Advertisement In Rapture

* See also Rapture_TV
* See also Newspapers_and_Magazines
* See also Public_Announcements
* See also Businesses
* See also Marketing_Hype
* See also Posters
* See also Free_Press
* See also Huge_Signs in Columbia
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Businesses in the Modern World (and very old world ) ADVERTISED ...
Rapture Society itself ( especially Ryan ) also used 'advertising' and 'advertisement'.
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LOTS OF TV and Radio Commercials :
"There's always a Bottle, Some Lips, and A Vending Machine ... - Tan Juan Cola"
( "Best Burp in Town" was the common joke )
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Many Signs and Posters :
Actually a 'cheap' game production way to add detail to the game as a simple 'texture' instead of more complex and Renderwise intensive objects.
TypicalAdverts.jpg
Hop-Up-Cola.jpg
Doctor-no.jpg|Doctors, Babies, Pregnant women and probably Kittens used to be used to sell cigarettes
SinclairDeluxe2.jpg|Deco Style Advertising
PlasmidsSign.jpg|Neon Signs
OldmatchbooksforRapture.jpg|Custom Advertisement Matchbooks were common at the time of Rapture. So another somewhat simple Creation Asset for players to customize (and collect).
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Plasmid Signs :
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Products and Businesses including lit signs in Ocean
City Propaganda 
Entertainments
Audio-Announcements
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I suppose there would be political signs in Rapture for whatever minimal systems of elections there were in Rapture.
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Send in the Clonezoids :
Alot of the music/theatricals you see in Rapture are actually of the styles from the 1930s and the late 20s. Those which would have been Ryan's formative years. Also it was cheaper to get them to be game Assets being that old - No copyrights and such ( or easier/cheaper ) for them to make use of many of those. The MMORPG can probably make use of similar no-payment use of such old materials ( definitely no royalty stuff at all -- as the MMORPG business plan runs on minimal expenses ).
Alot of the advertisement signs are take-offs from those done by companies no longer in existence ( again cheap to obtain/clone, and with little artistic talent/effort required to generate them for the game ).
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Many Signs/Advertisements :
You see the 'Fleet Hall' sign just as you are arriving for the first time in Rapture ( from the Lighthouse ), but the Fleet Hall is way over in Fort Frolic on the other side of the City. It is an advertisement placed to be seen from arriving Bathyspheres/Subs at the Welcome Center Metro station (that also has routes from many other locations around Rapture, so is prime advertising space).
So it should be fairly common at other Metro stations to have similar advertisements ( and outside viewable from the AE tracks ). And in the MMORPG, people would be putting up new signs -- or if they have resuscitated some of the old establishments/businesses names/brands ( duly registered with the City Council ) then making repairs to the old signs -- advantage of getting an old company name is reusing its brand Assets.
Player missions to install/repair signs ( for Players who have the required tools to do that in the sea ) -- or easier, inside New Rapture's cityscape.
Part of the 'World' simulation would be having NPCs 'see/notice' advertisements and simulate shifting their preferences of buying patterns ( thus the signs a Player puts up shifts the business simulation a bit ). The evaluation system doesn't have to be too complicated and doesn't have to be run too frequently ( only a little Server load ). Players of course will buy what they want, but ad signs and such make them aware of businesses they may make use of.
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Yes, alot of the artwork for the game was copied from era objects. Produce boxes used by companies long Out of Business require no copyright payments. That whole nostalgia aspect is real handy in producing believable game objects when good artistry of others in the past is made use of (mostly a direct copy).
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J. Steinman Advertisement (and Others) in BS2 :
A few too many advertisements were overused as decorations -- It gets a bit tacky ... Even with Rapture being a Hyper Commercial world. ( Limitations of a computer game (graphics memory/costs)- reusing Assets instead of having more variations ).
It is interesting that these ill-maintained signs (and others) have survived so well in such a damp/wet environment for so many years, when in the Real World they are meant to last only a short time and to be replaced regularly with newer advertisements ( and 'competition' in Rapture WOULD mean lots of new advertisements ). You would also think that Sofia Lamb's Splicers would be programmed to detest any part of Ryan's old 'capitalist' Rapture, and would have defaced/replaced the 'decorations' with something more 'Collective Correct' -- Like admonitions to 'martyr themselves for the good of all', and other such of Sofia Lamb's manipulative propaganda.
