| RenCutypoison said: Hum, I think older audience don't recognize mario, and for the theme song it's mostly because every 30 years old and less has played a mario game when they were childs. A 60 years old will recognize pikachu because his grandsons have pikachu plush, to me. But it's hardly quantifiable. But to me, as there are more pokemon goodies, still pikachu. Even if you're probably right. |
Yeah, I can see your reasoning about brand infiltration due to exposure through grandchildren. I think the same can be said about Mario though, even if not at the same level this day and age. Years before grandparents were buying Pokemon for their grandchildren, they were doing the same with Mario and continue doing so to this day.
My parents are 56 and 54. Both know about Mario. My mom knows about Pikachu, but my dad doesn't. My grandmother is 85 and she knows about Mario but not pikachu. Her first language isn't even English, she's hispanic and she knows Mario because she bought Super Mario 64 with N64 for my cousin (the favorite, haha) who played it at her house all the time. My grandfather from Puerto Rico knows about Mario but not about Pikachu even though my cousins over there have played games with both characters. This is just a personal example so it doesn't quantify anything, but it goes to show that your idea for Pikachu and Pokemon in general can apply to Mario as well.
And another way to think about it is Mario is over 30 years old (his image as jumpman anyway) and has had a longer time to become engrained in popular media. He hasn't died off like other brands who blew up and then faded. He is continually a leader in gaming in terms of sales, popularity and sheer amount of appearances. Even if he doesn't have the same amount of merchandizing like Pokemon, he's still all over the place and has been for so long that gamer or not, you can't miss him.
I think the same thing applies to Pikachu, but at a slightly lower level. Even though Pokemon is larger in terms of merchandizing (movies, card games, etc), they have less games come out per year (which means more grandmothers will likely buy or see a Mario game in a store over a Pokemon game) and they seem to be aimed at a smaller audience. Yes, full grown adults still play the games since 1996, but full grown adults have and still play Mario games since the 80s. The Pokemon tv show, the movies and the other stuff are pretty much all aimed at children...and a specific market at that, because not every kid likes anime or card games even if they enjoy the games. The Pokemon games combined with the side stuff, however popular and successfull, doesn't seem to be as big business as Mario. At least to me.
