Almost everyone cares if its sold out. Its like the Amiibo, NES Classic etc. It eventually leads to exhaustion. People loved collecting amiibos but hated having to stand in line for hours for a chance at a plastic figurine. Eventually it turned off a lot of people. The same thing can happen with Swiitch. Its not like the old Wii days where people were willing to wait for months to find a Wii. People will forget it and move on far faster than before.

Also people are not as complicated as you think. Its a 'I want it now' society. Social media means instant expression. Pizza places have pizzas already made and waiting for you. Fast food has drive up windows so you don't even get out of your car. Self check out so you don't have to stand in line to buy your stuff. They even increased the speed limits in many places so you can get there faster. The human attention span is shorter than a goldfish now. Think about that. A little fish can keep attention longer than your average human. They're not going to be excited for a system that is sold out months after launch. They will shrug and move on. The old ways won't work anymore. Instead they should be saving that money for a real marketing blitz that will happen during the launch window. 30 seconds? They will have forgotten the beginning of the advertisement by the end of the commercial.

It's not like Amiibo or NES Classic. I just explained why.

And why is it not like the Wii days? I just told you - this happens with Apple products literally every year. All of them. I just explained why.

Social media, pizza places, drive throughs, and self check outs all existed during the Wii craze and still exist with Apple products. People are more complex than you think.

I just explained a counter to everything you just said in excruciating detail. I won't repeat myself.

Actually, I will:

"One would have to be incredebly naive to actually think that people willingly watching an ad has little to no impact on their desire to buy or use that product. Of course people watch the ads for the humor. It doesn't matter why they watch the ads - what matters is that they want to watch the ads. You think Pokémon's insanely successful anniversary had nothing to do with the Super Bowl Ad that aired?

Last year the Super Bowl had 112 million viewers. A potential 112 million people saw that Pokémon ad. On what planet is having a potential audience of 112 million people a "shameful waste?" Not on Earth, I'll tell you that much. You have a clear misunderstanding of how commercials are supposed to work and what they do. A commercial's job isn't to get you to immediately buy something the second you see it. It's to plant an idea into a collective subconcience, so that you're eventually tempted to buy a product. That Pokémon ad wasn't saying "buy Pokémon now," it was saying "remember Pokémon?," correctly assuming that the collective audience it was speaking to would say "yes" and do the rest for it.

That Switch ad is saying "Isn't this awesome?" All it's trying to do is plant the idea into everyone's head that Switch is cool. Let's say most people don't even try to buy a Switch after this ad, which will obviously be the case because only enthusiasts preorder tech. That idea that, yes it is awesome, is now planted in their heads, and then they'll start to notice more Switch commercials on TV, one's they'll actually pay attention to, which will only continue to reinforce that message. Maybe they'll see an ad for a game they like. Maybe they'll just like the tech. Maybe they'll simply remember that it's a thing that's coming out, not really caring about it. Either way, Nintendo just did what the ad was supposed to do.

The Switch comes out in March, and everyone pays attention because the Switch has forced itself into the zeitgeist thanks to efforts like that ad. Some people have it - most people don't. Doesn't matter. Everyone knows about it. It's a social platform that's portable, so right away it's the perfect system for word of mouth to spread. I don't just tell you how cool it is - I bring it over and play with you. It's literally a portable Wii at that point. That, plus all of the ads that will now be bombarding every obvservable space because a new product is out, and more people pay attention to because they all were exposed to it by the same ad.

So now people want it, and maybe they can't buy it, but they're constantly being exposed to people who have it and say it's awesome, and they keep seeing in ads that its awesome, and they keep getting more friends, slowly, who get one saying it's awesome, until eventually they can buy one because they're being overwhelmed by this echo chamber of people reinforcing that the Switch is a desirable device that people want to play. Stop looking at things like this so one dimensionally. Advertisement is complicated. The human mind is complicated. People are far more persuaded by good marketing and buzz than you think they are. The Super Bowl is good for that, and even the launch trailer in October was good for making people prepared to watch and be receptive to that. Like come on, you think Pepsi puts out an ad to say "please buy pepsi," or to remind you that people already buy Pepsi?

Also, who care's if the device is sold out at launch? In what universe has selling out at launch ever impacted the sales of a product like this, which is constantly upgraded after launch? This happens to Apple products literally every year. It happened to the Wii for months. People keep looking at the NES Mini, but that was a static product - a toy. You buy it and it never changes. Consoles are evergreen products. They are constantly getting new games, which means there are constantly new reasons to get them."

Seriously? I doubt that a 30 second commercial is going to plant a seed that people will be talking about months later. Its going to take more than this ad to be a part of the zeitgeist. Superbowls are jam packed full of commercials that are forgotten. Name me 3 products that were advertised in a superbowl that was a 'I can't get it now but I will wait up to  6 months for to buy.' and was a massive success. I sincerely doubt that Pokemon Go! was a massive success thanks to the superbowl. It was a massive success because it was free and available on devices they already had. 

And if those products exist, I doubt that people could even say that the commercial was the reason they bought the thing. A superbowl ad needs to be memorable, funny, outrageous, and/or clever to be remembered a week after the superbowl. This ad is none of those things.

Aaaaaaaaaand that's where you've made your mistake. Thinking that decades of research into how to manipulate the mind is wrong because "it doesn't feel right."

Obviously it'll take more than one Super Bowl ad. I explained that literally in the post you're responding to. You literally imply that you know that in the section I bolded. "Plant a seed." You don't plant a seed, leave it alone, and then expect it to grow. You nurture it. Pokemon had one of the highest watch rates of any Super Bowl ad, so it's pretty absurd to think that that wasn't a major factor. Pokemon has had plenty of free to play apps before Pokemon Go. None of them were at the Super Bowl. The one that was was a massive success.

It doesn't matter what people say about the ad. All that matters are results, and results don't lie. Super Bowl Ads work. No one needs to remember the ad. They just need to remember the product and the idea telegraphed in the ad. This ad does that flawlessly. It's a simple ad with a simple and penatrable message at one of the most popular timeslots at the Super Bowl. Again, it's absolutely absurd to believe that 100m+ people all seeing a commercial for the Switch isn't a good thing.