Consoul shows more bizarre European PS3 marketing

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 17th 2007 at 4:29PM }

We've given up trying to explain Sony's marketing plan. Yup, totally given up. Because the only thing more bizarre then the American commercials have been the European ones, and the subsequent marketing that goes with it. As Americans, we will not even attempt to explain how these things appeal or speak to European culture and will move PS3 units next Friday at launch. We'll allow our European readers to do that for us.

Sister site PS3 Fanboy discovered on Sony's "semi-official" blog, Three Speech, the cover to a Sony endorsed magazine for the PlayStation 3 called Consoul -- with a woman taking a poop on the cover. Oh, and if your German is just a tad rusty, the word "freude" scribbled on the bottom of the cover means joy. Yes, an official Sony PS3 magazine has a beautiful woman with her panties below the knees, taking a crap and the word joy at the bottom. After the break we have the same woman jumping on a bed in the newest European PS3 ad. Don't miss it!

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Tags: business, consoul, marketing, playstation 3, seriously?, sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Slaziman @ Mar 17th 2007 4:40PM

WHAT THE F*CKING F*CK?

Mr Khan @ Mar 17th 2007 4:42PM

This easily surpasses the craziest things that have ever come out of the Far East (even Boonga Boonga)

tmmoore_nc @ Mar 17th 2007 4:44PM

What could be weirder than that? Combine the crying baby doll with that ad.

I would fire the marketing guy behing these ads. They're creepy, and they don't make me want to buy a PS3 anymore than I do right now, which is 3*.

* - 3 percent made up by God of War III

Kevin @ Mar 17th 2007 4:45PM

Retarded.

Slaziman @ Mar 17th 2007 4:49PM

It's official, Sony is out of touch with their demographic or Englishmen are batshit insane.

I say Englishmen because I'm from Holland and I thought this ad was fucking loco.

John @ Mar 17th 2007 4:50PM

apparently the Deiter effect is still in full bloom in Deutchland.

Josh Warner @ Mar 17th 2007 4:51PM

Well, by the Freudian model of development the anal stage (18 months - 3.5 years) is the stage where sexual pleasure is focused on the elimination of waste... the word "Joy" being included supports this.

So, Sony is calling everybody that likes the PS3 anal. And juvenile.

Sounds accurate to me. Maybe the truth in advertising clause finally caught up with them?

Sam @ Mar 17th 2007 4:51PM

What the hell was that? I'm from Europe, and i don't see why that would appeal to me in the slightest!

Is actually worries me if Sony thinks that this will appeal to us in the UK. Do they think we're all some sort of mutant inbreds, which arses coming out of out elbows. Is that what you think of us?!

*calm down, count to ten* No-one, NO-ONE, will buy this Magazine. Most people won't even reconize its from Sony!

This is Sony trying to get free publicity from being downright weird...

u @ Mar 17th 2007 4:52PM

WHAT THE F*CKING F*CK INDEED!

S.A.M @ Mar 17th 2007 4:55PM

@9 (u) You said it. 'WHAT THE F*CKING F*CK INDEED!' indeed...

Jdoki @ Mar 17th 2007 4:56PM

Oh, I dunno... this advert seems to sum up Sony's attitude towards it's customers and especially Europeans.

If you work out which bit of the ad Sony sees itself as (hint: the one taking the dump) and which bit is us consumers (do you need a hint), it's pretty obvious...

Oh, and of course, we should all be 'joyful' for getting shat on by Sony...

Three months late, almost twice as expensive and less features FTW! Can't wait until Friday!!

razer @ Mar 17th 2007 5:04PM

..that kinda gave me a "chubby"

Fecalfelia FTW!

samfish @ Mar 17th 2007 5:04PM

Think of the hottest girl you've ever known.
Now think of that girl sitting on the can while pinching a HUGE, painful turd out of her ass.

Nick @ Mar 17th 2007 5:13PM

One of the better toilet ads I've seen. Wait a minute, that's a freakin PS3 ad?? Is there a new slogan?

"PS3: It's the shit!"

Then again, the old "This is living" seems to work for this ad as well.

viper123 @ Mar 17th 2007 5:14PM

i liked it. and the ads got my attention.

random thought: maybe she's taking a leak?

djhindsight @ Mar 17th 2007 5:15PM

well, I for one love this stuff. I just love wacky stuff... and I bought a ps3 so maybe it worked;-) ... or maybe ads don't do much other then remind you that a product exists. I have yet to see any ad that made me want to buy something... so why bother going down that road.

