Remembering the Game Boy Advance SP's edgy marketing
The Game Boy Advance SP was forward-thinking in a lot of ways. It featured a backlit screen that has since become standard, and a highly portable clamshell design that paved the way for Nintendo DS. But its marketing here in the UK now looks more than a little more dated.
Originally released in Japan 20 years ago today, and then here in Europe on 28th March, there's no doubting the SP was a sleekly-designed piece of kit. The original Game Boy Advance was compact enough, but could also never escape looking like a toy — something a kid might try and conjure a Digimon out of in a particularly energetic play session.
The SP, on the other hand, was intended to appear a more grown-up device and was therefore marketed as such. Its colours were more muted — its all-silver option made its hinged design look like a small laptop. Its angular shape was more business-like (and its dinky shoulder buttons rather less ergonomic to hold down). But all of this made sense — right? Nintendo already had a successful Game Boy Advance for the younger market. This one was for a different and more narrowly-targeted demographic — something its advertising also reflected.
Like some kind of aftershave, Nintendo marketed the SP here in Europe as a device «for men», with an advertising campaign that featured widely within the various UK lads mags of the time. The handheld's most memorable advert featured the boast that playing the GBA SP was «the second best thing to do in the dark», highlighting the device's backlit screen — but also that not even Nintendo thought playing Mario was as good as sex.
The advert included a moody monochrome photo of a model-like couple posing topless beneath silken sheets. The man is shown holding the SP and playing
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