In the early 90s SEGA was in a pretty good place. They had finally managed to break through Nintendo’s monopoly over the market, Sonic was a hit and the Genesis was on top. Even so, the Genesis’s position was still precarious. By 1992 the Genesis was four years old and its age was beginning to show. The SNES was beginning to really show off its superior graphics and sound capabilities and the incredible Mode 7 effect on display in Mario Kart was out of the Genesis’s reach (at least, until the release of Pier Solar twenty years later).
So how does SEGA respond? With awesome marketing of course! Marketing that brags about the one thing that the Genesis can do better than the Super Nintendo: speed. What makes this ad even more spectacular is how it takes Mario Kart, the SNES’s most impressive looking game at the time, and compares it to a broken down jalopy. That takes some serious balls.
Blast processing may have been bullshit, but you can’t deny the sheer effectiveness of this ad. Especially since the Genesis continued to dominate the industry in the West after 1992.
Ad:Related posts:
Classic SEGA Ads: Genesis drives once innocent teenager to madness
Classic SEGA Ads: It slices, it dices, and it fits in your tacklebox!
Classic SEGA Ads: Streets of Rage 2 earns you respect!
Classic SEGA Ads: The Godzilla VMU proves that size doesn’t matter
Classic SEGA Ads: So you want to live in a comic book?
I love this commercial.