All 3 brands have huge advertising power this gen. Who do you think makes the best commercials?

My opinion, about the ads I can see in France:

Nintendo don't show the games a lot in it's ads, they show people having fun playing the games. And it's very well done because that's what the wii is about, having fun with friends or family. I also like the clean and white design of these commercial that remind of the colors and shapes of the wii.

Sony has cool commercials. Strange, inefficient, disturbing, but really cool. Most of them look like some piece of art. I really liked the "This is living" series of commercials, even if I think it's the worst way to sell a video games system, it was fun to watch.

Microsoft has the most classical ads of the 3. Not funny, nothing new, pretty boring. But they show the games, and that works. Though I hated when they sent this boat on the Seine the day the PS3 launched in France. In front of the Sony stand in Paris, there was a boat with written on it "XBOX 360 loves you" or something like that. May look funny, but I thought it was pretty lame.

Your thoughts?

ehh, I don't know who makes the best commercials because I only watch hockey on tv and gaming commercials are usually absent.

I did see the commercial for Mario Super Sluggers on youtube and it was pretty funny. =D

I dunno dont see alot of commercials but my favourite PS3 commercial was the Black Onyx one. That made me wanted on badly and the lyrics to the song was a tease.

I saw the NIntendo ones, they are all right.

The Microsoft ones don't sell video games, but sell like digital cameras. Not that great. Xbox360, $199....

Sony commercials, I do not get them. Yesterday, I saw one with some kid with a garbage bag looking up at the sky.....then the commercial was over. It showed absolutely nothing about the product except for the title.

In terms of enticing consumers to buy:
1) Nintendo
2) Microsoft
3) Sony

Nintendo's commercials show glimpses of the game but most importantly, many different people of different ages, races and genders playing the game (notice the token black guy in the ads).

Microsoft do a similar approach, but not all their commericals are like that. It's nice to have diversity, but at the same time I can't always go "that's a 360 commercial" straight away like I can a Wii commerical (always people on the couch or off the couch, with giant smiles on their faces and saying stuff like "go, go, go, go" as if it'd make their kart go faster).

Sony on the other hand, I've seen the heavy rock "we're supreme, make your ears bleed" commerical. Whilst it certainly causes a reaction, I doubt people will find it very inviting. The other commercials with the weird circus thing? well, if I had no idea what a playstation was, I wouldn't touch it with a 30 ft pole.

Nintendo wins because even the subtle things like enhanced lighting, makes it much more approachable them the other 2.

In America Microsoft has it pretty easy. After most games that are Xbox360 Exclusive or Multiplatform advertise they then show the "Xbox360 starting at $199." A cheap way to add in they're two cents. Then you have people making asses of themselves on the Wii. Kinda funny though. Then very rarely you'll have a PlayStation 3 game advertise. I like the multiple game and PS3 advertisements. That's pretty fun.

Agreed.

I watch a fair amount of TV...don't see many adverts but here goes. UK based so UK ads.

M$ and 360: They currently have their adverts in 2 ways. Ones that advertise a console as a media device, where they should someone pulled some dodgy face then it swings round the back of their head to 'show' what they are seeing/thinking and it's meant to show that the person is enjoying themselves etc. Then they Plaster a price over the add saying 'From £129.99'. This is fine except one of the adverts says you can download Movies, but still advertises the £129.99 price, yes it says from but consumers don't see the small print saying HD required.
There is also oddly an advert for James Bond game, and then at the end it saying available on 360 from £129.99. Isn't it a Sony owned movie franchise?

Nintendo do their same old same old, get random celebrities to advertise their products as fun family things, Wii has the Redknapp family at the moment playing Wii Fit and something else (can't see what), which includes Jamie, Harry and the lovely Louise. DS is the same, advertise with a celeb playing the games, currently this is Mario Kart DS with all of Girls Aloud (Nice ad just for them) and then one with Patrick Stewart and Julia Walters playing Brain training on a Plane.

Sony...well, to be honest I haven't seen one in a while. Seriously. Except the FIFA 09 one and that was good.

Overall, I prefer ...well, currently they all suck. If Sony's recent ads I've seen online are actually being shown on TV then, them but I haven't seen any so...

I don't watch much TV and the shows I watch don't have game ads in them but I did see most of the "Wii would like to play" commercials on YouTube and they're really effective for the target audience.

I saw an XBox ad last Christmas with mutiple gameplay footage from different games and thought it did well in making you want the system.

As for Sony, I only saw the weird ads from launch. I still don't get how a scary-eerie baby was supposed to sell consoles.

Microsoft has a lot of nice commercials.