Worst Advertisement Ever

[henrycsc]

NEC America's marketing is considered one of the major contributing factors to the poor success of the Turbo Grafx 16.

Lack of 3rd party support, Not understanding the American market of the time, and of course Nintendo's stranglehold on developers didn't help....

When NEC gave up and passed the torch to TTI, it was probably lack of funding that kept the advertising low and accelerated the other issues.  It was during that time that TTI came up with this, perhaps the worst Advertisement ever....  July 1992 issue of EGM (possibly others).  Not the most desirable comparison here.  If you know of other super bad (as in really really bad) turbo ads, post em here.

[PikachuWarrior]

yay for porta-pottys!

[Arkhan Asylum]

who the fuck thought that would be a good idea.

[roflmao]

Wow.    

EDIT: Having said that, Alien Crush is an awesome game to play while sitting on the toilet. 

[Deletion]

I'll let James say it for me...

[Tatsujin]

Turbo express =  MAD toilet  lecture

[esteban]

This is far from the worst TG-16 advertisement!  Sadly, there are many print ads that are worse.  

I know you folks might like pictograms, but I'll take a Porta-Potty over a pictogram, any day of the week.

TTi's initial ad campaigns are abominable

[soop]

That's pretty fucking bad.

[kamiboy]

If they removed the toilet vignette at top then the ad is pretty competent. I didn't even notice it until I was done looking at the center piece and reading the text which is pretty well written and argues the advantages pretty well.

[Arkhan Asylum]

the toilet ruins it though

they're equating the express to a portable shitter usually occupied by drunks at mardi gras or some shit

[soop]

the toilet ruins it though

they're equating the express to a portable shitter usually occupied by drunks at mardi gras or some shit

Or both.

[kamiboy]

The funny thing is that an example was not needed as the caption works best for the picture of the GT by itself.

[Arkhan Asylum]

 They should have showed a pocket pussy in the top left corner.

[jlued686]

Don Draper would have fist-f**ked the idiot who came up with this ad.

Is shitting in a porta-potty "enjoyable"? Ever? You want to equate your product with taking a shit?

I agree that this is the worst ad ever.

[NecroPhile]

Even worse, they equate the 'Express to taking a shit in a place where you're afraid to sit down, holding your breath, and trying to get it over as quickly as possible.  Pure genius!

[Arkhan Asylum]

I refuse to shit in portapotties.

I once had to shit and decided it was better to climb a fence and wander into the woods with two handfuls of napkins and take said dump. 

portapotties are fucking gross.  Who wants to take a dump in one of those, really.

[Keith Courage]

I actually thought the add was hilarious and awesome. 

[esteban]

I actually thought the add was hilarious and awesome. 

Exactly. 

Everyone here (sorry, I love you all!  ) are TOTALLY MISSING THE HUMOR. I hope it is simply because you didn't have your coffee/tea.

Now, as I wrote in the aforementioned piece, Sega was the master of this sort of irreverent humor. Other companies, and there were several, who tried to ape Sega's brash style usually ended up as pale imitations.

This Porta-Potty ad is one such attempt.

This ad, I'd argue, is actually more interesting than the usual, generic ads we usually see.

I've never felt the need to smack my forehead in this forum...but this might actually warrant it!

If you are curious, you can read all my thoughts on TTi's initial marketing in the previous link.

 

[420GOAT]

i remember they were trying to to be "crazy" almost wierd in the ads. this was an attempt to stand out i think, but the ad was a bit off.

[henrycsc]

Oh, I get the humor.... unfortunately it's funnier for those against NEC than it is for those who support NEC.  TTI should have seen that.

I could even have forgiven the ad had it been NEC era with JJ & Jeff in the Express.

I don't find the pictogram all that offensive - that was the time.  NEC used a lot of text in their ads for sure.  More than most of their competitors.  I guess they were trying to convince everyone in North America what everyone in Japan already knew:  PCE/TG16 = awesomesauce!

Port-o-potties are timeless however.... and for the WRONG reason.  The woods are better, just ask Ark or JJ. 

[Keranu]

I actually thought the add was hilarious and awesome. 

I agree!

