Mario Kart Wii Tries Guerilla Marketing

If I lived anywhere near NYC, I would have definitely tried to get a view of this one...

Mario Kart Wii is a highly-anticipated game that comes out this Sunday, 4/27. Apparently, one promotion that went on today in NYC involved Mario and cabs. In fact, in midtown Manhattan, in the morning and around lunchtime, Mario was hailing cabs for commuters.

I would rather see Mario driving the cabs, but I suppose that's probably difficult for whoever is wearing the large Mario head. Plus most people in their right mind would not enter a cab driven by Mario (I, on the other hand, would absolutely love to).

I love guerilla marketing efforts like this because they really allow for creativity. They're less common, often a break from reality, and you can't really avoid someone dressed like Mario hailing cabs in Manhattan. Of course, they don't always go well...

In January 2007, to hype up the release of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie, aptly named, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters," large LED blocks that animated a "mooninite," a popular character from the TV series (if you have no idea what I'm talking about right now, I wouldn't worry about it), were put up all over Boston. Apparently, the people of Boston did not react very well to it, because eventually the Boston bomb squad declared all of these LED blocks as "improvised explosive devices." Yikes.