14 DAY TRIAL // One of the latest surveys shows that Canadians would rather recognize Mario, Nintendo's famous character, than their own Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. It seems that videogame characters are now more famous than real life stars, so that's probably why more and more actors choose to play in movie-game tie-ins in order to boost their popularity and possibly be featured in a future gaming title.
Of course politics are far less interesting than games, so maybe that's why the Canadians would rather "vote" for Mario than Mister Harper, who has been on the job since 2006. Considering that "Mister Terminator" could run for president in the near future, it wouldn't surprise for me to see the real-life version of the Italian Plumber gathering votes in Japan. Solid Snake, from Metal Gear Solid would make one hell of a party member if you ask me, while Master Chief is the ideal Prime Minister, always ready to handle some alien attack by himself.
Lara Croft should be the image of any candidate who wants to get into politics, since she's sexy and dangerous enough to even give James Bond the kiss of death. I guess that almost every man on Earth has heard about Mario and maybe Halo's protagonist will reach the same status 20 years from now. It all goes down to the number of consoles you've seen a character available on. While Mario was present on every gaming device's screen ever invented, Master Chief was limited to the Xbox, Xbox 360 and PC.
If I were a politician and had popularity issues, I would surely use Mario for my campaign, hoping to gather the votes of the gamers who don't care who's elected for president as long as consoles are cheap. And how about some free Xbox 360-s for those die-hard gaming voters?