FOUND: 1993 Israeli Sonic Ads

This blog submission comes to us from Kit Fox from Israel.  Kit has dug up some old magazines and found some interesting advertisements from Israeli gaming magazine, “Freak.”  The page that he found was apparently from an issue exclusive to those in a SEGA club back then.  The two scans below are the top and bottom of one page, featuring Sonic (click to enlarge the images).

Here’s what the top half of the page says, as translated by Kit:

“SEGA” does it again and in big-time! After years of absolute domination in the European sales, SEGA has recently conquered in a storm also the U.S.. . In a poll published by the U.S. toys industry journal Play Thing (May ’93 issue), it appears, that SEGA is holding the first and fourth places in the American Genesis (“Mega Drive” in the Israeli and European version) while Nintendo is pushed to the second and eighth places. And on the Americans, as is well known, you can trust. And this is not everything. It also appears from the poll, that the MEGA-CD (see separate item) came up from the 18th place to the 13th, and experts estimate, that until the end of the year, it will conquer one of the first places. In Israel the situation is alike. In the 16 BIT technology SEGA reigns supreme. And this actually says it all.”

Kit also explains the bottom half of the page, which, as you can see, features a few hands pointing to parts of Mega Drive boxes.  What’s that all about?:

[The bottom half] tells the readers how to distinguish between the original Mega-Drive in the black box to the fake one in the white box (also notice the certificate of an “Authorized Dealer” you had to look for while in search of the original 😛 ). It also warned customers what to expect if they bought the fake (low quality, no Mega-CD connection etc’…). I remember seeing the fake once in a grocery store. LOL! But yeah, there were lots of fake consoles back then, mostly of 8-bit Nintendos. Apart of that you can see another small ad announcing the soon arrival of the MEGA-CD and the sell discount for the Game Gear’s TV tuner.

Kit also found an advertisement for Coca-Cola in the same article.  Hmmm… I wonder who’s in it?… 😛

DRINK COKE.  PLAY SOCCER.

A very special thanks to Kit Fox for providing us with, and translating, a piece of Sonic history from elsewhere in the world.  If you have any cool Sonic stuff, send it our way!