In this section we'll try to gather all the fun, interesting and weird advertising/merchandise someway connected to Nintendo games.
The section is divided into 3 sections: Merchandise & Memorabilia, TV ads and Misc.
 
 
------ Merchandise & Memorabilia ------

Mario Merchandise
Mario merchandise is (or at least was) sold everywhere in japan! A real Mario fan can completely surround him self with Mario stuff! Some examples of all the Mario merchandise are: Super Mario World Pasta - pasta shaped like our beloved plumber,  cheese, remote controlled karts from Super Mario Kart, Mario Slippers, alarm clocks, dolls, Marioames. Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros- Mushroom World.
 
Eat Mario for breakfast!
Did you know that Super Mario Bros and Zelda 1 has both become both cereal brands and board games?
 
The Keychains (1997)
 
SMB3 Walkie Talkies (1991)
 
Mario Shampoo
 
Mario Beanie Babies
 
Super Mario Ice Cream
 
Super Mario Water Squirter
 
Mario Marionette
 
Mario shower head
 
Mario stickers
 
Mario TV Tray
 
Super Mario Bros 2 wallet
 
Mario Watches
 
Bowser T-shirt Iron-on
 
Mario cookie cutters
 
Mario and Bowser statuettes
 
Mario MCDonalds Happymeals

Pokémon keychain
 

-------------------- TV ads -------------------------

 
 
Where's Zelda?...
One of Nintendo's weirdest commercials must be the one they did to advertise Zelda 1. It featured a wiry-haired, rather nerdy guy wandering through the dark repeatedly screaming Zelda... (Honestly!)

Mike Tyson's Punch Out commercial
In an 1987 Nintendo did a commercial for their new Mike Tyson's Punch Out game featuring Mike Tyson walking into a room and picking up a NES controller in his hands and putting a NES cartridge in the NES. A wall full of screens appear and Tyson breaks out laughing.

Ice Hockey commercial
This commercial for the NES game Ice Hockey game featured a kid playing the game when suddenly a puck came hurtling through the TV screen into his living room.

 
---------------------- Misc. -------------------------

 

Street Fighter, The phenomenon!
When the Street Fighter games where at the peak of it´s popularity the stores of Japan were filled with SF2 merchandise like clothes, dolls, chocolate, you name it! Street Fighter was huge!

Sega sponsors the Red cards in the british football league!
In 94- 95 Sega was planning to sponsor the red cards in the british football-league! A spokesman for Sega Europe said that: We hope that every time a player gets a red card the Sega-logo reminds him that it´s only a game! Personally I think they would start to get mad at Sega instead, I would be!
 

Nintendo and Pepsi joins forces!
When Nintendo contacted Pepsi in hope to co-operate with them to make commercials they were cautious but then they tested an association with Nintendo on one of their smaller brands: Slice. Pepsi arranged national TV promotions where they gave away free Nintendo systems and they became so satisfied by the result of the campaign that they contacted Nintendo again, telling them that they wanted Nintendo to be a part of their BIG Christmas special advertising campaign. Without paying a thing, Nintendo got not only vast amounts of exposure (they got their logo on about 2 billion Pepsi cans) but also a lot of cash when Pepsi bought products from them for $10 million to use in their campaign! What did Pepsi get for making these big campaigns for Nintendo for free? Well they got an valuable association with Nintendo...

The Wizard!
If there is one company that Nintendo should thank for the success of Super Mario Bros 3 it is no doubt Universal Studios. In 1989 the president of Universal Studios, Tom Pollack met with Bill White and Peter Main (Nintendo employees) and told them that he wanted to do a movie based on a video game. The project resulted in "The Wizard" featuring famous actors like: Fred Savage, Bean bridges and Christian Slater. The whole plot of the movie was that Fred Savage's character's little brother competed in a Nintendo World Championship Competition and that he won it all! In the final of the Championship a new game was introduced: Super Mario Bros 3!
This way the kids got to see a preview of the new Mario game even though the game itself wasn't going to be released until the next year. This resulted in an enormous "hype" around the game. All the kids in school was talking about this new amazing Mario game they had seen in the movies and when the eagerly awaited game at last was released all the kids wanted there own copy of the game! SMB3 sold in incredibly 18 million copies world wide and (grossed $500 million!) which makes it the most sold stand alone video game ever! Thanks Universal Studios. Note: Nintendo didn't payed a single dollar for the movie! Instead they got a license fee from Universal Studios, so they actually MADE some money on it too!