Kirby steps up
Nintendo invests $10m in a pink blob
Nintendo of America is hoping to elevate that loveable pink blob Kirby to the status of his 20-year-old compatriot Mario and the likes of Pokémon, with the aid of a ten-million-dollar campaign over the next years. NOA's efforts kick off with a new Saturday morning cartoon, "Kirby: Right Back at Ya!", which debuts on Fox in the States on September 14th at 9am and 11am. The show has been described by one of my editorial colleagues as "what would happen if the creators of Pokémon dropped far too many tabs of LSD". Of course, the idea behind the campaign is to remind the consumer that Kirby is more than a pink blob. Actually, he's a pink blob in training. Having crash-landed on the planet Popstar, Kirby becomes sworn protector of Dream Land, where all the happy dreams in the universe originate. As you may recall from the days of his wonderful GameBoy adventures and his behaviour in Super Smash Bros. Melee, he can inhale his enemies' special powers and regurgitate them in his defence. He doesn't say much, which is probably just as well, but he's a force for good, and we should all know it. There's a lot more to Nintendo's $10m investment, but you can probably guess most of it. Toys, food sponsorship, lots of branding and of course games, including the Kirbster's forthcoming GBA adventure. The reason for this substantial investment? We'd hazard a guess that it has something to do with Kirby's creator Satoru Iwata, who was himself elevated recently. To the position of president of Nintendo...
