Obama Targets Voters Via The XBox 360

Barack Obama may, or may not, become the first black president of the US but he's just become the first presidential candidate to buy advertising in computer games via the XBox 360.

The ads will appear in 18 online games through the Xbox LIVE service since the brains behind the Democratic campaign have decided that it's the best way to get their attention. The ads appear as banners or billboards with an image of Obama, the slogan "Early voting has begun," and a link to register online and find the nearest polling station.

"The 18-to-34-year-old male is the mainstream demographic for the hard-core video gamer," said Van Baker, an analyst for Gartner Inc., a technology market research firm in San Jose, California. "They're hard to get to because they don't watch much TV and they don't read a lot, so it's a good venue to get that segment."

The Xbox in-game ads will be used in 10 key US states in games like Guitar Hero 3, The Incredible Hulk, NASCAR 09, NBA Live 08 [pictured] and NFL Tour, among others.

Obama has already flexed his geek-cred by putting his campaign on Facebook and creating an iPhone app