{"id":34298,"date":"2021-04-14T22:42:51","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T02:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/?p=34298"},"modified":"2021-05-10T07:25:56","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T11:25:56","slug":"mario-sneaks-ads-into-playtime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2021\/04\/mario-sneaks-ads-into-playtime\/","title":{"rendered":"Mario sneaks ads into playtime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You know those Lego Mario sets? The ones with the electronic eyes and mouth? Turns out they get firmware updates, too, and the latest one is doing something creepy:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So, was fiddling about with LEGO Mario for the first time in ages cos of that new treasure hunt update and <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Ztk44ZAY3G\">pic.twitter.com\/Ztk44ZAY3G<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jay Phoenix (@AyliffeMakit) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AyliffeMakit\/status\/1382502587480543235?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/center><\/p>\n<p>Yes, that's Mario plaintively calling for his brother - a brother who's rumored to be coming in one of this summer's new sets. Which might be kind of cute, if Lego weren't using electronics to advertise directly to children in a space that should be all about play.<\/p>\n<p>'80s kids may have been the first generation to grow up with TV shows that were glorified commercials, but at least a He-Man toy never woke up one day years after release and specifically spoke in a real human voice to say he missed Battle Cat. Marketing to kids through their toys like this is kinda sus, Lego.<\/p>\n<p>And of course, <i>Simpsons<\/i> did it:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/simpsons.jpg\" alt=\"Funzo telling Bart Simpson &quot;Why not buy three?&quot;\" width=\"420\" height=\"355\" class=\"aligncenter\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Posts\"><H5>&lt;i&gt;And now, some more OAFEry:&lt;\/i&gt;<\/H5><ul class=\"entry-meta\"><li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Shy-Hulud\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2024\/07\/shy-hulud\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Shy-Hulud<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Sadgasm Homer addendum\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2015\/04\/sadgasm-homer-addendum\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Sadgasm Homer addendum<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Flippin' Through Previews - April '07\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2007\/04\/flippin-through-previews-april-07\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Flippin' Through Previews - April '07<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"The Blurrpanion Cube\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2017\/10\/the-blurrpanion-cube\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Blurrpanion Cube<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Flippin' through Previews - March '14\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2014\/03\/flippin-through-previews-march-14\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Flippin' through Previews - March '14<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You know those Lego Mario sets? The ones with the electronic eyes and mouth? Turns out they get firmware updates, too, and the latest one is doing something creepy: &lt;i&gt;And now, some more OAFEry:&lt;\/i&gt;Overlapping interests Rustin's Spoils of the Week &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2021\/04\/mario-sneaks-ads-into-playtime\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,45,24],"tags":[206,157],"class_list":["post-34298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-lego","category-news","tag-mario","tag-simpsons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34298"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34428,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34298\/revisions\/34428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}