You would have thought that with all the artist-wannabees in Rapture, that there would be lots of so-so art in use ( then again, those advertisements usually come with payment by the Advertisee/Advertiser, which in Rapture might trump aesthetics in many minds ).
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Old-Style Data Display - Basically a Marquee Light Matrix :
Can be improved using a CRT type screen system, but the input is a punched tape (could be magnetic) fed in front of the camera/sender, and outputting what is linearly recorded on the tape ( translated/shaped into letter patterns or via the holes in paper tape directly ... ). Multiple 'lines' - if a TV screen type display is used.
Visiting the Interwebz searching under 'Steampunk' you see LOTS of fancy/pretty oldie-styled Keyboards and computer 'mods' people make, but when combined into a terminal/computer it is almost always paired with a minimally modified ( fancy decorative frame at most ) LCD flatscreen. Usability ... fine. But an appropriate archaic representation would have to be some (rear screen) light projection of some moving line media like the output from a Tickertape ( printing 'alphanumerics' ) - Likely an single line of text. Rapture's decades-later terminal screen displays would be some similar mechanism - teletype-like paper output would still be common. The electronics to do alphanumeric text is complicated/expensive and only came to consumers when Computer IC Chips existed. General use of more complex vector-line text CRT terminals ( like the Spitfire game ) would thus take alot longer to be developed - perhaps just before the %27civil war%27.
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Crass Advertisements ? :
Kashmir (MP level) seems encrusted with advertisements (even a "Silk Lounge" sign INSIDE the Silk Lounge ?)
Yes, MP reused lots of stuff (cheaply), but "You's would tink a hoity-toity place like dat Kashmir woulda had a bit more class, and NOT all them common adverts ..." Really, was it too much work to create a few more of their typical 'art' works ??? There was lots of pretentious art from the previous game ( and shown in BS2 itself ) which could have been employed for that.
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Text Marquees and Messages :
Those Information Marquees showing info updates ("latest bulletin" ...) we've seen in a number of places ( usually seen in the game indicating a security 'lockdown' at transportation portals ). So yet another detail for the MMORPG to have marquee signs like that operating and showing pertinent information -- Important for New Rapture where security alerts to 'handle' Splicer incursion out in the 'border' area before they reach the nice 'safe' City Center.
Yet another 'prop' mechanism for Player Created Assets to have streaming content ( the marquee is really just a looping texture that can be built 'on the fly' with different text/fonts, and with ties into a larger distribution system for the messages shown ).
These machines are run from centralized offices with the data transmitted by ordinary Phone Lines to Building Cluster sub-units.
No Doubt, between Alerts and Announcements, the Time can be shown, as well as "SINCLAIR EVE SUPPOSITORIES ARE SMOOOOTHER"
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Signs, Signs Everywhere :
Depending on the environment's degree of degradation - dirt, damage, malfunction and poor maintenance can at least be used to mutate repetitions of the same pre-made Signs ( or repetitive sign style ) to look somewhat different. Templates of many methods for doing this would overlay details on the pristine objects. Similar Templates would be done for all object types in the MMORPG.
A generalized automatic mechanism could be made to create signs from any text, which might take a while to develop sufficient variations. The Grungifier Templates would help make them less identical in appearance.
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Tony the TigerShark Says :
Kincaide's Frosty Flakes (corn flakes - made with HARDLY ANY Kelp in it !!! THERRRRRRRRR GOOOOOD!!!!)
Is that sufficiently different from the real product ? Only Lawyers can tell. The standards and 'Content Vetters' ( People who will 'vet' the content ) for the MMORPG have to watch things like this, because just simple lawsuits ( and hungry lawyers looking for a buck ) are sufficient to cost much of the game companies profits.
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Interesting Fact : Corn Flakes invented as a food to give people a healthy option ( invented by a vegetarian ) seeking through nutrition to decrease aggression in mankind. Not ironic maybe that Ex-Splicers get served Cornflakes for breakfast.
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Pipe Lettering -- Sign Lettering Made of Pipe ... :
Pipe bits - A commonly found item around the Ruins. Likely to be painted after assembly.
Another In-Game 'wizard' based assembly Interface. Of course you have to obtain the various pieces of pipe needed for the shapes. Sorry, metal pipes are NOT neon filled ( though you can often get Bioluminous paint ).