[CrackTiger]

This was one of my favorite ads bitd. Everything about it is perfect, other than the porta-potty pic. But that kind of thing was typical for the time so I ignored it. The image of a HuCard coming out of a TG-16 and going into an Express... and having that large shot of the Express with Alien Crush on the screen couldn't have been more effective. I already owned an Express and TG-16 and still felt the motivation to buy them from that ad.

The Bomberman '93 ad and fugly airbrushed Americanized Lords of Thunder ads weren't so cool. Johnny Turbo was lame. This was nicer than most magazine ads.

[motdelbourt]

I for one will be circling #101 on my reader service card.

[OldRover]

I actually thought the add was hilarious and awesome. 

So did I. Although it does remind me of the time when I went into a portapotty and noticed someone had taken a dumb in the urinal...

[esteban]

I actually thought the add was hilarious and awesome. 

So did I. Although it does remind me of the time when I went into a portapotty and noticed someone had taken a dumb in the urinal...

You were lucky, then! It would have been NASTY if someone had actually taken a dump in the urinal. 

[NightWolve]

Even worse, they equate the 'Express to taking a shit in a place where you're afraid to sit down, holding your breath, and trying to get it over as quickly as possible.  Pure genius!

Meh, you stole what I wanted to say, just about... I'm pretty certain that I never knew about this ad till today, and sure, I thought it was hilarious too but not in a good way. Somebody (employed in their advertising department at the time) actually thinks that "one of the most enjoyable things in life" is taking a shit in a porta-potty of all things or at least thought that that's a funny enough exaggeration (personally, I don't equate relief after a dump with "enjoyment" but each to his own)... OK, so that part is hilarious by itself, as well as creepy, but that this person(s) was actually allowed to translate this "view" into an ad to promote a videogaming system, an ad which equates the two experiences together (taking a shit v. playing an Express) as two of the most enjoyable things in life...well, I think somebody else put it more succinctly:

Don Draper would have fist-f**ked the idiot who came up with this ad.

Granted, I get the humor of it, and every time I look at it, it makes me laugh, but that's the thing, NEC/TTi's competitors at the time (assuming they saw it) we're probably having a REAL good laugh at this ad, too! Hehe!

TTi's initial ad campaigns are abominable

"These games are so full of action, you may not be able to contain yourself."

I think I remember that one!! So we got toilet humor, literally, and something here that could be construed as a bit of an innuendo... LOL! Anyway, thanks for this thread, henrycsc!

[esteban]

DISCLAIMER: I love all you guys.  

I think that too many folks are taking the ad way too literally!

Arkhan and Henry and NightWolve & company, here's the "equation" of the advertisement:

 (1) taking a dump is amusing because it's scatalogical and a very personal, CATHARTIC experience of RELIEF,

 +

 (2) Porta-Potties are funny because they are GROSS and involve taking a dump outside of our comfort zone,

 =

 (3) the TurboExpress is awesome because it is a handheld powerhouse, with an exhilarating library of games! *


Do you guys over-analyze all the other commercials that are intentionally absurd and ridiculous?

 


NOTE: I'm not the biggest fan of scatalogical humor. Really. I think it (usually) lacks any wit. This TurboPottyExpress ad is OK because most video game advertising of the time was mind-numbingly cookie-cutter.

*The TurboExpress is so friggin' awesome you will shit your pants playing console games—anywhere—in the palm of your hands!

[VestCunt]

I really liked that ad back in the day too. There were a lot of jokey, absurd, low-budget video game ads back then and the context was much more favorable.

[Gogan]

I remember this from way back (think I was 12?) and "got it". Bathroom at home, turbografx at home. Bathroom not at home, turbografx not at home. ...portapotty stinks, turbografx stinks? ..That's when I got confused. Lol jk but I bet a lot o people did.

Even when I was young, Id see a lot of turbo ads and jus shake my head. I felt knda bad for em cuz I knew it was the redheaded stepchild of the time. So many times I defended it against my friends; these ads didn't help.

[soop]

Poor NEC, shooting themselves in the foot again and again.

I'm waiting for someone to dredge up the ad "Don't buy this piece of shit, it eats batteries like a bitch and it costs more than a new car!  And we hate you!"

I remember one magazine called it the Bernard Manning of portables on account of its hunger for batteries.  Here's a picture of Bernard Manning: