10 More Embarrassing Product Placements In Video Games

For the release of The Matrix Reloaded, Warner Bros and Coca-Cola teamed up to slap the Powerade brand across everything and anything Matrix related. Full-page cross-promotional ads in magazines, an advertisement before showings of the film where an Agent tells everyone to get hydrated; there was even a special, limited edition Matrix-coloured Powerade bottle.

Enter The Matrix, the video game tie-in that launched alongside The Matrix Reloaded, wasn’t immune from this Powerade-fuelled cross-promotional nightmare either.

Powerade vending machines can be found in a few locations in Enter The Matrix, sporting the same green and black Matrix-style branding as the special limited edition Powerade bottles, and will restore your health if you interact with them.

In any other game, this kind of marketing ploy would be passable at best - but The Matrix is supposed to be a critique of capitalism, and a not-so-subtle one at that. We all know executive meddling exists and that films often have to subsidise production costs through marketing deals, but in The Matrix's case you'd think they'd try to be clever with it. At least give the audience a little wink and a nudge while you force-feed them Coca-Cola-branded electrolytes.