In 2026, it can be hard to imagine the 'lads mag' culture of the '90s. It was a time where it seemed like anything could make it into print, as long as it contained bawdy humour, football references and/or casual misogyny. Hell, even the ads for children's' portable games consoles were edgy.
Yes, Nintendo's Game Boy ads from the '90s are, well, not the kind of thing we'd associate with Nintendo today. There are cuddly Pokemon or family-friendly moustachioed plumbers here. Instead, the brand seemed to be taking a leaf out of Sony's book, with a bunch of edgy ads that might as well be advertising a PlayStation.
Indeed, one of Nintendo's 1997 ads featured a lingerie-clad woman tied to a bed, alongside the tagline, "The new Game Boy pocket: seriously distracting". The implication being, of course, that her lover had become so distracted by, I don't know, Tetris, that they'd forgotten to untie her. Tsk, tsk!
That particular ad, created by Leo Burnett, was pulled after the Advertising Standards Authority received complaints. Even in 1997, it was deemed tasteless. Defending the ad's placement in the likes of FHM and Loaded, account director Crispin Reed told The Independent, "When you look at [our] ad in the context of the environment it appeared in, it's exactly in keeping with the editorial pages which, I would say, go further than we did."
But while that might have been the only Nintendo ad to get pulled, it's clear from the other examples that Nintendo was trying out a new vibe which, arguably, didn't suit it. Whereas PlayStation was explicitly targeting clubbers and rave culture with the likes of WipEout, what were the Game Boy's edgy, adult games? Kirby's Dream Land?
From starving dogs to ferrets down young men's trousers (I'd love to have been a fly on the wall in the meeting that led to that idea), Nintendo's 'lads mags' ads now look like relics of a less civilised age.
