Nintendo's Game Boy ads from the '90s were far more daring than anything you'd see today. Advertisements featuring lingerie-clad women tied to beds, alongside tags like “seriously distracting,” were not uncommon back then.

One particular ad from 1997, created by Leo Burnett, was so controversial it had to be pulled after complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority. Even in a time when bawdy humour and casual misogyny seemed standard fare, this one went too far.

Nintendo seemed to be trying on a new, edgier image, but it didn't quite fit. Their ads, which often appeared in magazines like FHM and Loaded, were part of a 'lads mag' culture that was becoming increasingly tasteless by the mid-'90s. While PlayStation targeted clubbers with games like WipEout, Game Boy's edgy allure seemed to be lacking.

From ads featuring starving dogs to one where a ferret somehow ended up down someone’s trousers (imagine the meeting that led to this!), these are now seen as relics of an era when anything seemed possible in advertising. The world has moved on, and so have our standards.