The Passion of PS? Vatican calls Sony ad "irreverent"

31 Comments by Dan Choi Sep 30th 2005 11:00AM
Filed under: Culture

Ten Years of Passion Sony appears to have released a peculiarly Italian ad to celebrate the PlayStation's tenth year, but it's raised the ire of Vatican officials due to its connection to the Christ.

The ad "features a young man's face, encircled by what appears to be a crown of thorns, but on closer inspection is actually the square, circle, and triangle shapes of the PlayStation controller." Underneath, it reads: "Dieci anni di passione" - which means "Ten years of passion," an obvious allusion to Mel Gibson's movie (The Passion of the Christ) and the suffering of Jesus.

Predictably, the Vatican did not respond with enthusiastic praise. Cardinal Ersilio Tonini called the advertisement "irreverent," and warned: "Now children can think that the Passion of Christ is a game." Considering Sony's censorship of religious imagery in the past, however, it seems unlikely that the license will be picked up anytime soon.

Follow this link to see the source of the ad yourself.

[Thanks, Tim]

Tags: Advertising, Marketing, Sony, Sony ads, SonyAds

Source

(Page 1) Reader Comments

gjd: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Tacky, just tacky.

OtakuCODE: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Beautiful!

PickyPants: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Yeah that's pretty funny, even if it is irreverant.

JC: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

irresponsible and foolish...regardless of beliefs, Sony should not involve itself with anyone's religion, whether to endorse it or make fun of it.

Sean O.: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Yes... so true. Ten years of passion like suffering from Sony. I wear the crown of thorns of the non lettered buttons also. That's right, my first PS2 broke after it stopped reading DVDs. I think we'll all agree that Sony has crowned all of us with a crown of thorns. A stupid ad... in addition to being irreverant.

ill trooper: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

"My PS2 broke, so Sony and the Playstation suck."

Boring, boring, boring. Every chance someone gets to type this, they do. I still have a launch PS2, it's still kicking after years of FIFA and GTA, SSX Tricky and Socom, Katamari and Need For Speed games. It does suck when something breaks, but it does happen sometimes. That's why I bought a second XBox for $149 after my first one couldn't be repaired without sending it in for $99 bucks. It's a mild risk buying this stuff, but the fun I have with it is worth it to me. Suck it in, soldier!

Hard to believe it's 10 years since I went and picked up my PSX (yes, in days of yore it was referred to as the PSX - now known as the PSone) with Ridge Racer, Battlearena Toshinden, and R-Type (a man's game, that R-Type was)...

ill trooper: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Oh and by the way, you know what's irreverent? The 2 or 3 stories a year you hear about catholic priests and child molestation. And that's without even looking. So I always view the Vatican's declarations and position on things 'cum grano salis,' which would be Latin for "with a grain of salt."

PickyPants: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Stick it to the man ill trooper!

ill trooper: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

heh heh, a little soapboxing before lunch...

Spencer: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Meh, another reason not to like Sony. As if I needed one.

First they just flat-out suck, then they insult Christianity.

Sony gains +100 suck points, and -300 respect!

Sony's suck level is currently: 1200
Sony's respect level is currently: -1800

OtakuCODE: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Zeus is stupid too.

Evan: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Cardinal Ersilio Tonini said, �Now children can think that the Passion of Christ is a game."

Man, he's right... kid's R teh dum.

Who names their bird Ersilio anyways? That's unamericun.

Lost_Canadian: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

"Now children can think that the Passion of Christ is a game."
I thought it was a movie... ;)

1337Thespian: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Tasteless.

/Ad is lame anyway.

Rare Hare: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

i think it's funny. very funny.

but i hope it doesn't hurt their consumer numbers any, just because of a little ad.

Kristian: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

#15, I think it just did hurt the consumer numbers. I find this ad to be completely tasteless and sacrilegious.

