Sony party sparks outrage over animal cruelty

  • By Polybren, GameSpot
  • Posted May 1, 2007 3:29 pm PT

Between fake blogs, billboards with potentially offensive racial subtext, graffiti, and ads accused of encouraging "violent or anti-social behavior," it seems most of Sony's controversial advertising stems from the promotion of its PlayStation Portable system. Now the PlayStation 2 is getting...

Between fake blogs, billboards with potentially offensive racial subtext, graffiti, and ads accused of encouraging "violent or anti-social behavior," it seems most of Sony's controversial advertising stems from the promotion of its PlayStation Portable system. Now the PlayStation 2 is getting a taste of uproar, as an Athens, Greece press event for Sony's God of War II has prompted outrage from animal rights activists over its use of a decapitated goat.

Yesterday, the Web site (warning: graphic content) of London paper The Daily Mail posted a story on the event titled, "Slaughter: Horror at Sony's depraved promotion stunt with decapitated goat." The article stems from another article covering the event from a different slant, one that appeared in the latest issue of UK Official PlayStation Magazine.

That article, running under the headline "Sony's Greek Orgy," showed a picture of the goat in a two-page spread. According to The Mail, it also described the event in detail, saying that attendees were invited to eat offal out of the animal's stomach, throw knives at targets, grab live snakes from pits, and be fed grapes by topless women.

A spokesperson for the International Fund for Animal Welfare condemned the party to The Mail, saying that using the dead animal to boost a game's sales was "outrageous."

When contacted by GameSpot UK, a Sony Europe representative distanced the company from the event, as well as the official magazine's coverage thereof, and offered the following explanation and apology:

The event took place in Athens on 1st March, and was attended by a small number of specialist & lifestyle journalists, from a variety of European countries. SCEUK did not attend, or have any input into the creation or management of this event.

The article in UK Official PlayStation Magazine (OPSM), from which the Mail on Sunday article was sourced, was written by a journalist who did not attend and done on the basis of the invitation for the event, which employed a degree of hyperbole in order to encourage attendance--the journalist chose to take it as fact.

The photograph was one of many supplied to the magazine to provide a balanced view of the event. Unfortunately, the article was sensationalised and focused on a picture that was unrepresentative of the wider event. When we saw the article for the first time on Thursday of last week we contacted the publisher of OPSM who accepted that the article was not appropriate for their broad audience. On Friday, before we had received any contact from the media, they agreed to remove the article before the magazine goes on general sale.

The event was a theatrical dramatisation with a Greek mythological theme and, as part of the set dressing, a dead goat was sourced by the production company from a local butcher. Following the mainstream popularity of shows such as 'I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of here' a series of challenges were set for the journalists. The 'warm entrails' referred to in the invitation and in the Mail on Sunday article was actually a meat soup, made to a traditional Greek recipe and served to attendees in china bowls direct from the caterers. There was never any question of journalists being able to touch the goat, or indeed eat the soup direct from the body of the goat, as one report has alleged. The goat was returned to the butcher at the end of the event.

We recognise that the use of a dead goat was in poor taste and fell below the high standards of conduct we set ourselves. We are conducting an enquiry to establish the circumstances behind the event in order to ensure this does not happen again. We also apologise to anyone offended by the article in the OPSM (subscription copies were sent out ahead of street date).

670 Comments

  • harkusrex

    Posted Dec 5, 2008 3:14 pm PT

    im my country a decapitated goat just means dinner ....

  • Zidaneski

    Posted Dec 4, 2008 10:03 am PT

    It may not have been against any rules but what was allowed to go on showed a lack of consideration. In business if you think you may offend even a small amount of people you just don't do it.

  • TaintedSaint666

    Posted Dec 4, 2008 9:11 am PT

    That party sounded like a blast.

  • otanikun

    Posted Dec 4, 2008 8:45 am PT

    Boo hoo, they've depicted the killing of a drawn goat, I fail to see the problem

  • SysDefect

    Posted Dec 4, 2008 3:22 am PT

    Don't be absurd, it wasn't racist at all, and it wasn't even all that terrible, now if they had it alive and writhing there placed on some altar, then had slit it's neck and had let its bleating serve as part of the atmosphere, then activists may have some room to complain, but in reality it was just a dramatization of some ancient Greek practices, though they may be a bit superficial and intentionally titillating, there is little wrong about that.

  • parmjit

    Posted Dec 3, 2008 10:34 pm PT

    were those guys working for sony or just trying to get a ps3
    i bet they couldnt afford it or sumthing

  • EyeWierd20 posted Dec 3, 2008 3:40 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    EyeWierd20

    Posted Dec 3, 2008 3:40 pm PT (hide)

    Come on it's a sheep! No big deal if it's already dead anyways, and it's not like a goat (or any other animal) would protest if they saw that, they're just to dumb anyways...

