Return of the Masturbating Gameboy: An Interview with Heath Phillips, Animator

Written by Jim Squires

Thursday, 01 February 2007 05:32

Earlier this month I had the rather disturbing pleasure of stumbling across a Youtube video advertising a local Omaha game shop. The catch? It had a rather, umm, suggestive ending. For those of you who've been living on the moon for the last month, here's a link to the original article (which includes the video) -- go check it out if you haven't already.

We here at theBBPS were lucky enough to get in touch with Heath Phillips, creator of the now infamous ad, and had a chance to throw a few questions his way. To get a glimpse into the mind of the man behind the madness and find out about the further adventures of this delightful new advertising mascot, you'll have to hit the jump.

BBPS: Tell us a little bit about your background as an artist/animator.

Heath Phillips: I've been drawing since the age of 3 and have known for a long time that art is something I'd like to do for a living. I attended the Art Institute of Colorado after high school for computer animation, but dropped out a few years later because I can't do 3D modeling for crap. The school was way too expensive anyway. As far as animation goes, I made some flip-books as a kid but this commercial is my first attempt at some real serious animation. I think I did a pretty good job for it being my first time.

BBPS: Was this a real commercial? When/where did it air?

Heath: Oh it's real. Now I never personally saw the commercial on TV, but several people I know claim to have seen it late at night on Comedy Central. It was a local advertisement, so no one outside of Nebraska and Iowa would have seen it. It aired during the last week of December and we plan on running it again come the 2007 holiday season. It was also considered to be an adult commercial, so I didn't hit any of the prime time viewers.

BBPS: Where did this idea come about?

Heath: The company I work for is an independent new and used video games retailer. Anyone who lives in Iowa and Nebraska will tell you that our previous commercials were pretty poor, low production value, and rather annoying. Since art is my thing, my co-workers and I were discussing different methods of creating commercials without relying on live-action sequences with poor video quality. I mentioned doing animations instead and it went from there. The purpose of the commercial was to push our giftcards since giftcards seem to be a popular Christmas gift. Also, parents typically have no idea what video games their kids want, so giftcard makes perfect sense. I had done another commercial featuring an old and young Gameboy characters (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/41351762/) and decided that a Gameboy would be perfect for animating. The Gameboy is iconic and it's easy to draw.

BBPS: The end of the commercial seems a tad... unsavory? Care to elaborate?

Heath: *laugh* Our original ending going to be much worse, but that's another story. Advertising is a tricky business these days. People see hundreds of advertisements every day, so how do I make them remember my commercial? You've got to shock and awe people, and when that doesn't work, you should at least try to make 'em laugh. I wanted to make something that people would remember and think of the next time they went out to buy a video game. I think it worked. I never said anywhere the Gameboy was actually masturbating. If you look at it, he's just hitting his B-button. It's just suggestive. Anyone who has been to a Spike and Mike's Twisted Animation Festival will tell you that my commercial is actually pretty tame compared to what other animators have done. The "Barbie" thing is kind of an inside joke here at the office. We often poke fun at games like Barbie Horse Adventures on the XBox. When I designed the Gameboy character, I asked my co-workers what they thought he'd want for Christmas. One of them suggested Barbie Horse Adventures and it just went downhill from there.

BBPS: The dialogue is fantastic - especially the "I'm a pretty pony" line. It's become the quite catchphrase. Were you surprised that this commercial became so popular online?

Heath: Thanks! I'm glad you dig it. "I'm a pretty pony" came out of left field when I was writing and recording the dialogue. My office buddy almost fell out of his chair laughing when I was spouting it out, so I knew that line was a keeper. I had no idea the commercial would explode online like it did. For the first couple of weeks, I'd gotten only a hundered hits or so and I thought it would stay that way given the size of YouTube. Since BBPS caught it, it got over 28,000 hits in one day. Surprised? I was shocked!

BBPS: How did the store being advertised react to the commercials popularity?

Heath: Might want to double check your phrasing on this question...

I'm not sure how well this commercial has affected our stores or sales, but then I haven't really checked either. I don't think it wasn't on the air long enough to make an impact through television. Granted a lot of people saw the ad on the internet, but I don't think they went to our website immediately afterwards.

BBPS: You've mentioned that you have another commercial featuring the Gameboy in the works. Can you give us a teaser?

Heath: I do indeed have another commercial in the works featuring the Gameboy. This time around it'll be St. Patrick's day themed. It won't be as suggestive and dirty as the Christmas commercial. This time I'm shooting for something more gross and morbid, but that's all I can say about it. I don't want to ruin the ending.

BBPS: Do you have anything else in the works?

Heath: I've got a lot more ideas for my little Gameboy guy and they're not all gross and dirty. I'd like to do some commercials suitable for a primetime audience. Eventually I'd like to create my own cartoon series or work as an artist with a video game development company. I don't do much art outside of work anymore. These days most of my freetime is dedicated to playing video games or reading.

BBPS: Can't say I blame you there, especially if your reading theBBPS. Thanks for your time, Heath. I can't speak for the gaming community at large, but we here at theBBPS are big fans of the first ad and can't wait for the second. Keep up the good work.