I suppose there is a difference between simply referencing pop culture (Thighmaster and Working Designs, Ultima referencing Link) versus deliberate marketing/branding...
Back when games were intended for children though, developers/publishers shouldn't have expected their intended audience to make those kinds of distinctions.
When it comes to WD games, it is a completely
failed "pop culture reference" and
complete (
if unintended) advertisement when you wander through a fantasy world, with a radically different level of industrialization, and speak to an NPC, who
doesn't say something elaborate with a very subtle triple-meaning play-on-words hidden within the dialogue, which happens to reference something from the the
huge world of varying pop culture (
of which commercials play a tiny part)... but instead the entire character dialogue consists,
entirely from start to finish, of an advertising slogan.
There's a big difference between this NPC dialogue with four Burger King slogans:
"Well good morning young adventurer! How are you doing this bright and beautiful morning? What am I doing out here so early in the day you ask? Why, I'm fishing of course! I love this place! This special pond is the only place in all of the Valley of Thunder Foxes in which the rare Tanooki Fish lives. What makes this fish so special compared to the other fish around here? Aside from the fact that it is so rare, if you ask me, it just tastes better! Now, because there are so few Tanooki Fish left, I'm not supposed to be catching them, but sometimes you just gotta break the rules! Please don't tell anyone from Ice Block Village that you saw me out here, especially not Chief Thundercracker. He'd have my head on a spike with all the rest in the Canyon of Sorrow! Look, I've caught one now, help me reel it in! Wow, what a whopper! You and I are going to dine well tonight my purple-skinned friend!"And this NPC dialogue:
"The Burger King Kids Club! It's just for fun, and just for you!"
