Sonic the Hedgehog is a viral sensation for many reasons. The latest of which is its Sonic movie franchise with brilliant actors like Jim Carrey. But there was a time when even Sega had to take help from Japanese restaurants to promote their video game.

As a multi-million dollar company, Sega had some of the biggest and best video game franchises in their basket. Sonic the Hedgehog is one of them, which makes sense to get some special treatment. And so it got exactly that when Sega decided to promote Sonic’s 2017 release in a rather unusual way.

Sonic the Hedgehog goes to Hooters

Five years ago, in September 2017, the Japan-based gaming company Sega announced its collaboration with Hooters to promote their new game, Sonic Forces. This was a cross-promotion to promote both the game and the restaurant chain in several parts of the world.

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During that time, the company announced that the partnership will begin in mid-October and will probably target several selected Hooters outlets. A presentation featured a slide that showed off some Tokyo-based branches where the collaboration happened; specifically Shibuya West, Ginza, and Akasaka.

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Notably, the promotion began on October 13, 2017, and lasted a couple of months until 2018. During that time, there was also a separate Sonic Cafe that allowed fans to sit there and buy Sonic-themed gifts. Also, fans were able to order special Sonic sets and get to choose a unique coaster out of 4 of them to eat on.

Why was the promotion so surprising?

The reason why the promotion was so surprising is that Sonic the Hedgehog is known for his edginess. And a collaboration with Hooters added more to it.

Notably, Sega did a similar promotion before with McDonald’s in 1994 and 1995, but it went only slightly well. Whereas the collaboration with Hooters gave them a much better reach in the Japanese market, while also adding some controversy to the game, which helped them promote the game to even adult audiences.

Although many were against the collaboration, a new wave of memes flooded the whole Sonic community. Not promoting the game, but making it remembered for a much longer time.

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What do you think about the promotion? Do you remember seeing any such advertisement? Let us know in the comments below.