Don't worry if you don't find the headline funny right away. Some puns take time to take root and mature, like a fine vine.

Okay, but seriously, the news: Nintendo has announced that the "Metallic Rose" DS Lite, a pinkish sort of model that many may feel compelled to bury in the garden, will become available at retailers "later this month." The model was previously attainable only as part of a Nintendogs bundle.

As of May 19th, you'll be able to see the Rose shown off in commercials which star "celebrity spokespeople" like Carrie Underwood and America Ferrera. Another commercial will feature Liv Tyler, the odd one out with a Crimson/Black DS and a name that doesn't sound completely made up.

[Via DS Fanboy]

Advertising Age reports Sony Computer Entertainment of America kicked their ad agency of 13 years to the curb yesterday. TBWA/Chiat/Day was eliminated from the review of the $150 million PlayStation account. After all the numerous incidents over the years and the disastrous PS3 launch ads, the company finally turned things around for this holiday season. Looks like it was a day late and $150 million dollars short.

There's still some questions that'll probably be clarified when an official announcement of the new ad agency is made. For example, all information on the issue speaks directly to Sony America, however TBWA is also responsible for the twisted, disruptive, ridiculous, and sometimes racist, European ads as well. Sony has yet to comment.

[Via GameDaily]

The word you're looking for is: FINALLY. Sony America finally gets their damn head in the game to sell some PS3s with a new ad campaign for this holiday. Sony Senior VP of Marketing and PSN Peter Dille wrote a long love letter on Sony's blog about the plan with this holiday's marketing. "Last year, we launched the PS3 with a campaign that become known as the 'White Room' and we received a strong reaction to those ads for being provocative and demonstrating the PS3's power," Dille wrote, obviously unaware of the extreme delusion in that statement. "With those technology messages now firmly embedded, we wanted to move beyond the 'power' message with a more high-energy, entertainment driven focus for the PS3. The games are here, the price point is now $399 and we wanted to make the news loud and clear."

The 30 second spot (above) focuses on the exclusive games for the console. And in a shocker for Sony, they actually show the games in the ads. After the break is the 60 second spot focusing on the PS3's features. Now we wait to see if new consumers notice the lack of backwards compatibility in their new $399 PS3.

And we're in the final stretch as the Halo 3 marketing machine goes into overdrive and assaults the broadcast medium this weekend. Variety got the details on what Chris Di Cesare, Xbox director of product marketing, calls "magnifying the mania." Expect original programming that'll bring newbs to the Halo franchise -- and the Xbox 360 -- by focusing on networks with demographics in line with the Master Chief plan.

It starts Saturday on Comedy Central with Fully Loaded, two-minute mini-ads hosted by Mad TV's Bobby Lee, which were taped at Tao Beach nightclub following the Madame Tussauds unveiling on the weekend of the MTV Video Music Awards. Spike TV's Game Head will host a live feed Monday night, breaking in with coverage during commercial breaks, and then air a half-hour special at midnight called: Halo 3 Launched. That program will feature a performance by Linkin Park. G4 has also set five hours of time aside for the launch as well. On Tuesday, Sci Fi Channel will show Halo 3: Sci vs. Fi. Of course, we'd love to stay home and watch all this launch coverage, but we'll be too busy doing our own coverage, which mostly consists of us waiting in line like everybody else, taking photos and getting quotes.

We like to complain about misleading CG sequences being passed off as gameplay, but a quick pass over these Top 10 Cheesiest Classic Game Commericals confirms that we really don't have a leg to stand on in the being tricked department. Take for instance, this Pole Position ad that implies the game replicates the thrill of having God pick up your family car and transform it into four race cars which you then drive until all of you explode. It almost makes us nostalgic for an era when we could still feel that way ... or at least be fooled into believing that we would.

Also, you won't want to miss the Bezerk ad, which features a theme song so awful that, were cavemen to hear it, they would invent fire just so they could throw their sun-dried zebra skin drums into it and stop music from ever existing. But with only 10 ads here, are there any of your favorites left off the list?