  • Stec13 posted Dec 3, 2008 2:43 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Stec13

    Posted Dec 3, 2008 2:43 pm PT (hide)

    Stupid animal rights activists it was not even real..... like seriously protest some useful things like terrorism or pedophiles or something! We are all part of the food chain.

  • grahamx

    Posted Dec 3, 2008 2:30 pm PT

    Not just animal cruelty, but also racist against the Greeks. No such events ever took place.

    While I am a proud Playstation 3 owner,Sony should be ashamed of this.

  • sheep_go_meep

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 9:36 pm PT

    Dead goats? Check. Knife throwing? Check. Half-naked ladies? Check.

    I am SO there.

  • Big_T-Mac

    Posted Aug 12, 2007 10:49 pm PT

    lol, its like the PR team hates sony or something! seriously, has any other company made as many outrageous faux-pas as Sony?

  • ctburesch

    Posted Jun 11, 2007 9:49 pm PT

    No..The worst ads are for the Ford in Europe. It shows a cat getting decapitated by a sunroof. Sony is just another company pushing the envelope and I enjoy companies that attempt this.

  • jillwarrior

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 12:30 pm PT

    you know this was a great idea for a party but next time sony should just gut a PETA representitive and let us eat their entails. oh wait they probobly are so high we would get toxic shock from them. oh well maybe they will make a metal gear game in which solid snake sneaks aboard the Greenpeace ship, necksnapping treehuggers enroute to blowing the boat up. i would buy two copies of such an awesome game!

  • boopis1

    Posted May 17, 2007 4:25 pm PT

    Am I the only person who thinks this whole thing is way over rated? I mean, animal cruelty is wrong, but if it's dead is it really that bad? It's like saying it's bad if I cooked a dead chicken and pulled off it's legs. lol

  • peeweeshift

    Posted May 17, 2007 1:26 pm PT

    i wish i was at that party

  • jillwarrior

    Posted May 12, 2007 4:20 pm PT

    animal rights? peta and treehuggers unite! get real! animals are supposed to die and be eaten by humans!

  • theKSMM

    Posted May 11, 2007 4:24 am PT

    I keep wondering if they're making offensive advertisements by accident or whether they're intentionally generating "buzz" around their products with controversy.

    If it's the former, they need to fire their marketing group.

  • RoadDoggFL

    Posted May 10, 2007 5:50 am PT

    This is easily the best thing Sony's done since fire Kutaragi.

    People should lighten the hell up.

  • peterguzman

    Posted May 9, 2007 9:41 am PT

    that was pretty cool.......

  • combat1818

    Posted May 9, 2007 6:28 am PT

    here is a question--in the game gow2 does the main character actually decapitate a goat and eat it = NO. sony should be dissgusted with themselves for using a DEAD ANIMAL in its advertising, it is irrelavant to the game at all.But what disgusts me more than anything is that the MODERATORS on this reputable site,SEEM TO THINK that posts saying dead goats-dead animals-kill this-kill that are perfectly ok.some of these posts even border on cruel and sadistic--TWO THINGS I DEFINATELY DO NOT WANT MY CHILDREN TO THINK IS---OK.

  • combat1818

    Posted May 9, 2007 6:10 am PT

    SONY after this DISGUSTING FARCE OF YET ANOTHER TRASH AND TRIPE ADVERT, i would not even wipe my backside on any of your products

  • Snipe_You_Out

    Posted May 8, 2007 9:12 pm PT

    Wow....Just Wrong.... -_-

  • karimayad

    Posted May 8, 2007 6:48 pm PT

    sony is entertainment company ... that was very wrong sony !!

  • ron18a

    Posted May 8, 2007 5:54 pm PT

    Sounds like SCE should can the whole marketing division and start again. Their recent track record is killing them.

  • Col-Neil

    Posted May 8, 2007 11:39 am PT

    What do you think people did back in those days ? And yeah if your a hippe peta idiot you will cry over a goat more than a person All press is good press And all i can say is i hope the goat was tasty

  • TurambarGS

    Posted May 8, 2007 10:28 am PT

    I think it's in bad taste :s You never know what crazy dude is out there thinking about doing something or other. The less stuff of this weird nature that is introduced to mainstream culture, the better...

  • Freestyle_20

    Posted May 8, 2007 8:50 am PT

    rock on sony man, dead goat sweeet

  • mkurts

    Posted May 8, 2007 12:47 am PT

    Decapitated goat = Dead goat.

    Big Deal

    What ? Nobody eats meat around here ? How do you think the meat from the butchers' is produced ?

