Throughout its history, Nintendo has had its fair share of “what the eff were they thinking!?” moments. Take the Wii Vitality Sensor, for instance. A pulse rate monitor attached to a game controller? No wonder Iwata and pals quietly swept that one under the rug.
Back in the late 80s, when the company could seemingly do no wrong, Nintendo thought to try its luck with the Nintendo Knitting Machine. As proof that such a concept existed at one point, former Nintendo of America spokesman Howard Phillips uploaded this ad to his Facebook page. According to Howard, he was given 30 minutes notice by ex-NoA president Minoru Arakawa that he had to demo the machine to Toys “R” Us chairman Charles Lazarus. Howard was not enthused, and apparently neither was Lazarus nor anyone else for that matter.
I love how the flyer assumed that customers were “on the edge of their seats,” anxiously awaiting such glorious innovations as the Nintendo Knitting Machine. “Of course we should probably mention that no other video game system offers anything even remotely similar. But why needle the competition?” When an ad department has to resort to cringe-inducing puns in order to sell a produce, you know they’ve got nothing.
The Nintendo Knitting Machine [Tiny Cartridge via IGN]
