Games, Education and Branding

The Perfect Educational Storm?
How do we educate through the use of new technology, making it fun in the process and generating brand awareness? Games. Is this even ethical as it no doubt would be aimed at an impressionable age?

One example is the game of tetris which has been transposed into American States and another version using European countries. Is this an educational tool? Would children learn where nation states were and what and where their capital cities were? Is it right that a travel company, airline or even a map company subtly brand the game?

In New Zealand they have taken it a step further. The advertising agency Rivet has developed a mini version of the game sim city called electrocity where you build a little city of a grid and manage it’s power and environmental needs. Watch the explanation web video here. This game is subtly branded by an electricity company. It was seeded out through primary school teachers into classroooms using it as a teaching aid and it has spread beyond the classroom and been a huge success. Is this a glimpse of the future? An educational system that is sponsored by business branding? Here's the game itself.