GTA 5 In-Game Commercials Parody Power Rangers, Reality TV, Right Wing Conservatives

American culture is a funny thing: consume and spend as much as possible, but always in moderation. There's this ridiculous gloat over how much you need to obtain while spending more to find ways to balance that. The irony of American culture is so thick that it's hard to do any sort of meaningful satire about it... unless you're Rockstar Games and your satire is housed within a little something-something called Grand Theft Auto V.

GTA: San Andreas was probably the actual start of parodying American Culture – one could make an argument about it starting with GTA: Vice City, but I always felt that was a love letter to the 1980s. But San Andreas really introduced a more grounded character in a slightly more realistic setting, but steeped in a lot of the silly tropes of American culture.

While it's somewhat funny that people say that GTA IV was too serious, technically had Rockstar made San Andreas with all the tech, graphics and scope of GTA IV it would be just as serious, if not more-so. The game was practically a combination of all the late 80s and early 90s gang culture films like Boys in the Hood, Juice, Colors and Menace 2 Society (or was it Menace II Society?).

With Grand Theft Auto V Rockstar has taken the whole satirical bit to new heights, throwing in ads sprinkled throughout the game that take shots at all manner of American culture.

The video above (assuming it's still there by the time you read this and a copyright notice isn't put up in its place) spotlights a few of the noteworthy shows and fake promotional items that will make up for some of the content that players will engage in throughout their open-world experience in San Andreas.

The commercials are mostly all your standard fare bits of cultural exploitation, satire and parody. The whole far Right Wing conservative angle is played up almost to cringe-worthy heights, and the reality TV shtick seems about fitting (if not grossly underplayed compared to what it actually is here in America).

Beyond promo ads, radio stations (of which there are 240 licensed songs to listen to) and television programs to watch throughout the game, there are tons of other awesome features added to GTA V that amply dwarfs its predecessors in every single avenue imaginable. Weapon customization finally makes its debut in GTA for the very first time outside of community made mods, vehicles customization has returned and has been revamped compared to what it was in GTA: San Andreas; character customization is present but not quite as dynamic as GTA: SA, although there are three characters to customize this time around so the fat/skinny thing had to go. Also, that's not to mention that the GTA Online mode is like a whole new game in itself.

Gamers will have plenty to do in GTA V when it launches two weeks from now just before September comes to a close. Whether you like the TV ads or not, you have to admit that this is probably one of (if not) the biggest game ever made.

You can learn more by visiting the official website.