Mattel chose writer George Plimpton to promote Intellivision because he brought both intelligence and sports credibility to the commercials. Plimpton was known for joining professional athletes and writing about the experience, so he was a natural choice to explain why Intellivision’s sports games looked and played more realistically than Atari’s.
The ads often placed both systems side by side, allowing Plimpton to calmly point out the differences in graphics and gameplay. His serious, almost professor-like delivery made the comparison funnier and helped Intellivision position itself as the smarter video game system.
Do you remember these commercials, and did George Plimpton convince you that Intellivision was better than Atari?