Advertisements

The following adverts appeared in 2000AD comic unless otherwise specified, details are given against the description of each, along with my comments.

• Speedball 2 - The back page of Prog 708 (08/12/1990.) "Celebrate the moment of glory in style!"
• Amstrad 6128 Plus and 464 Plus - This advert ran on the back page for many weeks, ending with Prog 709 (15/12/1990.) Did anybody ever buy one of these machines? The original CPCs were great in their day but there were far more powerful systems available by the time the Plus rage was launched.
• Commodore - Double page spread from Prog 707 (01/12/1990.) Like Amstrad, Commodore were still ringing the last few sales out of their aging eight-bit machine. At least they had some newer packages to offer. A classic example of a company pushing the educational value of their products to the parents. Kids were wise to this and happy to go along -- until the machine arrived, that is. Why do we no longer see this trick? Have the parents cottoned on to it by now?
• Game Boy - Back page of Prog 706 (24/11/1990.) Quite a classy ad by Nintendo standards. Sony are always credited as being the first games company to target young adults as opposed to children. Clearly, Nintendo predated Sony's efforts. Looks like the sort of thing you'd still see in glossy fashion mags today. Picture David Beckham or Jenson Button in that chair and you've got a ready made campaign for the PSP or DS.
• Game Gear TV Tuner- 2000AD Monthly issue 77 (Feb. 1992.) Brilliant! Never again will we see the likes of this again. Designed to ape a Judge Dredd strip, the boys use the Game Gear TV Tuner to watch Saint and Greavsie! Sheer Class.
• Pitfall - Complete Judge Dredd issue 36 (May 1995.) By 1995, we're starting to see ads that would not look out of place today...
• Hurricanes - Complete Judge Dredd issue 26 (Jan 1995.) ...unless you are US Gold and trying to alienate as many potential customers as possible. Could that boy look any less animated?
• Sonic the Comic - Complete Judge Dredd issue 18 (Jul. 1993.) Sonic was HUGE in the early 90s.
• Small Shredded Wheat - Prog 709 (15/12/1990.) Teamed up with Nintendo for this promotion. Collect Nintendo Sticker Scratchbooks plus 1,000s of amazing Nintendo prizes to be won. Naive graphics lend a certain charm to an inappropriately judged advert, considering the nature of the comic it appeared in. There's a great boss-eyed Mario on the right hand side. Suspicious mushroom in hand explains a lot!