A current Travelers Insurance TV commercial liberally borrows from Katamari Damacy, showing a ball of, well, stuff bouncing down San Francisco's hills. You could say Fallon, the ad agency behind the spot, ripped off Katamari, but we like the commercial enough to let that slide. We'll call it an homage, imitation being flattery and all.

The commercial opens with a guy -- let's call him Everyman -- walking down the sidewalk. He's on a hill in the overcast outskirts of the city, maybe in the Avenues or closer to Twin Peaks. For no apparent reason, other than eventually trying to sell insurance, he trips, and begins rolling down the street. Like Katamari, he runs into some people and boxes, picking up size until the ball eventually gets big enough to gather cars and trees.

The ball bounces through the city -- always downhill except once on even ground -- through Pacific Heights and the Fillmore, gathering motorcycles in Nob Hill, picking up a heterosexual marriage -- we have those sometimes -- in Delores Park or a similar green space, flying down California Street or an equally car-chase-laden road, and eventually crashing into a columned downtown building with a name we can't quite remember. We wish we could ride a katamari across the city; it's a record commute time.

Is it a rip-off of Katamari, and do you care if your hobby becomes a commercial? Or did Fallon just have Katamari-of-the-mind? Immersive games have changed our way of looking at the world, like if we notice a drainpipe on the outside of a building and think of climbing it, Splinter Cell-style. Carmageddon also rewired our minds for a few weeks, urging us to crash the family truckster into a van. (We restrained). And Katamari has changed the way we think about space; we often imagine rolling up our surroundings. What, you don't?

The full commercial is embedded after the break.

See also: Roddick takes on Pong in ad

[Thanks, Daniel Premo]

It seems like TV viewers across the pond always get cooler commercials than we do here in the States. For instance, take Namco's ad for Tekken: Dark Resurrection on the PSP which manages to be both memorable and funny, despite having less than two seconds of gameplay footage and only two words of dialogue: "You win!"

Hopefully we can expect to see more ads like this one as Sony and Nintendo ramp up for their launch dates, and Microsoft throws something in the mix to keep up. Look for them this holiday season on a TV near you.

Other notable game commercials:
Xbox 360 "Jump In" promo wins Addy
Japanese game commercials: you watched it, you can't unwatch it
Grand Theft Auto: Coca-Cola City
PS-Peeing viral vid for Gangs of London

[Via Digg]

Nintendo's not the only Japanese gaming company making tinkle jokes. Sony's latest "viral video" for Gangs of London, their upcoming crime-themed, action game (with turn-based strategy game mode, watch out GTA), decides to up the ante and do what Nintendo can only allude to (it's like, they didn't even spell it right, y'know?). Yup, that's a fella peeing on a car.

But that's not it, there's plenty more peeing to be seen which is why, in addition to saying that this is probably NSFW, we'd also highly discourage anyone who might not be able to step out for the requisite bathroom break this clip inspires. That sound, it's like yawning. It's contagious.

[Update: Embedded video got pulled by YouTube gremlins, so we've tracked down another one and embedded it after the break. Get it while it's hot ... err, rather ... we've also clarified gameplay style. For more, check out this hands-on.]

You have to hand it to Sony. They're not afraid to try anything with their advertising. The above (NSFW) clip was produced by the French ad agency, TBWA-Paris, for the PlayStation France online gallery (Artcade). Though the ad may never see the television light of day, maybe the bald dude at the end is used to pay tribute to Zinedine "Headbutt" Zidane.

"It freaks me out, baby! Yeah..."

[Thanks, Franck; via Artcade]

Over at the wonderfully named Bits & Bytes & Pixels & Sprites, a set of Japanese video game commercials has been assembled for your entertainment and inevitable, irreparable and incredible psychological breakdown. Repeat viewing is not advised, though we suspect that for several of you, the lure of seeing grown men dressed as enormous microphones or Segata Sanshiro hurling human missiles about will be too great to resist. It certainly was for us.

Our favorite commercial, one filled with painful foreign stereotypes and truly unnerving facial expressions, is embedded in the second part of the post.

[Thanks Dan!]