Drive through the virtual streets of Burnout Paradise this week and you might find, among the usual mix of deodorant and fast food billboards, a new one featuring an image of Barack Obama.

The Democratic presidential nominee is looking to connect with young voters through campaign billboards planted in the virtual city of the racing videogame for the Xbox 360.

Reminding players that “early voting has begun,” the ad also promotes Voteforchange.com, a Web site run by Obama For America. Burnout Paradise’s publisher, Electronic Arts, says that the Obama campaign paid for the ad.

I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout,” Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts, the game’s publisher, told Wagner James Au of gigaom.com via email, noting that EA regularly allows ad placements in their online games. “Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates,” she continued. “Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.”

To my knowledge, this Burnout ad is far and away the most prominent use of a major online game to promote a presidential candidate’s campaign.