The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, out this Friday, is shaping up to be the biggest release of the year. As the Switch enters its twilight years, it goes without saying Nintendo is committing some serious marketing budget to promote Link’s latest adventure.
And yet, this newest Zelda ad from Nintendo AU truly is something else. I don’t think I should set the stage much—it’s best you just give it a watch:
I have so many questions. What crushed this dude’s soul? He earns big money (that house ain’t cheap), but takes a bus to work? Why is his plant wilting?
I kid, of course. The commercial is beautifully shot and scored, and I get the sentiment. The older you get, the more responsibilities you burden. Life gets tough; it becomes exceedingly hard to appreciate its marvels and remember why you’re hustling at all. Yet, all it takes is a spark (like Zelda) to remind you what the adventure’s all for.
Nintendo knows it has teens and twenty-somethings cornered, so this is its way of capturing an older (more dejected?) audience. And to its marketing team’s credit, they’re not wrong! Life does suck at times, and every adult, regardless of how fancy their home is, can attest to that.
Still, it’s comically jarring to see Nintendo hit us with such a dreary ad in the lead-up to such a vibrant game. As a working adult (and a marketer myself) on the precipice of this demographic, I can’t tell whether I love this ad or hate it. Maybe that says more about myself than the salaryman on the bus.
I’ll leave you with a timeless quote from Ferris Bueller: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releases May 12. I don’t plan on missing that.
