By the time Street Fighter II hit the arcades the concept of getting a high score was almost completely obsolete. Still, millions of the game’s fans around the world couldn’t get enough of honing their martial arts skills on that hapless sedan for tons of meaningless points.
Someone at Turkish insurance company Anadolu Sigorta certainly felt that way too. So they took a moment to remind prospective clients that their cars are always in jeopardy – even from world warriors.
The video opens with a reporter interviewing a car-owner on his lack of car insurance. He confidently claims that there’s no need for such coverage as life is full of risks.
Then, as the old superstition goes: just as you give an interview about your lack of insurance, sure enough a great big ball of chi hits your ride.
Ryu then proceeds to attack the four-door with cross-up techniques that made me want to punch out many-a-twelve-year-old back in the day.
However, at the end the winner is revealed to be “Anadolu Sigorta: With whom you can’t lose.”
When the advertisement hit Japan netizens appreciated the attention to detail such as the real-life background characters who moved in continuous loops. Many also recognized Ryu’s attack pattern saying “I used to do it like that too.”
However, some were quick to point out that the commercial used a later version of Ryu rather than the original SFII sprites. Other netizens showed their age by wishing it was Final Fight’s Cody and Haggar beating the car with pipes only to have a man come out and weep, “Oh my car.”
Nevertheless it’s a cute commercial that taps into a middle-aged demographic quite well. Insurance companies in this country would have loved to do something like it too but realistic depictions of violence against automobiles are considered obscene in Japan.
Source: YouTube – Anadolu Sigorta via Hichima Kiko (Japanese)