Ryuukuro: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

You think they'd realise that there's a limit. Usually I'm okay with things that make fun of Christianity--I love Kevin Smith's Dogma and I always get a kick out of various parodies of Jesus on SNL or South Park or Adult Swim (Jesus vs. the Easter Bunny!)--but when you make fun of the most important and serious part about his legacy and only do it to sell products instead of making some kind of comment about the world then it's just bad taste and lousy judgement.

But, on the other hand, isn't it kinda pathetic that we're even bothering to acknowledge this?

BlackYoshi: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

I don't really get it, isn't the crown of thorns supposed to represent pain and suffering? So why would that be a "positive" for Sony? Stupid ad, but any ad that gets attention works.

Ryuukuro: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

BlackYoshi makes a good point and brings up a general annoyance of commercials. Why do so many ad firms see fit to associate products and services with something negative? There are so many commercials that actually make the product they're advertising look bad. It's common sense that you wouldn't want to show a product having a negative impact on the buyer's life but so many people do this. They think it's funny but really it's just confusing and shows that someone up top isn't paying much attention. If they're so lazy in monitoring their ad campaigns how lazy are they in monitoring their product quality?

Thanks for bringing this up BY.

Tellute: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

The orginal ad read "Jesus doen't want you to buy a 360".

Ian: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

That's just... retarded. Honestly, were they seriously thinking this would be a good idea? Idiots. Not like I was a fan of Sony already, just proves my disdain for them.

Rare Hare: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

give me a break guys... it's just a joke.

there's really no need to take so much offense to a JOKE.

get over yourselves.

jesus_fanboy: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

it's ok to make fun of jesus, he doesn't need defending, instead I wanna see the Almighty SONY make fun of Allah or Mohammad? or Moses or Holocaust? insult those who return anything but words over this sort of things. but it seems nowadays this is the common. this is bigotry.
although vatican admitted gay pedophiles as priests (somewhat depicted on that ad) who molested altar boys doesn't mean they may not voice their valid concern on irreverence of that ad. That ad is an insult to all christians. catholic or not, gamer or not. ad omnia christianum maledictum est, catholicum aut non, lusorem aut non.

RoboGaijin: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

What many of you fail to realize is that much of advertising is based primarily on shock value. This advert was circulated in Italy, right? A decidely Catholic country where the reference (and irreverence) would clearly be understood. By riling up the Vatican into denouncing it, it spreads to even larger audiences. This is a posting on Joystiq (a decidely non-Italian website), isn't it? Advertising is as much about mind-share as it is about message. Sure they turned off the devout religious crowd, but they gained (probably in greater numbers) the non-religious who-gives-a-rats-@$$ crowd. The politically correctness of an ad is based on its target audience. Anyone remember the Ford Evil Twin Sport Ka ads?

-RG

Rare Hare: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

jesus_fanboy:

did you seriously just refer to 'Holocaust' as a deity or prophet? what the hell is wrong with you? do you think before you post something?

when capitalized, 'Holocaust' refers to the genocide of Jews brought on by the Nazis in WWII. are you suggesting that Jews pray to that?

Apophis: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

That dude looks a bit...... fruity.

Darkripper: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

You must understand that Italy is not a laical state anymore, and we're having problem with the Church on more important and pressing issues.
So why waste time publishing an ad that will sure cause protests from the vatican?
Three answers:
a) they are totally stupid
b) they don't know Italy's cultural background
c) they were trying to do a "shocking ad" campaign to appear on newspapers and in tv (something similar here many years ago for a jeans named "Jesus")

warcraft-gold: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Very very poor taste. I highly doubt you will see any stupid ads from Sony with Bhudda on them...

Or how about something making fun of the Muslim religion?

shim: Dec 18th 2005; 9:36PM

Hey, warcraft-gold. Remember good ol' Street Fighter? There are some funny images of Buddha and a flying "yoga master" in there. Religions are, in general, a rich source of eye-catching imagery and metaphor, so it's not surprising they would be used in advertising.

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