Nintendo "who are you?" | Forest of Illusion

The following DVD was distributed to Nintendo Merchandising Inc representatives and/or press, and provided a brief outline of Nintendo's "who are you" advertising campaign.

[@LaskyLabs]

Today I am Wario.

[@em5345-]

Choosing Luigi

[@samrogers8926]

My wife calls me daddy wario on the reg

[@somewade6820]

Best comment.

[@alfo2804]

"Our new console isn't doing as well as we'd hoped. How can we come up with a new tagline to help market the Gamecube to consumers?"
*"Give them an existential ultimatum."*

[@alchemistofsteel8099]

those 3d renders from the late 2000s fill me with so much nostalgia. It reminds me of when all these characters' history and lore were still mysterious to me.
I used to think Mario was a serious serious because of all those renders of him scowling.

[@Arcadenblog]

For my money, the "Who are you?" campaign remains as an interesting point in both Nintendo's own history, as well as my own history with them. It was during the height of "Who are you?" that I discovered Nintendo proper, and started looking into their systems and games as something that I would want to own. It was during the summer of 2006 that I would browse the many websites they had up and would eventually culminate in me wanting a Nintendo DS Lite for Christmas that year.
Looking back now, the "Who are you?" era of Nintendo remains as a unique period for the company, as this was the era that I feel NoA made the biggest effort to market their characters and franchises, rather than a "high-tech, cutting-edge gaming system" or "an experience that the whole family can enjoy." It's something that I would love to see them revisit in the future, especially now during the Switch era where Nintendo's franchises and characters have become more mainstream then ever, on top of them introducing new IPs and slowly but surely revitalizing dormant ones.
Also, take a good long look at that opening image at 0:04. I wonder what characters would take up those squares if it was made today.

[@alfo2804]

Since it's all exclusively in-house Nintendo characters (i.e. no Kirby or Pokémon) it probably wouldn't be much different.
Obviously Fox, Captain Falcon and Olimar would _not_ be there. There would definitely be either Tom Nook or Isabelle (maybe both) and an Inkling. Maybe Samus wouldn't be there, but I think the recent success of Metroid Dread has reclaimed the series' popularity fairly well. Miis would be there if Nintendo weren't still deathly afraid of putting them in new games. Perhaps Waluigi wouldn't be there, but I'd say it'd have to be either him or Daisy as a representative of the Mario spin-off games. Captain Toad or Toadette might be there. Wario might have his Warioware outfit.
Honestly, Nintendo's in-house teams haven't made many major, successful new franchises in the years since. The landscape of what they consider to be their most iconic characters hasn't really changed much.

[@VGmaster153]

The editing for this has been making me laugh for a good minute, but happy to see that commercial in higher quality

[@WalrusStu]

0:32
The footage behind him is actually beta footage!
You can tell from the blue logo that's peeking out from behind him among other differences.

[@pt8034]

I find it really interesting that the included commercial for Super Mario Advance 4 was not only a high quality extended cut, but featured character heads that aren’t in the commercial that actually aired like Samus and Donkey Kong.

[@uilliamm]

I have a couple "Who are you?" physical adverts and theyre honestly super cool

[@staringcorgi6475]

This was Nintendo’s philosophy from 1985 to 2018.

[@confusingmedia6057]

This feels unreal

[@BeeBN]

The first bit looks like it'd make an interesting character select

[@dragons_hook]

I remember the first time I saw the "who are you?" commercial. All those Mario heads. Lol

[@giangeegibb]

This is amazing

[@NeverSaySandwich1]

I miss great marketing campaigns like this. Remember the ruby/sapphire commerical with all the people who look like pokemon in a photo booth? Or the Zero Mission commercial with the screw attacking gymnast?

[@3DylanStar]

I always wondered how they came up with that after "born to play" and whispering "GameCube" didn't work out.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

A successful marketing campagin is one that gets people talking about it. Just read this comment section to see if it was a success or not.

[@dedion-boutonondemand]

I’d like to bring to your attention that there are Super Punch Out and Wario Blast prototypes auctioning on eBay

[@parkercordova8881]

I have that “Who are you?” Promo rug. It’s pretty Sickkkk

[@gabrielwoj]

The Mario Kart Double Dash!! videos behind him is constantly changing from (presumably) Final footage to Beta footage.

[@Foulowe59]

Was searching this disc for a lill while now already and almost paid it too once for a pretty penny, and well, glad I didn't now. One of the most disapointing promo Nintendo disc I've ever seen.

[@Corruptions_Chaos]

So Yoshi is my spirit animal?

[@Fidumo]

Does anyone know the name of the first song? Or was it made just for this promo video?

[@BlueThunderO7]

I'm Captain Falcon.

[@antusFireNova]

I'm Olimar

[@DaNoob1485]

Wait... so I can BE DIDDY KONG?!

[@Lanausse]

I am Lanausse! Most people pronounce my username wrong

[@eeeeeee5233]

Wario

[@A7mag3ddon]

wow thats a painful video