realities of soldiers and their preferred eyewear during combat 16 Wardynski, Col E.C., in Margaret Davis, Ed., “America’s Army PC Game Vision and Realization: A Look at the Artistry, Technique, and Impact of the United States Army’s Groundbreaking Tool for Strategic Communication,” Produced by the United States Army and the MOVES Institute, January 2004, p Available online at: http://www.movesinstitute.org/AAbooklet.pdf 24 Fig 23: America’s Army attracts potential military recruits (http://www.americasarmy.com) A less dramatic example of a virtual world used to promote a large organization’s brand to young people is Toontown, a virtual world launched by the Walt Disney Corporation in June 2003 Toontown is geared towards younger kids, as young as years of age Interestingly, Toontown also uses military-style language to “recruit” new players The text on the homepage includes phrases like “We’re looking for a few good toons!” and “Are you toon enough? Join Now!” with a Toontown character as a stand-in for Uncle Sam in a variation of the classic army poster (Fig 24) Fig 24: Disney’s Toontown recruits players (http://play.toontown.com) 25 In Toontown, children are recruited to help fight an army of “cogs,” who are described as “evil corporate robots” bent on making Toontown a dull and humorless place With weapons like water balloons and bad jokes, Toontown players square off against these negative adult stereotypes with names like “Telemarketer Sellbot” and “Doubletalker Lawbot.” Toontown sets up clear binary distinction between the categories of “kid” and “adult.” The kids/toons are good, fun-loving, and misunderstood by the cranky, authoritarian adults/bots, who are blatantly anti-toon It is ironic that one of the largest corporations in the world uses this theme in its virtual world The underlying brand message to the children who visit Toontown seems to be, “Disney is not a cog type of company We are on your side.” In Toontown, kids are not being recruited into an army or even into the company as employees They are being actively recruited as customers of the game and, by extension, the larger Disney enterprise The virtual world of Toontown is in fact a clever way for Disney to simultaneously profit from a virtual world gaming product while promoting its brand image as a fun “pro-kid” type of company It will be relatively easy for Disney to accomplish this goal, as its brand is already wellloved and well-known by its target audience Another corporate virtual world targeted to kids may face more challenges than Disney Mokitown is a virtual world sponsored by the automobile company DaimlerChrysler Mokitown’s web site presents the world as a fun, educational place where children can socialize with each other while learning about safety on the road as pedestrians, skaters, and bicycle riders (Fig 25) This virtual world is defined simply as a “safety initiative,” but it undoubtedly has the additional unstated purpose of serving as an experiment in online corporate sponsorship 26 Fig 25: DaimlerChrysler’s Mokitown uses virtual world technology to teach road safety to children (http://www.mobilekids.net) It is interesting that an automobile industry company would spend the resources necessary to create and manage a virtual world that targets a demographic of members who cannot even buy, much less drive, its products yet With the Mokitown project, DaimlerChrysler joins the growing ranks of companies who strive to imprint their brand on potential future customers at a very early age while making a favorable impression on their parents Mokitown foregrounds DaimlerChrysler’s goal of creating a brand that conveys a safety-conscious automobile company who cares about their customers’ children However, the company keeps overt branding and advertising to a minimum in this world There is no in-world advertising in Mokitown and the only visible mention of DaimlerChrysler is on the home page Conclusion Will the virtual worlds of the future be completely branded commercial entities? Will avatars wearing name brand virtual clothing navigate through a sea of logos and contextual product placements? The presence and pervasiveness of corporate branding and advertising within virtual worlds will vary widely among the different types of worlds and the members who inhabit them Advertising and branding campaigns are 27 certainly not a part of all virtual worlds and ad-free virtual experiences will likely continue to remain an option.17 This is a topic that can inspire strong feelings among virtual world citizenry, whose reactions to a corporate presence within their chosen virtual world vary widely according to each world’s culture Those who pay a regular fee to access the world may resent additional third party advertising unless the product itself is perceived as adding value to their experience Many community members spend so much time in their favorite virtual world that they feel a sense of ownership and may resent what they feel is an intrusion of corporate interests into their personal space While most virtual world citizens willingly support a fellow citizen’s in-world “small business” activities, they may react negatively to any real world corporate presence (or the mere suggestion or rumor of this presence) For these members, the virtual world is viewed as a pleasant refuge from the barrage of advertising they are subjected to daily in the real world Some may even view offline companies as unwanted competition against their own small business ventures, or those of their friends.18 Ultimately, some virtual worlds may best be left as non-branded entities When it does make sense to introduce outside corporate advertising or branding campaigns into a virtual world, those that demonstrate sensitivity to that world’s community’s culture will