Super Mario celebrates his 30th birthday this year and over those three decades the character has become recognisable to people from all over the world. Such is Mario's fame that when a group of Russian artists known as ArtFacade was commissioned to paint murals across damaged walls exposed by the removal of advertising panels, he was chosen as the theme for the 165-foot tall side of one building.
As Nintendo Russia's Yasha Haddaji recounts to Kotaku, the whole process began when the newly-elected mayor of Moscow decided that parts of the city needed a facelift, and this involved tearing down advertising panels:
However, when they removed those big panels, the walls behind were not in such great shape, so there came this group of young people who decided they would create murals, a team called ArtFacade.
Haddaji suggested a Nintendo mural. As you might expect, convincing Nintendo was tricky. The company was initially hesitant, stating that such a project had never been attempted before. However, shortly afterwards Nintendo sent an artist to Russia who had worked with Mr Miyamoto as "gatekeeper of the assets" and "had done many, many different drawings of Mario", and the wheels were set in motion.
The next stumbling block was the residents of the block of flats on which the mural was to be painted. ArtFacade had painted the wall previously with an image of a Russian soldier playing ice hockey on Crimea, the region which Russia controversially annexed in 2014 - an act which triggered global criticism and remains a sore topic between Russia and its neighbor, Ukraine.
The Nintendo mural was, in that respect, an effort by ArtFacade to win over the residents who had been so upset by the contentious military image. However, another issue was encountered when it was discovered that Moscow city board wasn't prepared to deal with commercial entities, while Nintendo wouldn't allow the mural to go up without its logo being present.
Thankfully, a compromise was reached - Nintendo could use its logo but the main text would need to be a slogan which could be understood by anyone, even people who didn't know who Mario was. Haddaji and the rest of the Russian Nintendo office eventually settled on 'Reach for the stars'.
With this decided, progress was rapid, although Nintendo HQ still insisted on having some control. Haddaji had to send over the resumes of the people who would do the actual work as well as examples of their previous art. He also had to stay nearby for a week so that he could take pictures of the of the mural as it developed, sending them to Nintendo's HQ in Japan for approval.
Haddaji says that at the next Nintendo global management meeting his peers were impressed that the mural was completed, and he says that on Instagram the image is constantly being photographed by Moscow residents. Even Nintendo of Europe president Satoru Shibata has dropped by to view it.
[source kotaku.co.uk]
Comments 34
Cool! Mario brings smiles with him everywhere he goes.
The gable end of my house is quite prominent as you come up my street, and it's completely bare. I'd love for these guys to come sort me out with one of those. Or maybe an MK8 themed mural.
This is really great! And, I mean, Mario is an iconic character and stands for Fun and Enjoyment. He's even more than a simple brand.
Looks really good! I'm glad they used the real artwork for this; i've seen some horrible Mario-themed "art" before
The story sounds complicated, but the art is neat.
Every time I pass by this mural I keep telling myself I gotta Instagram it, and every time I think that by now, half of Moscow has already probably done so.
Still an awesome thing it is, though.
Wow! Looks like a lot of work to set up a mural, but at least Nintendo cares about proper representation of the mustachioed plumber. It's neat to see stuff like this.
It's a good thing it wasn't a Pokémon mural instead, huh?
It certainly is a lovely Mario mural though, I like how it uses the stock illustrations that many more Nintendo licensed products do.
@RupeeClock
"Hey, hey, kids! Your old pal Krusty is going to teach you five new words: unlicensed use of my image!"
Looks very nice and it's nice to see Mario (Luigi and Yoshi too) bring smiles to people's faces.
People can say what they want to about Nintendo being out of touch, but they still cross all borders! Do the Mario!
Great job as always Nintendo!
So, reading the text of the article, it's patently clear to me that Nintendo agreed to this for no other reason, whatsoever, than marketing its characters and brand to a bunch of Russians.
Marketing, that's the important word/part to remember here. Not encouraging peace and goodwill. Not allowing people to express their creativity. Not doing something for the sheer joy of doing it. Not making a selfless gesture with the intent of inspiring people to reach for better things. Just pure marketing—which is itself another form of "propaganda", kinda (it's just corporate messaging with the sole intent of selling product).
Now, on the Russian side of things, who can say. There's probably a mix of genuine good intentions and a little bit of international business going on at the same time, but I just know it's not entirely about the corporate agenda from the Russian side of things, because of the small message they made sure was included in Nintendo's official advertisement (which is basically all this mural really is without the message).
Still, the picture is quite cool and the slogan, at least, is pure of heart.
sweet Mario artwork!
@Kirk *its
@KTT I know, right? Gosh, reading is hard!
On topic; great story. This is where Nintendo's family-friendly image shines; you won't ever see a frightening Master Chief mural in the middle of Russia 😂
@Kage_88 Fixed.
