>>25186614Literally even normies know about Celebi. It got its own movie too. Don't forget Mew was unobtainable in NA without a gameshark until the glitch was discovered in 2003.
And despite actually getting a few events in North America, if you look at this list of Gen I and II pokemon events, it's pretty clear the vast majority of kids back then would have had no idea about them.
https://projectpokemon.org/forums/showthread.php?13318-Pok%E9mon-Generation-I-amp-II-Event-Guide-v1-2The first event was limited to 1000 distributions via Nintendopower. The second event was limited to 200 Mews per Toys R Us location, and customers had to win a raffle to get them. If your particular Toys R Us was highly trafficked that day, you would in all likelyhood not be walking home with a Mew. The 2000 Pokémon Stadium Tour Mew Giveaway was the only real event like today's where basically everyone who attended was guaranteed a Mew if they got their turn in line before the event ended.
And there were plenty of Celebi giveaways. There was just no legitimate way to activate the in-game Celebi event in non-Japanese versions of Crystal.
