Ford is Thrilled by a Teeny, Tiny Product Placement

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

When you get to a certain age, you think you know everything about Monopoly:

Children will cheat (it’s what they do), you’ll never make money off of the louse-infested Baltic Avenue, and utilities can be a cash cow — especially in real life.

But who knew there was a version of Monopoly devoted to brands? Huh? Playing a game devoted to brands means people might start talking about brands, and that’s not something you should do.

Called Monopoly Empire, the Hasbro game has participants snap up money-making brands like Levi’s instead of railroads and dodgy income properties.

Forget about the little racecar token that’s been around since Parker Brothers first published the modern version of the game in 1935. In the latest edition of Monopoly Empire, the token is — wait for it — a Ford Mustang!

Well, the Ford Motor Company is quite proud of this fact.

“Mustang fans can rev their engines and advance to go as they take laps around the board and build their empire of well-known brands, including Ford,” the automaker said in a release, clearly quite tickled by being included in the action.

There’s no doubt that this subject carries the same weight as hydrogen gas, but if you were to invent a better toaster, and that toaster became a figurine on a board game, you’d probably never let your friends hear the end of it.

[Image: Ford Motor Company]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • PeriSoft PeriSoft on Mar 18, 2016

    Utilities are worthless. The way to play is to buy Boardwalk and Park Place as soon as possible, load them up with hotels, and spend as much time as possible in jail thereafter. Eventually everyone else will bankrupt themselves.

    • See 1 previous
    • RHD RHD on Mar 20, 2016

      Loading up on hotels and then declaring bankruptcy... who does that sound like?

  • WheelMcCoy WheelMcCoy on Mar 18, 2016

    As a child, I always picked the race car when playing Monopoly. I would certainly choose the Mustang in this version. "Children will cheat (it’s what they do), you’ll never make money off of the louse-infested Baltic Avenue, and utilities can be a cash cow — especially in real life." Heh, adults will also cheat... especially in real life.

  • Jthorner Jthorner on Mar 19, 2016

    Egads, another rewrite of a Ford Press Release?

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