Former Nintendo Marketing Manager Shares Inside Look at Zelda’s Notorious NES Commercials, Early Prospects of a Zelda Film, & More
Posted on March 07 2025 by Evan Hahn
A long-time marketing manager from Nintendo of America recently shared an inside scoop on the company’s earliest marketing efforts.
In August 2024, Gail Tilden sat for a panel at the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo. She shared behind-the-scenes details about the NES, Nintendo Power, The Legend of Zelda, and much more. The Video Game History Foundation’s podcast just published a recording of the session, which is full of exciting information including details about early Zelda commercials, Nintendo Power, and even the Zelda movie.
Marketing the Early Games
Tilden discussed the marketing and sales of the first two Zelda games in the US. She pointed out that they “weren’t that successful in terms of quantity sold,” even though the series is a huge hit in the States now. She also talked about the history of the series’ beloved golden cartridges and boxes. Those were made to promote the games in America, shooting for a “royalty/kingdom type of look,” even though the stunt was an “expensive endeavor.”
The discussion then moved to the very first commercial for the original Legend of Zelda on the NES:
Gail Tilden: We did a TV commercial that’s kind of crazy. So if you get a chance to look at it, it’s the first Zelda commercial, and it’s a crazy comedian in a padded cell.
Frank Cifaldi (interviewer): Oh, is it the screaming guy?
Tilden: He’s screaming. He says, “Ahh, peahats!” […] And when the [marketing] agency pitched that there would be a stand-up comedian doing something about all the fun things in this game, we all said yes.
So then I go to this shoot in Los Angeles, and it’s this crazy guy in a padded cell. And I’m like, “This…I can’t go through this because this is not what we agreed to.” This is not what we were expecting. We thought a guy standing at a mic in a spotlight.
And so we called the agency, we called back and to the executives, and they said to go ahead, maybe because we were there already.
If you haven’t seen the deranged commercial of the comedian in a cell, it’s worth a watch.
The Zelda Rap commercial was also discussed, and is also funny to see in 2025.
Nintendo Power History
This conversation segued into another commercial, this one for Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!. The ad birthed the long-standing Nintendo marketing slogan, “Now you’re playing with power!” This tagline led to the name of Nintendo’s promotional magazine-turned-podcast, Nintendo Power.
According to Tilden, Nintendo Power began its life as a simple warranty card, useful for Nintendo of America to do basic marketing research.
Tilden: So from the beginning, we had something we called a “bingo card” or something in the box where you filled out a warranty card. Which, of course, we didn’t get very many. But we paid a lot of attention to questions like, “Would you recommend this product to a friend?” And later we decided…we evolved it into something where we promised a free newsletter if you would give us your name and address, which was extremely successful.
This newsletter became Nintendo Fun Club News. According to Kotaku, this “wasn’t much of a magazine; it was really just a collection of advertisements, with a few letters and tips thrown [sic] to mix things up.” But it became popular and reached 600k subscribers, according to Tilden.
The president of Nintendo of America at the time, Minoru Arakawa, “decided that he wanted to do a subscription-based magazine,” said Tilden. Nintendo Fun Club News was discontinued and Nintendo Power magazine sprung up in its place.
To entice subscribers, Nintendo gave away the first issue for free. Tilden recalls that they converted 1.3 million people of the 3.3 million who signed up for their first free issue. That “insane” conversion rate — nearly 40% — would make any businessperson’s mouth water.
The magazine ran from 1988 to 2012, over 24 years.
No Zelda Movie, Please
We don’t know much about the upcoming Zelda movie, but we at least know that it’s happening. That wasn’t always a possibility, according to Tilden.
Notably, the upcoming film has the blessing of Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto. Tilden says this wouldn’t have always been the case:
Tilden: People were always calling about doing a movie. You can imagine that the most common question is, “We’re calling, we’d like to do a Zelda movie.” So the answer was always “no”. Even I personally said, “Mr. Miyamoto, if Steven Spielberg himself wants to do a Zelda movie, what is the answer?” He said, “No.” So that was it. The answer was always “no.”
Clearly, this has changed, as a Zelda movie was announced in 2023, with Miyamoto’s direct involvement.
Discussions about a Metroid movie got further, even getting far enough to pitch to studios, said Tilden. But it didn’t make financial sense and the project was scrapped.
She didn’t specifically say when these movie discussions were happening, but she mentioned them in the same breath as merchandising for Nintendogs, which was released in 2005. About two decades later, a Zelda movie is now on the horizon.
Lots of Other Nuggets
The recording has dozens of other details for Nintendo trivia aficionados. Tilden discusses the striking black box art used on NES cartridges; Camp Hyrule, an online “summer camp” made to promote Nintendo games; and lots of behind-the-scenes information about how Pokémon was marketed.
If you want to hear about all these things and more, check out the recording from the Video Game History Foundation (which includes a transcript).
Did you listen to the interview? Did you learn anything new? What was the most exciting detail you learned? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Video Game History Foundation (via Time Extension)
Evan Hahn is a computer programmer, technical author, and Zelda fan. Ocarina of Time is his favorite in the series but the Twilight Princess Picross game holds a special place in his heart. When he’s not coding, you can find him engrossed in Zelda news or enjoying beautiful Chicago.
