Topic: Nintendo, advertising to kids is fine, but we've to talk about how you're doing it.

Just saw this Kirby and the Rainbow Curse trailer today.

Now look, the problem isn't that it's aiming to appeal to kids. It's Kirby, that's kind of the series' main audience. The problem is the utterly atrocious way it goes about it. If I saw this commercial when I was a kid of reasonable age to ask for video games from my parents (7+), I would basically have no interest.

Why? Because the entire commercial sounds like it's for babies. The narrator is speaking in a super patronizing voice. Everything looks cutesy and colorful with a soft, almost "Fischer-Price" color palette (I'm not saying the whole game looks like that, but that's the color tone the commercial is focusing on). It looks like Sesame Street meets Teletubbies meets Kirby.

When I was a kid, I distinctly remember seeing these two commercials

And I also distinctly remember asking my parents for BOTH Nightmare in Dreamland AND Air Ride. The Rainbow curse approach is NOT what appeals to children. Kids don't want to be talked down to, they want to feel cool. I know this not just from experience, but from watching my siblings grow up as well.

This isn't just about Kirby though. This is a consistent feeling that I'm seeing throughout Nintendo's Wii U advertising. They embarrass kids more than they appeal to them.

This is perfectly highlighted by this quote from Emily Rogers.
"Kids always want to be older than their actual age, and when most of Wii U’s television ads are starring 7-year-olds, this will repel 10-year-old kids away from Wii U. Nintendo’s advertisements from previous console generations did a better job showing children from different age groups instead of skewering to the youngest ages possible. Instead of attracting the kids market, Nintendo of America’s Wii U commercials are dividing the kids market."
Source: http://www.dromble.com/2013/11/11/what-is-nintendos-role-in-t...

If you ask me, it's fine if Nintendo tries to focus on appealing to kids, that's an audience that would love games like Splatoon in today's day and age, or Pikmin in my generation's day and age. But if they try to appeal to kids, they need to actually appeal to kids, not toddlers who aren't going to be playing their games.

That's not to say all the advertising is bad, it's more of a general trend I've noticed. Also, for some incredibly baffling reason, this is a problem I've almost exclusively noticed with the Wii U. The 3DS is still getting some amazing commercials. From the live action Mario&Luigi commercials, to the awesome Triple Deluxe commercial set to Verdi's Requiem, to, well, https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/564490433477103616

You know what? You should settle it IN SMASH!

Nintendo are not advertising to the kids. They are advertising to the person who is paying i.e the parents.

Sorry, we'll try harder next time.

Let me know when you see a "kiddy" Wii U commercial on the channels the parents will be watching and not the kids

So you have a problem with Nintendo advertisement?Get it in line and suck it up,that's how Nintendo is.

I agree that its dumb but I understand Nintendo's persistent try to appeal to kids. They wanna turn young kids to Nintendo loyalists but that's not easy anymore... If its not Pokemon, kids are jumping to shooters and mobile games. Nintendo should have teens and young adults in commercials for Wii U with kids joining them.

I'm surprised they don't go back to the "Because it's Nintendo" marketing

Did you read the post? Not trying to be mean, but the whole post was about how appealing to kids is fine, but they are doing it wrong. But I am changing the title to avoid future confusion.

That was one of the best commercials I've seen in the past few years from anyone, not just Nintendo.

This is probably their response to complaints from some fans about America's "Angry Kirby" advertising.

The only Nintendo "advertising" that ever influenced me as a kid was the Australian TV show A*mazing. Which looking back at it was basically a half hour long add for Nintendo's stuff presented as a game show for kids. The second last round involved them playing a SNES/N64 game for points. Then the winning team at the end would go through a Maze which had a few Nintendo props in it and if they did well they won a GameBoy. That show worked as a way to advertise because they got the kids on it, who were around 12, excited about playing SNES/N64 games and winning a GameBoy. Way more effective than any ad because you trust it.

I also think that for some reason people complaining about Nintendo's "poor" advertising think that it's still the mid 90s. They forget that people, and even kids, are consuming content in an entirely different way than they did 20 or even 10 years ago. There's specialised news, user generated content and so on. Which is why Nintendo's approach to youtube should receive much, much more complaining than the style of their more traditional advertising. Frankly I don't think that what age the ads they do make lean towards makes much of a difference at all.

Funny that you mention this as when my kids seen this commercial tonight they wanted nothing else but this game. My almost 8 year old wanted to go to the website that was listed at the end of the commercial and my daughter also wants it really bad and she is 6. Apparently Nintendo does know what they're doing as my kids very rarely do this.

Boo-hoo

Yeah, I really agree that advertising should be more focused on Youtube and the internet. I rarely watch TV via cable. But that doesn't change the way kids generally think. That is, they tend to be slightly insecure about their maturity, and tend to overcompensate by acting older. I did this as a kid. My friends did when they were kids, and my kid siblings do it now. And it's understandable being in a world where everyone perceives you as "the little one".

@Spoony_Tech Are you're kids big Kirby fans? Else that's somewhat surprising to me.

I wouldn't say big Kiby fans. They like Epic Yarn and have played one here and there but I would never say they're big Kirby fans. My son was watching videos from the website and really liked the multiplayer parts of it.

"clayful adventure" your opinion is invalid

i don't see the problem. it's a kids game. it looks like a kids game. they're aiming it at kids.

not every kid wants to be "cool" and play shooters and whatever else you're saying. there are plenty of kids out there with wholesome innocent hearts who love a fun colorful commercial. seems like you're trying to speak for every kid in the world based on what you think about a couple of ads.

Yes, because all kids think alike. Am I right?

I think sometimes people forget that not all kids are borderline maniacs. Some kids are actually good kids, who enjoy fun, silly games.

In some ways, the sad truth that today's kids have all but lost that sense of warmth and charm in exchange for wannabe "maturity" of explosions, big guns, and blood is something I'll always have a qualm with.

Having grown up playing the "Nintendo" games, I can't understand how the only appeal that works on today's kids is the attempt at "cool", "rough", and "tough" realistic stuff that many of today's videogames portray. What happened to the sense of imagination and creativity that used to be the staple of a young mind? :/

Sorry, just ranting xD