Classic Commercials & Such

[Mystie]

Spoiler

Sorry for double posting, just wanted to share an ad that I've always been baffled by. Why? It existed, because that's enough for me to be confused by this... thing.

Because I like ranting and it doesn't cost me much time at all, I'll point by point this:

• A pretty good way to get your product ignored is making the advertising obnoxious and annoying. Nothing says "please mute the TV" quite like crop metal and a distorted, robotic voice. I get that 1996 was a very edgy year for America; we just came out of the grungefest and that evolved into some weird thing and media in general was very dark and weird, but that doesn't excuse this commercial's image one bit. If anything, Sega's attempts at marketing the Saturn throughout its existence was the vile, grotesque mildew that spewed from this kind of mid-'90s attitude. If you aren't familiar with the Saturn's various ad campaigns, ohohhhh boy, let me tell you, this isn't the odd one out at all.
  
• Another great way to lose potential customers is by making false claims. Guess when NiGHTS was released? August 31st, 1996. Guess when Descent was released on the Playstation? March 12th, 1996. More than 6 months earlier. What's the significance of this? Descent is precisely what this ad tried describing NiGHTS as: a real-time 3D, full, and fluid flying game. What's the significance of that? The ad quite blatantly mocks the Playstation for not having a game like that at all.
  
• In general, the whole attack-ad vibe Sega were going for really lost steam by this point in time. It may have worked for them in the early '90s when both the aging NES and the not-as-cool-to-preteens SNES were easy targets, but trying to pick on the Playstation? Bullying a dragon, Sega...
  

...soooo yeah, I guess you could say I'm not a fan of this ad!

To be perfectly honest, every American Saturn ad was shit. Every single one was either frightening and disturbing as hell, or extremely annoying and "2edgy4u". It's almost as if Sega of America wanted the Saturn to be a complete failure.

Also, I find it appalling that they marketed NiGHTS as an edgy and badass game, when in reality, it's a beautiful and moving tale about two children facing their fears.