Neo Geo: Hot Dog Comparison - Advertisement Review

In the early days of the Neo*Geo SNK did not have a lot to run on, they were offering a $600 system that played games that cost more than their competition's entire systems. Yet this commercial demonstrates that SNK was ready to turn lemons into lemonade and go to the only thing in their arsenal ... name calling. This early Neo*Geo commercial completely ignores the $600 price tag and takes the war to Sega and Nintendo by insulting and ignoring some key facts that kept the system from selling as well as the Super NES or Genesis.

When somebody starts an argument with "think it over," nine times out of ten the person doesn't know what they are talking about. "Think it over" is generally followed with something crazy like "just because all the globes you see are round doesn't mean the Earth isn't flat" or "there's nothing wrong with sweatshops, the kids love it." True to form it's followed by a long list of boring technical specs, all that border on not actually sounding real. 4-Dimensional realism, eh? I guess they were saving that for just the right time.

But the meat of this commercial isn't the technical specs (which are revisited in funny chart form later in the advertisement); it's the funny comparison between the weenie and full hot dog. They do mention that the system costs more, but then suggest that you are getting what you pay for ... since the Super NES and Genesis are, in their words, similar to "Squirrel Burgers" and a "Yugo." Now, I've had Squirrel Burger and let me tell you, the Super NES and Genesis are way better than Squirrel Burger. But I digress, the one thing this Neo*Geo commercial lacks is the games, perhaps it's because most of the big titles of the early 1990s were driving in the Yugo.

FROM: Who Shot Bad Advertising? (Part One)