Nintendo The Legend of Zelda
I had zero interest in The Legend of Zelda games as a kid until playing through Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy: my own awakening for the series. Why the apathy? It was 100% a result of this utterly bizarre commercial for the original NES game that intermixed video clips of the game with footage of a turtle-necked man ranting and raving about the game and the various baddies like a bad fringe festival production. (I guess the ‘bad’ is always implied there.) This one was definitely a big miss from Nintendo’s marketing team, even if it did manage to spark many confused playground discussions.