fare much better than those who not The positive reaction of younger age groups to advertising and branding in virtual worlds demonstrated in this paper indicates that kids and teens are more open to in-world advertising than their older siblings or parents However this raises a whole new set of 17 It is difficult to imagine a successful advertising campaign for a real world product in a fantasy-based MMORPG, for example 18 This was demonstrated in Second Life when a highly competitive auction for a new island space within the virtual world was won by a member named Fizik Baskerville, who unwisely announced that he was part of “a London and Chicago based Innovation and Branding agency” and meant to use the island as an extension of various offline business projects into Second Life’s virtual environment This inspired immediate and intense protests from the Second Life community, whose comfort level with corporate advertising projects is relatively low in the first place, but whose initial perception that Fizik Baskerville beat out another community member who had intended to use the island as an educational tool for art students only made the situation infinitely worse.For a fascinating summary of the island’s auction and the resulting reactions from the Second Life community, see Wagner James Au’s “What Will The Island Be?” series of New World Notes reports at http://secondlife.com/notes/2004_01_19_archive.php 28 ethical issues and concerns about whether companies will keep the best interests of children in mind when creating virtual ad campaigns and marketing messages Whatever one’s personal feelings about the growing trend of virtual worlds as sites of advertising and branding campaigns, the trend itself cannot be denied From “homemade” brands created by virtual world visitors to clothing and home furnishings branded with real world brand names and logos, to fully-branded virtual worlds that exist solely to promote one large organization or business, it is likely that this trend will not only continue to grow but will evolve, taking new and unexpected forms.19 The virtual spaces and metaverses originally conceived by cyberpunk writers like Neal Stephenson were always part of an intensely branded corporate futuristic environment Perhaps the trend of advertising and branding in virtual worlds is just another way virtual life is imitating the art that originally conceived it 19 As of this writing in April 2004, There has just launched a co-branded island for its partner iVillage.com, which will prove to be an interesting experiment in many ways Ongoing further comments of iVillage’s island in There are posted at the Terra Nova weblog: http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2004/03/theres_island_o.html 29 BIBLIOGRAPHY All web site links listed below were last visited April 1, 2004 Au, Wagner James “What Will The Island Be?” New World Notes report from Second Life Available online at: http://secondlife.com/notes/2004_01_19_archive.php Bartle, Richard Designing Virtual Worlds, New Riders Press, 2003 Blandford, E., “Advertising for Coca Cola: Past to Present.” Available online at: http://www.louisville.edu/~eablan02/essay.html Castronova, Edward “Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier,” Social Science Research Network Electronic Library, December 2001 Available online at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=294828 Davis, Margaret, Ed., “America’s Army PC Game Vision and Realization: A Look at the Artistry, Technique, and Impact of the United States Army’s Groundbreaking Tool for Strategic Communication,” Produced by the United States Army and the MOVES Institute, January 2004 Available online at: http://www.movesinstitute.org/AAbooklet.pdf Goodman, Barak & Rachel Dretzin Merchants of Cool, PBS FRONTLINE documentary, Douglas Rushkoff, Correspondent and Consulting Producer, February 27, 2001 Transcript and related commentary available online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/ Klein, Naomi No Logo, New York: Picador USA, 2000 Quart, Alyssa Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers, Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2003 Reynolds, Ren “Commodification of Identity in Online Communities,” Association of Internet Researchers conference paper, October 2003 Available online at: http://www.ren-reynolds.com/downloads/RReynolds_AoIR_2003.htm 30 Stephenson, Neal Snow Crash, New York: Bantam Books, 1992 Suler, John “The Psychology of Avatars and Graphical Space in Multimedia Chat Communities.” Available online at http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psyav.html Taylor, T.L “Living Digitally: Embodiment in Virtual Worlds,” in R Shroeder (Ed.), The Social Life of Avatars: Presence and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments, London: Springer-Verlag, 2002 VIRTUAL WORLDS LIST Active Worlds http://www.activeworlds.com Second Life http://www.secondlife.com America’s Army http://www.americasarmy.com/ The Sims Online http://www.thesimsonline.com Coke Music http://www.cokemusic.com There http://www.there.com Disney’s Toontown Online http://play.toontown.com/ VZones http://www.vzones.com/ Habbo Hotel http://www.habbohotel.com ... advertising and branding in virtual worlds demonstrated in this paper indicates that kids and teens are more open to in- world advertising than their older siblings or parents However this raises... world’s owners and members are currently the most common examples of advertising and branding in these spaces Recently, real offline brands have also begun to appear in virtual worlds In some cases,... of worlds and the members who inhabit them Advertising and branding campaigns are 27 certainly not a part of all virtual worlds and ad-free virtual experiences will likely continue to remain