As you're no doubt aware, Christina Aguilera has been giving Nintendo a bit of publicity recently, starring in a commercial with her family and talking about the topic in an interview with Elle (which admittedly got ignored in gaming circles for a good while). We learned that being famous can get you an early look at Pokémon Legends: Arceus, for example.
But we couldn't let that interview drift fully into the internet distant past without highlighting one more section — Christina Aguilera shows the love for Wario and Waluigi. She was asked about her favourite characters and made the correct call:
It depends on the game, to be honest. Again, the Mario Partys[sic] and the Mario Karts, me and my sister have always enjoyed in the past going as the brother kind of characters, and I'm Wario, she's Waluigi. We love to do the voices. They get really silly. So we definitely love those. But now with the new characters that are out, I do love Pink Gold Peach, she's one of my favorites, Rosalina, and yeah, they're like metal kind of characters and they're really cool.
While Wario has had a number of his own games, most recently with WarioWare: Get It Together!, poor old Waluigi has mostly been sidelined. We love him though, even if Nintendo doesn't.
Now we just need more celebrity endorsements of underused characters — who'll give the good word for Birdo?
[source elle.com, via screenrant.com]
Comments 29
I need a Super Wario Bros. sometime in my life.
I think what’s more surprising is that there’s someone out there who loves Pink Gold Peach.
Never understood why companies make ads with popular people, if the product is good then I would get it no matter who owns it.
I guess I am too old school.
Birdo's my man. Not easy to do the voice tho..
Wario and Waluigi are beautiful, no matter what they say. Yes they are beautiful in every single way ♫
Don’t know who added the [sic] after “Mario Partys” but you’re wrong. The “party” in Mario Party is part of a proper noun so you wouldn’t use the standard “parties” plural and instead just add an s. If you’re going to go for the snide grammatical [sic] ego boosts, next time at least make sure you stick the landing 🙄
@Rayquaza2510 Uhhh... because capitalism is inheritably evil? Or because we live in a society where celebrities and athletes are basically worshipped as idols and the majority of people are just plain dumb? Or something like that. But yeah, I agree. Unless Jeff Goldblum personally tells me to buy something. Then I guess I have no choice but to buy 30 of said thing.
These ads are sooo weird
@MeloMan 100% agree. Nintendo could even pull an Untitled Goose Game and have a Dedicated Fart™️ button by pressing Y or something. They could patent it and everything
@Rayquaza2510 I wouldn’t say it’s ‘old school’ to hate celeb adverts. I mean, the Rik Mayall ads were about 30 years ago.
WarLuigi - The game... will it ever happen?
@Rayquaza2510 it has nothing to do with being "old school", celebrity endorsement has been prevalent and successful in marketing for over a century
@reporterdavid I would prefer Waluigi: Wah of the worlds or Gears of Wah, however it has to be a stealth action game where the baddie is Piranha Plant who got his own fictional title (Piranha Planet) and he team up with a group of shy guys who want a dating sim
@sultrybidoof But Mario Parties (ESRB M, PEGI 18) is my most anticipated game of 2022! We've already seen Mario's Nipples(TM). The party doesn't start until he breaks open those barrels DK throws at him!
@kurtasbestos @Rayquaza2510 Nothing "old school" about not getting it, it's existed since broadcast media began, with Bing and friends recommending products before a message from their sponsors.... But I also don't "get" the mindset. I don't know how some "important" person liking a thing makes you want a thing. Something about the human brain that applies to 90% of the species seems to not apply to some of us.
I feel we're starting to reach the limits of Christina's Nintendo knowledge now. I predict a maximum of no more than 10 more articles can be squeezed from this endorsement.
Oh good, I'm not the only one who does the Wario voice while playing Mario Kart. That makes me feel ever so slightly less of a weirdo 😂
@CharlieGirl OMG, that's brilliant! 🤣
@sultrybidoof That's right... Sic 'em
What about a game where you play as Waluigi and you try to get invited to something? Only there's no way to win and all the NPC's ignore you.
Notice how she doesn't use the nintendo switch online app to voice chat. Instead she just facetimes or answers a phone call.
Nintendo is out of touch and they flaunt it in our faces.
@MeloMan
That would be dope! Kind of surprised Nintendo hasn’t done that already, although I could see them going with an all female lead too with Peach, Rosalina, Toadette and Daisy! Actually still surprised they’ve yet to introduce a female Bowser! Maybe he’d finally leave Peach alone if he had his own side piece lol
@Rayquaza2510
If you are on a Nintendo website, then it probably doesn't matter who is in the ads as you are more knowledgeable about Nintendo products than the average person. That said, there are many casual gamers who don't know anything about games that there are not advertisements for.
Good products don't inherently sell themselves. You can look at Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros, Super Mario 3D world and the other Wii U ports that sold far more on the Switch as proof that good games don't necessarily sell themselves and marketing is important.
I always get the impression that she took some serious puffs of the magic dragon right before she filmed that commercial. I guess it could just be the way she is naturally but even in other settings I always get this vibe she's orbiting.
@cleveland124 I don't mean we don't need ads, we do.
But it's kinda silly someone would buy Pokémon because "some celebrity played it" evn while it was only for an ad (not always the case, but often true)
@Rayquaza2510 But the psychology of the human brain/mind is way more complicated than "I see a celebrity, I buy." There might be a tiny portion of people that would say, buy a video game because they once saw an ad of some celebrity playing it and state that as their explicit reason...
But the reasons companies spend millions of dollars on ads and hiring ad agencies is because they work and because they have studied how to tap into psychology; in a lot of cases, it's not that someone likes a celebrity, it's just the fact that they've now heard of a product, and that attention was perhaps drawn in the first place because of a known celebrity. In some cases companies will even create annoying, weird, or hated ads. Not because they failed to make the product look appealing; no, so that people remember and talk about the product. Case in point: we're all sitting here vaguely discussing this ad even though it seems most people on this site don't really care about the celebrity.
If you ever get a chance, and can find it online, I highly recommend watching the 2002 documentary The Century of Self by Adam Curtis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self). It explores in some details how psychology has been used to manipulate the masses (yes, even me) to get them to consume more. A great example is how Edward Bernays marketed smoking to women at a time where it was seen as un-feminine and was able to basically help sell tobacco to another 50% of the population.
"We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed... Man's desires must overshadow his needs." - Paul Mazur, 1927.
Anyway, apologies for the long rambling.
X-Tina yah! Fun mom!
@Rayquaza2510
It's not about playing something because Christina Ag is playing it, it's about getting a consumer to tune in to the message. We are inudated with ads all the time and I and many consumers don't pay attention at all.
So let's say some consumer is about to play on their phone until the commercial is over. Then they hear her voice and they look up to identify her. And then now they are paying attention and think the game looks cool so they want to buy the game. Celebrities naturally garner more attention.
@Meteoroid staying IN your lane. D@mn Ok. So you believe they gave up or tapped out on voice chat? Man if that is true, what does that say about the rest of the NSO service. Smh
@TonyTyga90 I agree with you 100%
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