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Game console marketing in the 1990s had an unhealthy obsession with ‘bits’. Once players witnessed the jump in fidelity from 8-bit to a 16-bit systems, manufacturers began the race to release consoles with higher ‘bit’ counts, even if most consumers had no idea what a ‘bit’ was. This commercial we’re looking at today is one of the more extreme examples of companies trying to push the more-bits-means-better-games narrative.
The Jaguar was Atari’s final attempt at a standard video game console, one that aimed to compete with the ranks of Nintendo and Sega’s offerings of the time. Released in 1993, ‘bits’ were the hot topic in the gaming world, and Atari made sure anyone who watches the ad has no question how many their new console was boasting.
In the mildly unsettling thirty-second ad, a no-nonsense teacher speaks to a classroom full of pupils on ‘Video Game Marketing 101’. Trying her best to illustrate that the Jaguar’s 64 bits was much more powerful than the 16-bit and 32-bit competition, the class just doesn’t seem to get it. It ends with her simply scrawling “Do the math” on the chalkboard, the console’s advertising slogan.
Although strange and ultimately ineffective, it’s certainly a memorable commercial. In fact, it was the only reason I knew the Jaguar was on the market at the time and what I thought about any time it was mentioned. What do you think? Would this ad make you want to buy an Atari Jaguar in the 1990s?