Can be used for a Tutorial on Fabrication assembly ( putting pieces together - simpler than the other activities of making/fixing of items ). More than a little Creativity can be employed ( signs can be redone and improved, and be rather ornate if the Player wishes - and can find the right pipe bits ).
Shop (commercial) space is rather limited in "Downtown". The space immediately surrounding New Rapture City Hall, which once was a ( company town-like ) dormitory area for Fontaine's Neptune's Bounty laborers/workers. So there would be lots of 'proper' shops in more outlying areas, or just 'stands' on the edges of the 'Forum'. Player's Residences can have a sign also.
The Usual (Game) Vetting rules apply.
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"Live" Plasmid TV Commercials :
I could just see a live commercial appearing on Rapture TV ( one of many channels - they have the equivalent of cable TV since radio waves don't travel far enough through water ), just like the ones from the late 1940s with the dancing packages of Cigarettes done between live drama segments : Playhouse 20000 Leagues ...
Dancing ADAM syringe ? Rollerskating Beef-E tins ? 
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Advertisements Mailed to Players ( and NOT any #$%^ing Game STORE Advertisements ) :
When did that ( in-game advert spamming ) start in the Real World ? Mailed Advertisements ....
Whole huge catalogs were a mainstay (real world) way back in time - Sears Roebuck ( 1895 produced a 532-page catalog ), Montgomery Ward (Monkey Ward) so regular that Mid-Westerners systematically used them (their pages) for toilet paper in their outhouses ...
Mailers "Junk Mail" - existing since the invention of the Printing Press, Cheap paper and Postal Transportation. ( NOTE - have filtering options for Players in game Mail )
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Poster - Dandy Dental ... Telekinesis ... Tennis Open ?? :
Must've been before there was an ADAM Tonic for fixing Tooth Decay that would make root canals obsolete ( or was it all cosmetic dentistry now - ADAM might regrow teeth but what care is required to make them regrow straight ??? ).
I could see a small scale 'Telekinesis ' method of brushing ones teeth ( initially to fight decay, later for cosmetic purposes. OR someone just invented the electric toothbrush. ) Regenerating teeth is a bit more complex than soft tissue. The old teeth have to dissolve or be removed before new teeth could form ( or be pushed out from underneath like children's teeth ). Might be a process of several days, though an advanced form might be made 'painless'.
Tennis fits the 'elevated' social notion about Rapture's population, even though as someone mentioned "you still have to have someone scrub the toilets" ( later tennis became a middle-class thing in America, so why not follow that trend early ... ) - The Grenade Turrets could be modified ball machines....
Note- add more tennis courts to City Map.
A Brute Splicer playing tennis might have been a funny sight. 3-dimensional Spider Splicer Badminton was popular for awhile ...
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Your Rapture Directory ( Phone Book, RT&T ) :
"... in your Rapture Directory" (heard in Minervas Den)
Not known whether the phone company ( Rapture Telephone and Telegraph ) maintained The Rapture Directory, or someone else ( as a separate business ). Advertisement would make money there and it encourages Phone use ( via its utility to people ). SO probably R T & T would produce the standard Phone Books. Yearly publication would make sure that the advertisers keep paying.
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Midget Who Performed The Little Sister ADAM Product Commercials on Rapture TV :
Good luck trying to get even a normal young child to act correctly. ( Glowing eyes was a special effect already known in Hollywood ).
Strange Idea : ( A Splicer vision ) of Ryan done up in a Little Sister Dress - pushing the latest Plasmid/Tonic ... Ryan must have lived in their nightmares ...
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Matchbooks Were Commonly Used Advertisements :
FIRST - Matches used as advertisements ( something you have a reason to keep ) - Peeps in Old Rpture probably got these things in the Pneumo mail all the time. Hmm, Note the extra wide matches ...
SECOND - Questionable Medical Gimmicks ( someone would do this - Free Press might keep under control )
THIRD - Part of Jack's conditioning rig ? ( At least brain monitoring ?? )
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TV Ad : Live ...
:"Do you find yourself staying awake at night thinking about the Future ? "
:"Do you find yourself staying awake at night thinking about YOUR Future ? "
:"We can help ..."
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Cigarette Ads were a staple in both TV and Movie Theaters ( of that time ).
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