FAQ Promotional (Advertising) Game&Watch Games

By Gawaleus and gameandwatch
In collaboration with Florent Gorges, David Gschmeidler and Gerhard Meyer

The Game&Watch games were very popular as a promotional items. Well-known companies such as Bosch, Henkel, Blaupunkt, Alstom, SNCF and many more used electronic games for promotional purposes.
They imprinted their own logo onto the games and gave them to their sales representatives. They gave away the promotional Game&Watch as freebies to the customers. At least we know the company Bosch did so, according to a statement dated from 3rd of April 2014 by a former sales representative in France:
«Pour répondre à votre question, je possède ce jeu depuis de nombreuses années. J'étais à l'époque représentant dans le secteur de la pièce automobile et il devait faire partie d'une campagne promotionnelle Robert Bosch (bougies, batteries, essuie glaces).»

Translation:
«To answer your question, I own this game for many years. I was a representative for automotive parts and it was then part of an advertising campaign of Robert Bosch (spark plugs, batteries, windshield wipers).»

It's very interesting that most promo Game&Watch originate from France. Only a few come from other countries. Perhaps it was at that time mainly in France very popular to make such freebies. Or maybe a company in France had specialized in the Game&Watch as advertising and was actively engaged in advertising this type of promotional goods. We do not know.

It is interesting that the game Parachute from the Wide Screen series was used for promotional purposes often. Followed by Popeye, Fire and Mickey Mouse from the same series. Here is a list of the frequency of Games used:

The advertising Game&Watch are highly sought after by collectors. On one hand, because they are very special and on the other hand, because there are not many of them around. We only know from one single promotional Game (Pokka) what number was produced.