The main point of Sega's ad campaigns for the Mega Drive was pretty much the same wherever you went -- the Mega Drive is a sleek, cool and fast machine, whereas anything by Nintendo is not. Over in the US, this was communicated through things like "Genesis Does What Nintendon't" and, of course, "Blast Processing" -- that strange, somewhat undefinable thing the system had that the Super NES didn't, meaning it could rocket along a track at 150 mph or whatever...over here in the UK however, we didn't have anything like that. Instead...well, we had Jimmy.
Jimmy is, in short, a "cool dude". He's got that hunkiness about them, he's masterfully dressed in a glorious early '90s leather jacket, and he's more than ready for anything that the Sega Mega Drive can throw at him. It's strange, really -- when you think of "cool dudes" in early '90s adverts it's usually still kids, isn't it? But not so here -- Jimmy's more like the person you wanna grow up to be, I guess. Anyway, the classic ad above is probably the most famous one that involves him, complete with the "Cyber Razor Cut" provided by the actor Steven O'Donnell (who is probably more famous for playing "Spudgun" in the classic UK comedy series Bottom). Jimmy was played by another actor, Peter Wingfield, who's had roles in Highlander: The Series, not to mention long-running medical soap opera Holby City.
A lot of the words I've used to describe Jimmy come off as bollocks marketing talk, I'm sure -- but hey, it's actually sourced from somewhere. In the video up above, you can see a whole segment on the UK games TV show Gamesmaster dedicated to explaining the aim of the Jimmy character, and how he was going to sell Sega to the UK audience...he is indeed, the person you want to be -- he always gets the girl, he fights off ninjas, and if you played against him at pool, then he'd win...no doubt straight from the break, somehow potting every ball in a single shot and then grinning at you. To be honest, in the year of our lord 2017? Jimmy kind of seems like a bit of an arsehole. You can almost imagine him trying to put the moves on your girlfriend by asking her her sign and giving her 10p to call her mum -- 'cause she won't be coming home tonight. Or is that just some wild, unreasonable projection? Probably.
While Jimmy will always be most famous for requesting that cyber razor cut, he featured in several other ads from 1992 to around about 1993 or so, including this particularly ludicrous spot...I mean, why exactly are ninjas after Jimmy in the first place? Because he's that damn good at Golden Axe? I dunno...he turns out to be his sidekick in the end, anyway -- at least I think so, because nothing that Jimmy says actually sounds like coherent English. And he catches some fruit from a fruit machine in an annoying way too. There's no doubting that it's certainly different from the majority of video game adverts from around this time, but you do have to remember that Nintendo had no less a figure than Rik Mayall as their spokesperson in the UK...let's face it -- Jimmy can hardly match up to that, can he?
In the grand scheme of things, Jimmy wouldn't last all that long -- although he would remain a part of Sega's main ad campaign in the UK, known as Sega Pirate TV. These little ads started with the arrival of the Mega CD, and were mostly helmed by "The Barber", AKA Steven O'Donnell's character from the first ad up top. While you may not have wanted to BE The Barber?...well, he was perhaps less of a super smug know-it-all. Still, Jimmy was an important part of Sega's excellent advertising over here -- they ran some really nice campaigns here in the 16-bit generation, and they certainly made themselves stand out from Nintendo. "To Be This Good Takes Ages/Sega" is still, to me, the definitive Sega marketing slogan -- and it sure did its part to make the Mega Drive the machine for the early and mid '90s, beating the Super Nintendo in sales here in the UK. Jimmy wasn't exactly the most charming mascot ever, but he wasn't a fat little Italian plumber in overalls either!