Faux Outrage
Ok, was it a fairly tasteless stunt? Sure it was. But the puffed up, hyperventilating outrage in this article is a bit much. Sony threw a party to celebrate the release of it new PlayStation game, God of War 2. The party featured a decapitated goat. (This was frankly stupid on Sony's part).
Electronics giant Sony has sparked a major row over animal cruelty and the ethics of the computer industry by using a freshly slaughtered goat to promote a violent video game.
The corpse of the decapitated animal was the centrepiece of a party to celebrate the launch of the God Of War II game for the company’s PlayStation 2 console.
Guests at the event were even invited to reach inside the goat’s still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach.
Sickening images of the party have appeared in the company’s official PlayStation magazine – but after being contacted by The Mail on Sunday, Sony issued an apology for the gruesome stunt and promised to recall the entire print run.
Critics condemned the entertainment giant, which produces scores of Hollywood blockbusters each year, for its "blood lust" and said the grotesque "sacrifice" highlighted increasing concerns over the content of video games and the lengths to which the industry will go to exploit youngsters.
At the event, guests competed to see who could eat the most offal – procured elsewhere and intended to resemble the goat’s intestines – from its stomach.
Now, here's what, pardon the expression, gets my goat about this. The newspaper reproduces a picture from the Sony magazine layout starring the goat. But they have pixellated the goat to avoid offending delicate sensibilities. They have left – completely unpixellated or cropped out – a young woman with a rather obviously painted on costume. And the paint is not opaque (pause for the vast sucking sound as readers jump to the link). Yep – no problem with that, but the goat has to go. The paper also gets all het up about this, but expresses no outrage over the massive ritual slaughter of animals, including goats, by slitting their throats in many countries.
What Sony did was pointless and tasteless. But I'll bet they sell a lot of video games. So maybe it wasn't pointless at all, was it?
World news | Gaius April 28, 2007
By Cernig, April 29, 2007 @ 10:21 am
Hi Gaius,
You do realize the Daily Mail is the most conservative tabloid newspaper in the UK, yes?
Regards, C
By Gaius, April 29, 2007 @ 11:47 am
Yeah, but what difference does that make to a downright silly attempt at puffing up outrage?
By Cernig, April 29, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
Hi Gaius,
Agreed, it is silly. So was the stunt. Some folks are partisan in their condemnation of silliness and I’m glad to see you aren’t in this case.
Thanks, C