One Direction + Pokémon = Peak 2011 Nostalgia
Fifteen years after its debut,One Direction’s 2011 Pokémon Black & White ad campaign has been rediscovered by fans, and the internet is in full nostalgia mode.
The boy band, at the height of their early fame, starred in commercials, performed at the game’s launch, and even sang a Pokémon-themed song alongside giant Gen 5 starters like Snivy and Oshawott.
The campaign, which helped propel Black & White to 15.6 million sales, featured Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan geeking out over their Nintendo DS consoles, with Liam admitting they played during tour breaks and Niall famously taking his “to the toilet”.
Now, fans are flooding social media with reactions like, “This collab was literally everything to me at 12!” and “How did I miss this?!”.
This collab fed families in 2011 pic.twitter.com/84nXeFINyX
— GrayUnova ▫️ (@GrayUnova) July 23, 2025
The timing is bittersweet: The Pokémon Company just dropped Black Bolt and White Flare TCG expansions for the games’ 15th anniversary, while Netflix’s ‘Building the Band’, featuring Liam Payne’s final performances, premiered this month
