I really don't quite see what is so appalling about the U.S commercial. It's straight forward and it highlights a feature of the gamepad. It will draw in casuals and at this point I am for whatever it takes to drive up Wii U sales.

Because the american has boring gameplay footage while the Japanese doesnt

Between the two, in my opinion, the Japanese ad was worlds better. It had me smiling and the gameplay footage was much more interesting. The actress genuinely seemed to be having fun (or she was a damn good actress, which is the same difference). The US ad, however, was generic as hell. It had some attractive teen models who probably weren't even looking at the game and the gameplay was bland. Nothing eye-catching about it whatsoever. The blowing thing looked especially stupid.

Now, that being said, those are some of the only Nintendo ads I've seen in quite awhile, so I'm not going to judge them all by that. That's just my opinion about the two in the OP.

It's not just about game footage or whatever. That metric of marketing for video games is so 1990s ... it's outdated. We have the internet now, you can find loads of game footage/trailers within seconds, that doesn't make a marketing campaign good anymore.

It's about the image you create for your console/products.

The Japanese ad while simple, is refined and clean looking with an attractive spokesperson playing the game who's an adult. If Apple had a game division, this would be the type of game commercials they would make, just with an American celebrity in a New York City penthouse instead.

The American ads? The slogan may as well be "Wii U -- The Game Console For Your Kid Brother".

Compare and contrast again the NSMBU ads from last year --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWyPqlb_pYo (Japan)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBlBe06Xm0c (North America)

Again the focus of the North American spot is "it's fun for teh kids" (albiet it does show the little kid's parents playing with him for a few seconds). But overall the message sent there is it's a product for kids, right down the "annoyed big sister who wants to watch TV, makes her kid brother play Mario on controller".

Japanese and European commercials for Nintendo rarely actually have any kids in them period, whereas NOA ... I think they took a lot of heat from the Japanese division over low 3DS and Wii U sales, and have decided to simply market to the lowest common denominator -- kids. They've just pretty much decided to stop marketing to anyone else.

NOA themselves helps create and maintain the "kiddie" image for Nintendo by marketing like this. 

There are a few ads that Wayne Brady just did for the Wii U in america.
Also you make it sound like its 10 year olds in the commercial.  Those people are at minimum in high school.

While those ads are better, are they even on TV? None of them are 30 seconds which indicates it's just a marketing bit for Nintendo's web channel. 

Which is just lazy marketing on NOA's part IMO. They've never really highlighted the product as being the most sophisticated and elegant (in many ways) Nintendo console ever, they just willingly pin it as the "kids conosle, that mommy and daddy can play with little Johnny once in a while" route. 

suppose people see waht they want to see.

When I watched the clip the only thing I thought was "that looks like fun"

Meanwhile for SOny or Xbox commercials.  Sony mostly cause they show like zero gameplay ever.  THey just look like a commercial for a c-movie on sci fi channel with a game logo at the end.  WHat is their facination with casting real people to walk around holding a sci fi gun?  

Everyone is clamoring how games looks so realistic these days.  Why do companies feel teh need to cast real humans then to show off a game and not just show their "life-like graphics in game"  

Gameplay only ads is outdated IMO. It's an old concept for the 1990s before people had broadband internet.

Game marketing today is all about the image you want to create and what it says about your brand. Which actually takes some skill to pull off. 

Even the "Wii Would Like To Play" ads which were genuinely good had very little gameplay, it was about conveying the uniqueness of the experience with everyday people. And even those spots not coincidentally centered more around adults. 

One of the problems with branding your console "for kids", is kids don't even want it, lol. Kids once they get to about age 9/10 want to be playing what their older brother or the kids in high school think is "cool". I think NOA is simply out to lunch on this one. Which is a shame because they really don't have any other responsibility given to them but to make sure the marketing on their end is decent. 

For the Wii U, Mario 3D World is their best game of the year and really they've done jack all marketing any one of their other Wii U products, and this is the best ad they come up with? For shame, NOA, for shame. Step your freaking game up. 

It's just bland, is the issue. It's good that a lot of their ads focus on gameplay (comparing to a lot of PS ads which focus on whatever the gimmick of the ad is and don't show enough of the game), but they've got to have a hook in there of some kind.

They should take notes from Sega's Sonic Lost World commercial. That seems to strike a good balance.

Neither really accomplished that goal.