I'm surprised Nintendo isn't getting angry and raising hell over this. I mean if Pokemon Company ruins someones life over a small fanmade poster, why not destroy a whole country over a mural on a brick wall?
Cool 5 story Mario mural! They were going to do a 6 story mural.. but that's another story...
@Dankykong Because Nintendo has officially backed/endorsed this. And seeing as it's really just a glorified Nintendo ad with a nice slogan attached (only because of insistence from the Russians); it makes no business sense for Nintendo to kick up a fuss.
@SH007ME THE PUN! IT HURTS MY SOOOOUL!!!
Seen this article before in Nintendo Life.
Nice.
EDIT:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/10/moscow_mural_replaces_crimea_with_super_mario
Found it. Looks similar. I hope the situation in Ukraine will be dealt with soon.
@Uzuki LOL
@Dankykong Well TPC and Nintendo are not the same company...yes Nintendo owns a stake but they don't run TPC. Also the guy that got sued by TPC was at fault. Just because he isn't wealthy enough to combat the fine doesn't change that. And this mural is LICENSED, otherwise Nintendo would have gotten mad...especially with the logo up there.
What did the Russian words say?
@Kirk
Nintendo, just like every company with half a brain, needs to protect their licenses and product. And they have every right to do so, and always should.
@SomeoneDifferent This, however, isn't what you are thinking, because the wall wasn't Nintendo's in the first place, and the original intention was just to paint some beloved and friendly characters on it to give the people something uplifting and fun to look at instead of some insidious government propaganda, for a change. They sort of got that to a degree—if you just look at things on a surface level—but what they REALLY got was just a glorified Nintendo ad, disguised as the nice stuff I just mentioned. The point is, Nintendo didn't do this for any honourable or virtuous reasons, in the slightest, and giving it any credit or praise in that respect is credit and praise it simply isn't due. It acted like a cold, calculating, greedy corporation and nothing more. This was not some kind of benevolent act, at least on Nintendo's part, despite what everyone else probably believes, and that's the part I take issue with.
@Kirk They always have to consider marketing even when it comes to good will. This is because there can always be unfortunate implications if for example if it was Mario playing happily playing hockey ontop of Crimea and have their good will associated with something controversial they never originally intended.
@Dr_Lugae Oh, I'm sure it does, but let's not mistakenly give it any praise for something it simply does not deserve it for. Not one single part of this was done as an act of kindness and benevolence, goodwill, generosity, peace, support, or whatever. It was all about the marketing in this case and basically nothing else (on Nintendo's part at least). That much is VERY clear to me based on the text in the article. I don't praise that kind of thing. It's just corporate greed and a bunch of marketing men thinking how best to take advantage of a situation where money and greed shouldn't even factor into it. This wasn't the time or place for Nintendo to push its product advertising—not in the specific way it did it here.
Note: If Nintendo has allowed these people to create the poster without the CLEAR intentions of making it about specifically advertising Nintendo as a product/brand and basically nothing more (that was Nintendo's ENTIRE goal here)—as in it just let them create a lovely image using some beloved characters, and didn't try to use it as a deliberate advertising tool and nothing more—then my entire attitude would be different here. But it wasn't—and in that I have no doubt based on the text in this article.
Nintendo, despite what everyone would love to believe, wasn't being some sort of "good guy" here. It was being a cold, calculating, robotic, emotionless, soulless, money and profit driven business machine, and NOTHING more.
I love it!
@amiiboacid "Reach for the stars". (╯°□°)--︻╦╤─ ┗(סּںסּَ`)┛
@Kirk True, but even an empty, corporate advertisement is better than the Cold War style military propaganda the USA and Russia are STILL waging with each other over. It's all because they're both after Ukraine's oil and hydraulically fractured gas. (Both deny there's any conflict of interest in their leaderships' families involvement in the extraction of said resources, of course.)
The best wall mural I've ever seen is... A bit difficult to describe. It more or less traces the Earth's history, humanity's role in it, and the artist's hopes on which path humanity will choose to take in the future. It is far more awe-inspiring than this particular mural with Mario, but it does miss one particular target which the Mario mural catches: children.
Therefore, this mural is, at once, inspiring and insidious. Insidious because it invokes happiness on Nintendo's terms (no guarantee one will ever actually touch those stars one reaches for, it's unrealistic to teach children it will definitely happen). Inspiring because sometimes, it really only does take an act of looking around oneself and realizing that you're not totally powerless, and there is a brighter path- it's just that either no one tells you that in fact, there are some floating bricks (elephants in the room) right above you that you haven't noticed, or almost everyone denies the validity of that little bright star because they're so apathetic or set in their ways (which children tend not to be, so it's a good lesson to not become that way).
I love classic hand-drawn Mario. So incredibly charming. I'm glad Nintendo has been using that style more lately.
This story is old. Like months and months old.
@PlywoodStick Totally agree with basically everything you just said.
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