Pennzoil Mario Kart 8 commercial

Pennzoil and Nintendo have partnered up and released a commercial that advertises an event called Mario Karting Reimagined.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRmqlrlP2m4

The ad is strange to say the least, as it doesn’t really explain in great detail what exactly is going on here. To people who aren’t familiar already, there will no doubt be confusion. For those of you that don’t know, Mario Kart Reimagined is an event that is currently being held at SXSW 2014; you can hop into a go kart and race your friends. However, the kicker is that you drive over icons which act much like item boxes in the game. You slow down or speed up depending on the “item” you pick up. The devices in the kart detect that you’ve driven over one, and change your speed. Some iconic items like red shells are spread across the track, and it’s just a matter of carefully maneuvering over the item.

In this commercial, you’re given a rather vague representation of what’s going on here. No in depth explanation of the event, basically just Nintendo and Pennzoil products being advertised to the consumer. Which of course is the purpose of this whole thing, but it would probably be helpful of them to give the viewer a better idea of what exactly is going on in the video. Mario Kart 8 will be released on the Wii U in May 30th.