Schitt’s Creek star Annie Murphy has become something of a hot commodity among Canadian marketers in the past year. Winning multiple Emmy Awards can do that.
Murphy, who has appeared in ad campaigns for HelloFresh and Hudson’s Bay, is also now the face of a new campaign for Nintendo promoting its Nintendo Switch gaming system. The campaign broke last week, running across TV and online.
Developed by Vancouver’s We the Collective, with Kindred & Scout and OPC for production and PR by Craft Public Relations, the spot was directed by Jono Hunter, whose reel includes work for Pizza Pops, Turbo Tax, KitKat and Belairdirect. (Hunter is also responsible for a photo series called “Hoaxes” that uses one of either a dog bowl, bundt tin or range reflector suspended from a painter’s pole to create pictures of “UFOs.”)
The one-and-a-half minute spot, bearing the rather unwieldy title “Nintendo Switch — Annie Murphy enjoys the perfect rainy day, official trailer,” opens on Murphy being overjoyed that a storm means she can’t leave the house. It follows her as she spends the day playing a series of Switch games including Ring Fit Adventure, Clubhouse Games, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Just Dance 2021.
Unfortunately, Nintendo threw The Message a Spiny Blue Shell (arguably Mario Kart‘s most devastating weapon) by declining to answer questions related to the campaign, so we’re not clear on what makes Murphy such a good fit with the brand or whether she will play a broader role in the brand’s marketing going forward.
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In another fun Nintendo-related note, my cousin Brock Jones was one of the winners of Nintendo Canada’s #ChallengeAChamp campaign, which invited Canadians to challenge professionals from the worlds of tennis, auto racing and dancing.
Jones faced off against Canadian indy car driver James Hinchcliffe in Mario Kart, handily winning most of the races during an hour-long gaming session. “Great guy. Great chat together. But I utterly destroyed him,” said Jones in a Facebook post. My cousin, it’s worth noting, is a devout Nintendo fan, even going so far as to hand-paint his daughters’ room to resemble the world from Super Mario Bros. It’s quite impressive.
“I knew I was in trouble when Brock showed up to play in a Yoshi shirt!” said Hinchcliffe in a tweet. “Great racing and great fun.”
