What a kick in the nostalgia. I went through a bunch and remember pretty much all of them. I use to have a collection of a whole bunch of gaming magazines. Nintendo Power, EGM, and GameFan mostly. Now I feel bad for getting rid of them all years ago.
robio said:This may have been shared before ages ago, but apparently some guy has created an account where he has uploaded almost 1,800 ads from issues of GamePro from 1990 to 1999. It's been fun looking at these. It's also rather amusing it how bad a lot of these ads are, and how they just ignore basic ad design. I understand the medium was new, but advertising was not. Then again, it's not all that hard to find bad ads in magazines even today, assuming you can find magazines.
Anyway, if you have some time check them out. It's fun to scroll through.
https://imgur.com/gallery/W2zYpGN
As some will recall I have an almost full run of EGMs post-1994 and a bunch of other old game mags. I'm sure one day they'll end up at the dump, but I still flip through them regularly.
This really doesn't scream video game to me. Homoerotic novel on the other hand?
I actually kind of like this one, but I will admit that's a stress-inducing headline for some of the more anxiety-ridden kids out there.
The entire point of dragon's lair was that it had actual cartoon graphics. With that in mind, why make an ad that looks like this? I suppose anything to distract from what the port will actually look like on a Home console.
I have these grips! I bought mine for use on my Sega Master System controllers. They worked well; much more comfortable.
Sega had the best ads back then.
Homoerotic novel...I mean, have you played Double Dragon?
robio said:I also wanted to share a few that kind of made me scratch my head just a bit. I mean, I know video games were still kind of knew, but marketing wasn't. Product marketing is the easiest damn thing in the world, and yet some of these ads are just.... curiously bad.
You have to think that the people in the video games industry (because it was new) were not drawing the best and brightest marketing buyers. There were likely a few small developers and manufacturers owners that they knew best when making creative decisions. For some reason, everyone thinks they have the qualification to make creative calls the way they would not with engineering and other fields.
aspro said:For some reason, everyone thinks they have the qualification to make creative calls the way they would not with engineering and other fields.
It's because creativity is undervalued. A good idea takes practice and experience. I think it's also due to the immaterial nature of creativity. It's much harder to grasp and quantify. It's harder for a layman to recognize a bad idea than a badly built construction. This also reflects in wages, even in my field.
Gotta love that power grips chart. 😂
aspro said:For some reason, everyone thinks they have the qualification to make creative calls the way they would not with engineering and other fields.
This is pretty much my life. I'm the marketing manager for a small financial company, and for every ad I build I have to submit it to a minimum of six people. Most of them them all seemingly know far more about marketing and advertising than I do, which makes me wonder why they hired me in the first place.
SteelAttack said:Gotta love that power grips chart. 😂
Pure science right there.
robio said:SteelAttack said:Gotta love that power grips chart. 😂
Pure science right there.
Yup That chart convinced me to buy them. 
I'm especially fond of this one, with the subtle picture-in-picture of parents reading in tranquility 'NO MORE TV NOISE' 
Reminds me a lot of my own experience playing NES and SNES games.
Pokemon is a much better brand name.
robio said:aspro said:For some reason, everyone thinks they have the qualification to make creative calls the way they would not with engineering and other fields.
This is pretty much my life. I'm the marketing manager for a small financial company, and for every ad I build I have to submit it to a minimum of six people. Most of them them all seemingly know far more about marketing and advertising than I do, which makes me wonder why they hired me in the first place.
I work in a technical field, so I have the luxury of everyone taking my opinions as unassailable gospel. When I do get into the creative realm I just grit my teeth and go with the majority. As Papa Smurf always says, "Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has got one". I think that was Papa Smurf...
I do remember you giving me some unsolicited writing advice for fiction, which I politely ignored; if I remember correctly. 
Anyway, if you have some time check them out. It's fun to scroll through.
https://imgur.com/gallery/W2zYpGN