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Adverteasing Board Game Review and Rules

Adverteasing Board Game Review and Rules

When you think about good themes for trivia games, you probably wouldn’t think that advertising would top the list. As it turns out though, advertising has actually been a pretty popular theme for trivia games as there are a surprising number of games that feature the theme. In the past I have looked at Logo Party which is just one game in the Logo line of board games. Today I am looking at one of earliest advertising trivia games Adverteasing. Due to the age and the fact that I am not a huge fan of the idea of a trivia game inspired by advertising, I can’t say I had high expectations for the game. Adverteasing is basically exactly what you would think it would be, a completely bland generic advertising themed trivia game.

How to Play | My Thoughts | Should You Buy? | Comments

How to Play Adverteasing

Setup

  • Place the gameboard in the middle of the table.
  • Each player/team chooses a color peg and places it on one of the start spaces.
  • Choose whether the players are going to use the first, second or third clue on the cards.
  • Choose a player/team that will start the game as the first guessers.

Playing the Game

The player to the left of the first guesser(s) will draw one of the cards. One side of the card features the clue and the other side features the multiple choice answers. The answer with a star next to it is the correct answer. The player shows the clue to the current guesser(s) and then turns over the timer. The guesser(s) has until the timer runs out to try and guess the correct answer. If the guesser(s) is correct they will move their playing piece forward three spaces.

Front of Adverteasing Card

If the players are using the first set of clues for the game, in this round the guesser(s) has to figure out what completes “I am stuck on _______ and a ________ is stuck on me.”

If the guesser(s) does not get the right answer in time, all of the players (other than the one looking at the card) get one guess at the answer. The first person/team to guess the right answer gets to move their playing piece forward two spaces.

If none of the players guess the correct answer, the original guesser(s) is given the multiple choice answers on the other side of the card. If they guess which one is correct, they get to move their playing piece forward one space. If they guess incorrectly, no one receives points from the round.

Back of Adverteasing Card

If the players haven’t guessed the answer in the first two rounds, the reader will list off the four multiple choice answers. Band-Aids is the correct answer.

Play then passes to the next player clockwise.

Winning the Game

The first player/team to reach the President space (score 25 points) wins the game.

Winning Adverteasing

The red player has reached the last space so they have won the game.

My Thoughts on Adverteasing

To begin the review I would have liked to talk about what unique things Adverteasing brings to the trivia game table. Unfortunately I can’t because Adverteasing literally brings nothing new to the genre. Adverteasing is literally the most generic trivia game that you will ever find with an advertising/slogan theme pasted on. Basically players take turns trying to guess which company a slogan belongs to. That is all there is to the entire game. The only slightly unique mechanic is the fact that there are three different opportunities to guess the company with varying point values. I really wouldn’t consider this to be that unique though as there are a lot of trivia games that use a similar mechanic.

As the game is basically an advertising themed trivia game, your enjoyment of the game is going to come down to how much you want to play an advertising themed trivia game. If you don’t really care for trivia games or advertising/slogans, I don’t see any reason why you would enjoy Adverteasing. I personally was not a huge fan of the idea of an advertising trivia game. At times it is kind of interesting looking back at old advertising slogans but I found that the game gets repetitive pretty quickly. If the concept of an advertising themed trivia game intrigues you though I think you could get some enjoyment out of Adverteasing.

Adverteasing is basically what you would expect out of an advertising themed trivia game. You are given a slogan and have to try to guess which company it belongs to. The type of companies featured in Adverteasing are pretty typical of the type of companies you would see in commercials from the 1980s. The game features a lot of car, food and drink, and household goods companies. I was surprised by how many beer and credit card companies are featured in the game though.

There are currently three versions of Adverteasing (1988, 2008, and 2011) so I want to clarify that this review is based on the 1988 version of the game. I would also like to point out that the 1988 version of the game is basically as old as I am. With that said I have to say that the original version of the game has not held up that well to time. With the game being released in 1988 most of the slogans are from the 1970s and 1980s with some slogans that are even older. Going into the game I knew that I was not going to do particularly well in the game since I wasn’t alive when most of the slogans in the game were used.

After playing the game I have to say that I was a little surprised that the game was not quite as outdated as I thought. Of the cards we used I would say that around 30-40% of the slogans are either still used today or were used recent enough that someone who grew up in the 1990s could guess them. This still leaves 60-70% of the slogans being things that I had never heard before. There were even some companies that I never heard of because they went out of business shortly after the game was released. At least with the 1988 version of the game, Adverteasing is a game that favors older players. If you are not in your late 30s or older you probably won’t do very well in the original version of Adverteasing. I am assuming the 2008 and 2011 versions are much better in this regard but I could even see them starting to get outdated as companies tend to change their slogans more often then they used to.

While on the topic of different versions, Adverteasing actually has a sequel not surprisingly named Adverteasing II. When I first saw Adverteasing II I thought it was only going to be more cards for Adverteasing. It turns out that Adverteasing II is similar to the original game but does differ in some ways. The game is still a trivia game based around advertising but it has more variety than the original game. Instead of every card being about slogans, Adverteasing II has three different types of cards and the card you use is determined by a die roll. One of the sets of cards is the same as the original game. The second type of card gives you three clues about a product and you have to guess the product. The final set of cards is general trivia about the advertising industry. While Adverteasing II is another generic trivia game, I think it is slightly better than the original game because it has a little more variety.

There are some things that I like and don’t like about Adverteasing’s components. I give the game credit for the quantity of cards included with the game. The game has 700 cards and since each card has three slogans, this means that you can play 2,100 rounds of the game before you have to repeat any cards. I don’t think players ever have to worry about having to repeat cards since if you would happen to play all 2,100 rounds you won’t remember all of the slogans anyway. Outside of the quantity of cards though, the components could use some work. The card quality is below average. The gameboard, playing pieces and timer are kind of cheap. The components serve their purpose but leave something to be desired.

Should You Buy Adverteasing?

At its core Adverteasing is exactly what it looks like, an advertising themed trivia game. It is pretty much the most basic trivia game you will ever find. You are given a slogan and you have to guess which company that slogan belongs to. The game does give players three different ways to score which is appreciated but otherwise the game plays like every other trivia game. While things are likely different with newer versions of the game, the 1988 version of Adverteasing suffers from being outdated at this point since most of the slogans are no longer used and a decent amount of the companies no longer exist.

Your enjoyment of Adverteasing is going to come down to how much you like the premise. If you don’t really care for trivia games or advertising/slogans, Adverteasing is not going to be for you. If you like the idea of an advertising themed trivia game you can get some enjoyment out of the game. I personally would recommend picking up one of the newer versions though unless you are in your late 30s or older. I would also recommend waiting for a good deal on the game since it is a pretty generic trivia game.

If you would like to purchase Adverteasing you can find it online: Amazon (1988 version), Amazon (2011 version), eBay