May01
Sony's Goat-Slaughter Debacle
Posted at 01:53 PM | Permalink
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Comments (23)
It's time for one of those "OMFGWTF?" moments—this one brought to you exclusively by the fine folks over at Sony. Apparently, as part of a promotion for a new game (which I'm not even going to mention here because I have absolutely no desire to help them promote it), they threw a party which featured a freshly slaughtered goat as the centerpiece. According to the Daily Mail, "guests at the event were even invited to reach inside the goat’s still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach." Setting aside the obvious question about whether this qualifies as the single lousiest party in history, how did this vicious little idea ever get past the concept stages? I've always sided with the video game industry against the Jack Thompsons of this world who are out to make a name for themselves by blaming gamers for all of society's problems, but when a company of Sony's stature goes out of its way to commit an act of senseless violence for a promotion, you have to start questioning whether they have any concern at all about the message they're sending to fans. Sony is evidently recalling the entire 80,000 print run of the PlayStation magazine in which this story featured, though it's frankly a bit late for the victim of the stunt at this stage.
TAGGED:
sony goat playstation promotion
Comments
I just don't have words for this.
Sick, sick, perverted people.
Will this world ever change?
Posted by: Judith, Freedom Fighter | May 1, 2007 04:55 PM
Judith,
I feel the same way. I originally didn't post a response because I have absolutely no words to express about this situation. Who the hell, er, what the hell er I don't even know, it's sick sick sick.
Posted by: lindsey | May 1, 2007 05:14 PM
Sony has enough problems without letting the idiotic do something like this
Someone was asleep at the wheel at Sony!
Posted by: kelly | May 1, 2007 05:54 PM
So disgusting...
Posted by: Sarah | May 1, 2007 08:36 PM
Just a few facts to bear in mind:
-The goat was borrowed, having already been slaughtered by "usual" means, from a local butcher. The goat was not killed at the party, nor by Sony.
-There was no Offal served. It was some Greek soup or other.
-The article in PSM (which was recalled) that the Daily Mail refer to was written by someone who did not even attend the event in question, leading to the above misconceptions. This was not helped by the fact that this article was then reported on by the Daily Mail, of all papers. It's someone reporting on someone elses article about someone elses account of a party, and third rate reporting at that.
There's nothing to see here, people. Move along.
(PS: Major kudos for a) knowing of and b) disliking Jack Thompson and like minded individuals)
Posted by: Fedule | May 1, 2007 08:47 PM
Apparently Sony has since issued an apology.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2007-04-30T230142Z_01_N4U461855_RTRUKOC_0_US-SONY-APOLOGY.xml
Posted by: drew | May 2, 2007 12:12 AM
Interesting promotional tactic. Although, should I also be upset about the fried chicken they were serving at the release of Metroid Prime III? Just because nobody ate the goat, it doesn't separate this from the fast food used to promote everyday events.
Posted by: Jones | May 2, 2007 02:06 AM
Sony will be getting a call from me today!!!!!!
SICK EVIL COMPANY :)
Posted by: Doug | May 2, 2007 07:20 AM
primitive S T O N E A G E addiction - disgusting!
Posted by: Tom Felderbaum | May 2, 2007 08:36 AM
My, My, My, Fedule,
If this poor little goat had been slaughtered somewhere else, he simply would not have still been warm.
But the big picture here is "CRUELTY", and many
horrific mentally sick humans, and I am thrilled to count you among them.
You sound like a very small human in soul and heart...
Somewhere, a village is missing it's idiot, please head for home as soon as possible.....
Sweet Judith,
The Buddhist
Posted by: Judith, Freedom Fighter | May 2, 2007 10:53 AM
Judith, who says the goat was warm? the guests, who had an unrelated soup? the reporter, who wasn't even there? only the sensationalist article seems to agree on that one
at worst they said it was 'still warm' and invited guests to eat the insides in an attempt to gross them out
using a goat carcass to promote a game is in poor taste but calling someone an idiot for pointing out a few things is not very buddist like
Posted by: Dan | May 2, 2007 01:36 PM
This can not be true. Please let it not be
Posted by: alice | May 2, 2007 03:01 PM
Dearest Dan,
When you are a "RADICAL BUDDHIST" it is quite proper.
Please take time to read about us.
We are truly a fantastic group of people, with "BEAUTIFUL" hearts and souls....
SweetJudith
The Radical Buddhist
Posted by: Judith, Freedom Fighter | May 2, 2007 05:29 PM
wtf? isnt the dailymail a tabloid? this is REAL?
Posted by: Bobby B | May 2, 2007 06:15 PM
Surely the most pitiful thing of all must be ADULTS making excuses for this kind of thing as a video game promotion
Said adults should maybe play a few less video games and get out a little more
Posted by: kelly | May 2, 2007 06:38 PM
This is just ignorant.
Posted by: Chris | May 3, 2007 06:28 PM
You know... I find this funny. And what's even more funny is you people have a whole organization for this junk, yet you're not doing a thing to stop the government from ruling us. Was this promo in bad taste? Meh, that's up to each individual. Actual animal cruelty is messed up. I.E. Beating animals for the hell of it. This... although entertaining, and kind of funny, is also kind of messed up. More or less disrespecting the goat.
One thing that strikes me as odd, is animal cruelty protest sites and such protest against the use of slain animals and such soooo much, and yet what do they advertise with? What is the main picture they use? Look at this place. You have that picture posted. Hypocritical. Two wrongs don't make a right, as I've heard somewhere :P
And btw /cheer @ disliking Jack Thompson.
Posted by: Dirky J | May 4, 2007 02:18 AM
Chris, I agree; all of this stupid complaining about somebody taking a picture of an already-dead goat is quite ignorant.
Posted by: syberghost | May 5, 2007 03:55 PM
doesn't matter if the goat was slaughtered elsewhere, what they were promoting was to suggest and illustrate the type of violence in their "game". not so much a game in light of incidents like virginia tech.
further, how swell that they issued an apology. who is apologizing to that goat?
Posted by: wonderland | May 10, 2007 02:11 PM
What on earth are 'Fedule', 'Jones', 'Dan', 'Dirky J' and 'syberghost' even doing on this site? Are you all Sony employees trying to protect a paycheck? You don't care about animal welfare and don't like to venture a thought beyond the circumference of your own navel...why on earth would you come to a PETA site? Sony used a dead animal as a party centerpiece. Warm body or not, with offal or not, no matter what points you want to argue to make it seem like this is no big deal, this is inhumane and ignorant. By your posts we can see that there is a lot of that going around these days.
Posted by: Mohabbatein | August 3, 2007 03:10 PM
You know what everybody,
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! When will people learn that killing the four legged mammals is NOT OKAY? This is just evil. That's all.
Posted by: c | October 22, 2007 07:32 PM
This is appaulling , this sort of thing should be illegal . What is wrong with these people. Oh, and to Fedule, Jones, Dan, and DirkyJ. Since I think the world could use less people like your selves. The next time sony needs a dead senter peace we could just slaughter you guys , and then when it comes out in the paper . We can all just act like it's no big deal.
Posted by: Samantha Burtch | December 18, 2007 11:50 PM
Why are you making a big deal out of this animals are slaughtered every day, this animal carcus was purchused at a butcher shop and was a marketing gimich that was playing off of greek methology. it's not like they freaking beheaded it infront of every one and pissed on its dead skull after drinking its blood and eating its intestines
Posted by: loser boy | December 29, 2007 07:22 AM