Sony Doesn't Kill Children, But They Sue Advertisers!
If there is one thing that irritates any game or hardware company, it's accusations that their product kills people. Crazy right? Anyway, Sony has taken offense to the British government health campaign Change4Life, which is using their controller (or a strong likeness) to state that video games cause early death. Apparently Change4Life doesn't understand the difference between causation and correlation.
Now there are reports saying that Sony of Europe may take legal action against the agency that produced the ad. I know I wouldn't want a dead child walking associated with my game pad of choice.
A source close to Sony revealed to MCV that the agency behind the ad, The Gate, had not contacted the platform holder to ask about using a controller that bears a close likeness to PlayStation's pad.The ad forms part of the Government's Change4Life Campaign, and was created by agency The Gate in conjunction with the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK.
Sony May Sue Over PlayStation Controller in "Early Death" Ad [GamePolitics]
Asterick
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 9 March 2009
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: change4life, correlation, dead kids, playstation controller, sony
I was waiting for this as soon as I saw the ad. In addition to not understand causation and correlation, they also possess an extreme lack of foresight.
They thought one of the largest corporations in the world would sit back and be fine while they said one of it's products killed people?
Personally I don't really see what is wrong with the advert. There is certainly some truth in the advert - a sedentary lifestyle can greatly reduce the length of a persons life and dramatically increase the chances of a number of health complications. To be honest I hadn't really even though about what controller it was that the kid was holding or even that it was necessarily computer games that they were attacking just the idea that sitting around is bad for a kid. It's not as if the advert isn't clear about what it means. I for one applaud the government of trying to make our future generations a little more active than they are at the moment.
And I thought only Americans were ridiculously litigious.
[/curmudgeon]