NBrid

Nintendo caught selling alcohol to minors

In last week's Sports Illustrated (August 26, 2002), there on page 31 was a seemingly normal full-page ad. It showed two Heineken lager beer bottles taped onto the side of a GameCube (GC) controller. It is advertsing for a contest sponcered by the beer manufactuer in which you can win a Nintendo GC among other prizes. So what? In the same magazine there are ads for Absolut Vodka and Miller Lite... But these ads don't have purple toys in them.

The problem say a number of anti-underage drinking organizations is that Nintendo and it's purple GameCube are targeted at younger kids. To see one along side a bottle of beer clearly is an attempt by Heineken to subvert federal laws and market to the teenage crowd, or even younger. "I don't know how Nintendo approved such an ad," said Amanda Morris of M.A.D.D. "In the past 'Nintendo' and 'Family Entertainment' have always gone hand-in-hand. This changes everything."

Kids everywhere play Pokemon on their Nintendo GameBoy's or Mario on their Nintendo 64's. Families feel safe with the Nintendo brand name knowing the games they buy won't have the same prat falls as highly controversial games like last year's Grand Theft Auto 3 (Game of the Year on PS2). As such Nintendo has been synonymous with the phrase "kid-friendly". Therefore, these groups claim, kids who read the ad could be lead to believe that beer is just as "kid-friendly". Giving Heineken an edge in the untapped 8-16 age group.

"Complete bull," claims D.L. Ryan who is in charge of the campaign. "These organizations do a lot of good, but sometimes they 'twist' the facts to better their cause. These people need to get out of their fantasy world and into the real world." Ryan states that there is nothing about the GC that makes anything associated with it "for kids." He claims that he himself is a proud owner of a GC and enjoys playing it all the time, but declined to say on record what his favorite game was.

Is this ad really targeted at kids? It's hard to say. Yes, Nintendo and its GameCube are very "kid-friendly". Games like even Bloody Roar come out censored (the game doesn't actually have any blood in it) to target younger gamers and their families. Clearly Nintendo has cornered the market on younger gamers. So is Heineken trying to use this product image to get them in on the same market? Maybe, but not every game on GC is as "kid friendly" as Luigi's Mansion.

Nintendo in defence of the ad is quick to point out games such as Resident Evil and Eternal Darkness that are full of blood and gore. Certainly not "kid's stuff". So if these games exist, it shows that GC does have its darker side. It just isn't as prevalent. When asked if besides these two games was there any reason to beleive that an ad featuring a GC wasn't targeted at kids, Nintendo replied, "The gaming industry has changed over the past few years. These days people of all ages enjoy playing games. A few of whom are over the age of 21. They can enjoy games like Resident Evil and Eternal Darkness. Nintendo would never promote underage drinking. Kids should drink water. Which you will find a ton of in our brand new game Mario Sunshine for the GC. Yes, Mario is back," (Varenne Giampaolo of Nintendo of America).

Maybe it is towards these older gamers that the ad is targeted. Or maybe it's targeted towards the parents who are of age but might want to get the system for their kids. Or just maybe some people are reading way too much into a simple ad. More probably though people were just surprised that it wasn't non-alcoholic beer that GC was next to.

(As of press, Heineken has stated that they have no plans to pull the ad or discontinue the contest. For more information, check out www.heineken.com.)