Topic: Pikmin 2 North American TV Commercial

[Jonnyboy117]

See Nintendo's new ad for the strategy sequel.

Nintendo of America has provided their new TV commercial for Pikmin 2 for you to download.  The ad will be airing on national television up to and beyond the game's August 30th release date, but we know you crazed Nintendo fans love to download these videos to watch them over and over.

The thirty second ad is titled "Hot Dog" and was produced by Leo Burnett USA, the firm responsible for Nintendo's other recent "Who Are You?" commercials.

Just click below!

Pikmin 2 TV Ad (Quicktime format, 6.5 MB)

[Bill Aurion]

BEST...COMMERCIAL...EVER...

Hot dog!  Hot dog!

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

MUSTARD

MUSTARD

MUSTARD

MUSTARD

[Berto2K]

This one definitely take a high seat in the list of awesome commercials.

[GaimeGuy]

I love midgets.  

[Shift Key]

Ahahahaha, that's gold. Midgets make everything better!!
This and the DKC GBA ads (the one with DK riding Rambi, hilarious sounds ) are the best ads I've seen in a while ...

[KDR_11k]

I think they should have gone Weebl-style on that.

[Ian Sane]

Well that's seems to be an entertaining commercial but I fail to see why as an ad it's any better than the other billion "goofy but gives no one beyond people who already know about the game any reason to buy the game" commercials Nintendo has been running.  The problem with Nintendo's commercials is that they don't give people an incentive to buy their games.  A good commercial demonstrates how awesome a game is and tells you that you must buy it or you suck.  Nintendo commercials all have some goofy skit played by actors followed by some quick shots of game footage.  Those ads aren't working and regardless of how entertaining the commercial is Nintendo isn't going to go anywhere if they stick to that format.

If they really want people to get excited they should show the same trailers they show at E3.  Gamecube games are gorgeous so gameplay footage should be front and center.  This isn't the NES days where you had to hide the fact that every game looks like crap.  The best commercial this gen is for GTA and it shows nothing but game footage.  Last gen Final Fantasy VII had the most effective ad and again it was all game footage (FMV but from the game nonetheless).  Look at the trailer for the new Zelda.  Show that, and just that, on TV and the game will sell tons of Cubes.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Ian's right.

[couchmonkey]

The Eternal Darkness ads were all gameplay footage too.
I think a combination of things are needed...slick presentation as seen in the recent Gameboy ads is a must.  I think where the Eternal Darkness ad failed was that it left me with the feeling that the ad was made "on the cheap" which left me feeling like the game itself was cheap too - not that I actually believed that impression.  More gameplay footage would be better, but I don't think it's enough on its own.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Yeah, the ED ads looked aweful and didn't show anything interesting, which is difficult anyway considering it's an adventure game.

OH, that's right, GTA had the pleasure of releasing gameplay ads during its era of public outcry.  

[Renny]

This commercial follows the format of many PS2 games' commercials [I'm specifically thinking of Ratchet and Clank]. It shows a humorous situation loosely influenced by the game; but enough so to get the idea of the game across.

Really, how much Pikmin can the commercial show to get people interested? "Short-statured people" [I love that] running around in queer costumes will get people talking. Little ants taking down a beetle won't.

[Pale]

I agree with Renny....  Many forms of advertising work and this form obviously worked for Ratchet and Clank.  It really depends a lot on the feeling of the game.  Pikmin is a happy go lucky game and needs happy go lucky comercials.  A contrasting advertising run that keeps coming to mind for me is the .hack ads that ran when the first game came out.  Because .hack is a serious game, well directed game footage with great music over it worked well.  I really can't think of a better way for Nintendo to be advertising Pikmin with the current state of the industry.  Can you?

[Deguello]

I like this ad.  It's not the best Nintendo ad of all time though.  That one goes to "School's Out," which is also the best game ad of all time.

"Good" ads and "effective" ads are sometimes mutually exclusive.  I'm sure those late night Girls Gone Wild ads are far more effective than most things, but they are really poorly done.  I like these current ones, they are good.  EFFECTIVE is something to be determined after we see how they sell.

"This commercial follows the format of many PS2 games' commercials "

I disagree, the first ad I remember like this was for Yoshi's Story in 1998.  It had a coupla teenagers flicking things in their living rooms with really long tongues.

"The problem with Nintendo's commercials is that they don't give people an incentive to buy their games."

Incentive?  Huh?  What you want them to offer a free credit report or something?

"A good commercial demonstrates how awesome a game is"

Yes.

"and tells you that you must buy it or you suck."

NO.  You want the ad to be effective, right?  That has a serious chance to backfire on you and then you become a joke.  Majesco tried that with BloodRayne.  The commercial was neither (by your standards, Ian) good (Didn't show off how "awesome" the game was) nor effective (BloodRayne sales were quite mediocre).

"Nintendo commercials all have some goofy skit played by actors followed by some quick shots of game footage."

Like those ones in the theatres and on TV?  You know Pikmin 2 actually has *2* commercials for it, a standalone and one in part of those uber slick theatrical ones that show off a wealth of game footage.

[Ian Sane]

Deguello by incentive I mean that the commercial makes the game sound so awesome that you have to buy it.  Aside from cool footage from the game that can also be done by having quotes from reviews (or previews and impressions).  I find most Nintendo commercials merely say "this game exists" instead of "this game exists and it's amazing".  Like how the Metroid Prime ad informed people that Metroid Prime existed but failed to let them know that Metroid is one of the best series ever and that it was a for-sure game of the year candidate.

And by "buy it or you suck" I meant the commercial should convey that not literally say it.  And I was kind of joking.  It was a poor choice of words.

"You know Pikmin 2 actually has *2* commercials for it, a standalone and one in part of those uber slick theatrical ones that show off a wealth of game footage."

That's great.  But why limit the game footage ad to theatres where less people will see it?

[MaleficentOgre]

All nintendo needs to do now is saturate tv with their commercials.  Just push them onto every channel and put them infront of every movie, and load them into popup ads and banners on websites.  Just put them everywhere, there's no place they shouldn't go.  Billboards, busses, bumper stickers, post cards, airplane banners, okay I getting carried away, but now that they have great commercials they should unleash them on the world.