Good lord, Nintendo’s Toad Labo ads are unsettling

Nintendo has been promoting its latest Labo kit with the help of green Toad, and things have been getting a little uncomfortable.

But first, a little bit of background may be helpful: Line is a messaging service that includes many characteristics of a social network. It’s a popular app in Japan, although it’s also available in North America. Nintendo’s official Line account has a strange obsession with green Toad, and has been working him into promotional materials for years.

Which brings us to the latest Toad strangeness from Nintendo’s Line account: A short video that shows one of Labo’s foot pedals being used to ... give Toad a workout? We think?

Toad is supposed to be doing sit-ups in that video, and sit-ups are exactly where my mind went after watching the clip. Toad has been helping to show off some of the other toys that come with the Labo VR kit as well.

This isn’t even the first time Nintendo has used Toad to promote Labo, the following video is from early 2018:

All of these clips are innocent on their face, but they also leave room for other, less-pure interpretations and thoughts. These are supposed to be family-friendly toys!

It’s fun to see Nintendo get weird from time to time, and being obsessed with Green Toad is a worthy distraction for an official corporate account. If you’ve been looking for a way to get regular, ongoing Toad content in your life? I guess this post has helped you out.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get the image of a foot smashing down on Toad’s body out of my head.