    Bad taste or not, people need to learn to live with it - stirring it up only causes Sony's marketing effort to be even more successful.

    Any publicity is good publicity, and Sony and all the Censorship freakshows want to use this to bolster their pathetic agendas.

  • A7Xfan

    Posted May 7, 2007 10:55 pm PT

    That is absolutely a gross act and something should be done, something like that deserves whatever coverage it gets.

    Having 3d graphics allows us to avoid things like this in real life, I don't want to see dead animals or people. And I don't care if the goat was already dead public displays like this are completely unneccessary. I've never been against anything game-wise in this industry from Manhunt and Grand Theft Auto to sex games that get rated AO (though the people who buy the latter I question), but to sell a game by doing that doesn't even make sense.

  • mustang3889

    Posted May 7, 2007 10:00 pm PT

    Wow Sony just can't get their ad campaigns right can they? : D

  • angelwing

    Posted May 7, 2007 8:33 pm PT

    Wow...is all I can say to this...

  • topraman517

    Posted May 7, 2007 7:20 pm PT

    Jesus.....what on Earth is wrong with these guys? I'm not saying that people shouldn't be able to have dead goats at their parties, but for a company to do this AND go public with it in their official magazine? How can a big company(or even a division of it) be so stupid?

  • anakin_13

    Posted May 7, 2007 11:41 am PT

    maybe the mail exagerated , and the chick was kinda plain for sony i was expecting huge boob woman

  • Teh1337Pirate

    Posted May 7, 2007 9:55 am PT

    These people are dumb as hell. If they would read the other articles already published about this they would know that the goat was slaughtered by a local butcher and it was in a humane way. In no way was the goat tortured it was good, clean death. I hate people like this and PETA finatics going around yelling for animal rights when their time could be better spent on helping actual people out or just off'ing themselves would be a good idea too. If you are having a historically correct greek party there would have been a lot worse things than just a decapitated goat. People need to pull their heads out their ass and actually spend their time with issues that actually matter *cough* jack thompson *cough*

  • PaulMorris01

    Posted May 7, 2007 7:39 am PT

    I do like a good kebab

  • gizmo_logix

    Posted May 6, 2007 7:50 pm PT

    Goats have MORE RIGHTS than COWS!!!!!! Oh the outrage!!!!! Later dudes! I'm going to McDonnals! Anyone want a cheese burger?

  • jillwarrior

    Posted May 6, 2007 6:16 pm PT

    grow up boys! its a goat, we are humans and eat the animals....unless your peta and it seems in that case the goat eats you. i sure am glad to see some guys posting something alittle more american like than the save the animals pansy crap i have been seeing. the greeks really know how to party!

  • langfora

    Posted May 6, 2007 1:32 pm PT

    people overreact to everything still it would've probably been nice to check with an animal rights group beforehand

  • ColdfireTrilogy

    Posted May 6, 2007 9:42 am PT

    heheh its funny and PETA can eatthemselves ....

  • Razorio

    Posted May 6, 2007 6:18 am PT

    What a PR team...

  • Zoldaire

    Posted May 6, 2007 1:24 am PT

    Sony is so screwed now... that was a BIG mistake to get a dead animal in a promotion for games. I think Sony will regret that event more than they can imagine.

  • KOSMOSEngineer

    Posted May 5, 2007 5:51 pm PT

    If the goat was supplied by the local butcher, why is that cruelty? Perhaps I could understand if part of the party games was a hunt where they had to find a goat and decapitate it.

    People are aware that animals are usually killed by decapitation, right?

  • DreFullCircle

    Posted May 5, 2007 4:49 pm PT

    obviously, the "outrage" was a planned event. celebrities get red paint thrown at them for wearing fur pimp coats, so imagine the kind of attention a dead goat would get. besides, i doubt the goat would've grown up to be president of goats or anything. he was probably a petty goat theif.

  • fastpunk

    Posted May 5, 2007 4:48 pm PT

    You'd think a company like Sony would know better...they deserve "the worst marketing award" through and through!

  • LordBelgarion

    Posted May 5, 2007 3:58 pm PT

    "There's no such thing as bad advertisement" they say ... Of course ... that was never said by a goat ...

  • HotsFrost

    Posted May 5, 2007 3:03 pm PT

    It was a good idea

  • earth79

    Posted May 5, 2007 2:08 pm PT

    wow sony really sucks at advertising.

  • deshields538

    Posted May 5, 2007 1:30 pm PT

    *sigh* Here we go again.

  • smollett13

    Posted May 5, 2007 12:55 pm PT

    I miss all the good parties *sigh*.

  • JEEBUS_BOGONDO

    Posted May 5, 2007 12:15 pm PT

    what the hell is wrong with them?? how can people that are that stupid get such high paying, high profile jobs??

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