>>49119715A Pokemon aisle at Toys R Us
A Pokemon section in the cards aisle (Look at the one at Target or Walmart right now, then imagine it 3x longer and fuller)
A Pokemon store (aka your LCS but Pokemon has taken over it)
Pokemon bootlegs and common merch at sidewalk bodegas
Pokemon on the news every week
Pokemon branded food like cereals and Kraft dinners
Pokemon commercials
Pokemon referenced in various sitcoms
Pokemon referenced in cartoons, also not by name and mostly a reference to the mania itself where the characters are either too obsessed or engrossed in it
Pokemon referenced in comedy skits from the likes of Leno and Conan
Pokemon magazines (You ever see Frozen magazines at grocery checkout for some reason? It's like those but had more mileage in content. Also those issues of TV Guide, Time and Mad.)
Pokemon books with strategies, rumors, politics etc (You know those books you see on Amazon with either a knock-off design or a plain text cover? we had those back then too)
Religious groups denouncing Pokemon and finding small details that they hope make sense somehow
Crowds of kids playing Game Boys, some connected to other Game Boys, and the TCG in the schoolyard. Some are also playing some other game or Magic the Gathering
The beginning of american-funded import "imitators" like Monster Rancher, Digimon, then things like Medabots, Yu-Gi-Oh, Card Captor Sakura and other potentially money-milking toy cartoons
Before fake fanart, shoddy magazine scans and console/handheld camera shoots with glare, there were all those "My friend from Japan/Uncle who works at Nintendo" rumors from your braggy, attention-whore classmate/s
Before muggings/murders at PokeStops, there were muggings/murders for TCG
