Without a doubt, the rivalry between SEGA and Nintendo was one of the great milestones in the history of video games, and this competition was not limited exclusively to hardware and games themselves but also extended to the realm of advertising. In the 1990s, SEGA of America launched a highly aggressive advertising campaign in which they not only implicitly targeted their rival but did so directly, including their brand name and images of the competition—something unthinkable today.
In this context, a highly provocative campaign began, which ended up being known as “Genesis does,” with its main slogan being “Genesis does What Nintendon’t,”. These ads appeared in countless print publications of the time and also in television commercials, one of the most memorable being the one referencing SEGA’s “Blast Processing.” This term was nothing more than a marketing strategy referring to the significant difference in the refresh rate of SEGA’s 16-bit processor, which doubled that of its rival—one of the few hardware aspects in which SEGA came out on top.
Specifically, in this commercial, you could see a race between a drag car with a SEGA Genesis and a modern TV, and on the other side, an old SUV with an equally old TV and an SNES, referencing the slowness of Nintendo’s console compared to SEGA’s.
SEGA strikes back at Nintendo with its “Blast Processing”
Recently, SEGA has resumed its offensive against its old rival in an advertisement for the launch of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, which will take place on September 25 of this year. Obviously, the reference to its rival Mario Kart World is no longer as direct, and they use a pixelated video capture to show it, although it is more than clear which “other racing game” they are talking about. In this modernized version, consoles are no longer included, as it wouldn’t make sense, but once again, SEGA races in a drag car with a modern screen, while its rival rides in an old, rickety caravan with a plasma TV, which is now considered outdated and obsolete. A curious and clever nod to the past that has brought a smile and more than a few memories to those of us old enough to remember that rivalry we experienced decades ago.
