The latest addition to the online video canon of Advertising That Is Advertising Because It’s All About How It’s Not Advertising stars Joel McHale as a difficult-to-deal-with spokesman for the Nintendo 3DS.
The three-minute-and-33-second online video spot was released on Nintendo’s YouTube channel and is a blatant shill for the portable game console (which doesn’t require users to wear headgear like this) by way of having its principal actors spend the majority of those three-minutes-and-33-seconds explaining how the video spot is not a blatant shill for Nintendo’s portable gaming console.
McHale also references and/or shares the video frame with classic YouTube videos, perennially appealing base activities often documented in online video, Mario and Luigi, and a handful of bikini-clad models (whose attire happens to match some of the colors in which you purchase your very own a 3DS).
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The advert (dubbed Joel McHale goes viral for Nintendo) was directed and edited by ubiquitous online video and commercial behind-the-camera talent Jesse Selwyn, written by Brad Stevens and Boyd Vico, and co-produced with John Koch of ID-PR. It also represents a new attention-grabbing strategy for the consumer electronics developer.
Nintendo has produced at least one example of innovative online video advertising, but this is their first entree into something live-action, irreverent, and internet-y. If you’re a fan of this kind of online video advertising, here’s to hoping it will work.