
I’m a big fan of the Android mobile platform and a proud owner of a Nexus One. But for some reason, I’ve never quite warmed up to Verizon’s “Droid Does” marketing campaign. Something about the commercials just felt odd. Subconsciously, they made me chuckle rather than want to run out and buy a phone. I’m not talking about the robot hands and gizmo eyes. Those are cool.
I may have finally discovered the reason for my subconscious distaste. While reading an article today on 1UP.com titled: Twenty Years Ago In Advertisements, I noticed a familiar ad for the Sega Genesis.
When Sega first released the Genesis in 1989, most kids had an 8-bit NES. Sega couldn’t compete on the strength of its titles because Nintendo’s library was simply too massive. So they decided to emphasize the Genesis system’s amazingly powerful (for its time) 16-bit processor. Guess what slogan they used?
Genesis Does What Nintendon’t.

No, I’m not kidding. You can watch this classic Genesis Does commercial on YouTube.
Well, we all know what eventually happened in the console wars. Nintendo released the Super Nintendo two years later and Sega never quite recovered. Today, the Nintendo Wii is the best selling console in the world. Meanwhile, Sega lost the console war and hasn’t released a new console since 1999.
I thought it was peculiar that Verizon’s marketing team basically retooled Sega’s entire campaign. The similarities are just too eerie. In both cases, a company with big marketing dollars (Sega/Verizon) with a new and fairly unknown system (Genesis/Android) attempted to dethrone a market leader (NES/iPhone), that possessed a very strong library of games and apps. Both Sega and Verizon chose to emphasize their respective systems’ hardware superiority as a result. In the case of Sega, they constantly reiterated that the Genesis was a 16-bit console. That’s twice as fast as the NES. Similarly, Droid commercials emphasized the fast processor, open architecture, and multitasking ability.
Did Verizon know about the Genesis campaign or was did just a strange coincidence? I have no idea. But I certainly hope history doesn’t repeat itself.