Mr Awesomer @ Mar 17th 2007 5:16PM

Perhaps many of you don't realize that women also pee sitting down... so she isn't necessarily taking a crap. Jesus.

Patrick @ Mar 17th 2007 5:19PM

censorship eh joystiq?! well i wont be censor hey, who are you whoa help im being attacked!

mr mobius @ Mar 17th 2007 5:20PM

saw this ad on tv and they only showed last 20 secs. it was weird and had no idea was about ps3 until the very last second. looked more like a weird nike or adidas ad with the grenade being kicked about.

sony have got very weird this generation and so far the results can be seen to not work

at least they're not making a false blog anymore like were with psp

Patrick @ Mar 17th 2007 5:22PM

exactly 17, i said that and that this was posted before and then poof, my whole post gone

raycosm @ Mar 17th 2007 5:31PM

"PS3: It's the shit!"

That works great for this ad.

BPM @ Mar 17th 2007 5:33PM

The Good: Hot girl with her panties down.
The Bad: She's going to the bathroom...

How to sell a PS3: Show a bunch of naked girls, but they're not doing any gross stuff.

Spirit-of @ Mar 17th 2007 5:36PM

Personally I think this ad is genius. It might be pretentiously confusing art (i.e. crap), but you can't watch that ad without saying "WTF?" and that's where it gets you. All that this ad is trying to accomplish is to get you to pay attention long enough to see the PS3 name at the end. It's all about "mindshare" and this ad succeeds as far as I'm concerned.

And why does everyone look at it with "this doesn't appeal to me" eyes anyway? Sony doesn't really even need to advertise to us. We're here on a videogame blog, we're a captive audience, we don't really need television ads to get modivated. We just need our daily allowance of bitch & moan.

Me @ Mar 17th 2007 5:37PM

"PS3: It's the shit!"

That works great for this ad.

----
Take out the 'the' and you got yourself a real ad.

Steve 3.2 @ Mar 17th 2007 5:40PM

Thank you #41 for being the first to make a sh*t joke. And here I thought I'd have to do it! LOL.

If Sony wanted to leave me speechless, they've succeeded. This is absolutely over the top insane.

HOVA uk @ Mar 17th 2007 5:49PM

"half naked woman with tits hanging out on the magazine cover".. sounds like the best marketing idea on paper in my eyes..

Sony obviously dont take europeans has dickheads, [or maybe they do, they did release the console later because they didnt see as an important region against japan and u.s, don't blame them for thinking that, and best way to cut costs after losing so much, was NOT to release 20gb in EU]

AHH.. she does look beautiful though at least!

Shagittarius @ Mar 17th 2007 5:56PM

I'd hit it.

Devious Tree @ Mar 17th 2007 6:00PM

@ 23"Personally I think this ad is genius. It might be pretentiously confusing art (i.e. crap), but you can't watch that ad without saying "WTF?" and that's where it gets you. All that this ad is trying to accomplish is to get you to pay attention long enough to see the PS3 name at the end. It's all about "mindshare" and this ad succeeds as far as I'm concerned."

Wouldn't it have been easier, and cheaper, just to pay for a 10 second slot with just the words Playstation 3 if all the ad is doing is getting your attention to see the name at the end.

Leggo @ Mar 17th 2007 6:02PM

Man, they can't even get original with their advertising. This is a complete rip off of the Candie's advertising campaign with Jenny McCarthy.

http://www.lclark.edu/~soan370/jennyontoilet.html

(pics on the two links on the page)

Psaakyrn @ Mar 17th 2007 6:07PM

to #23 Spirit-of

I would accept your theory if the PS3 played even a minor part of the advert.

Some things to note: This is the first copy. This ad looks more to advertising itself than the PS3. Given that it holds no other information, I would assume that the girl on toilet is relevant to the magazine.

So we've a magazine with no relevant information on what is inside other than a girl on a toilet. I would imagine the target audience to be unknowledgable porn-seekers. (unknowledgable because everyone knowledgable would know the net's the best place for porn)

ssuk @ Mar 17th 2007 6:08PM

To me it's clear; This is how sony portrays the world. It is a distant realm to the world we actually live in, but at least sometimes, Sony does reach out to us on the other side... To rip us off.

REUYL @ Mar 17th 2007 6:15PM

Don't you understand? The woman in the picture represents Sony, and the toilet represents the consumer. Thus, Sony craps all over you when you buy their products.

nfoo @ Mar 17th 2007 6:18PM

What I really like about Sonys PS3 marketing:

They NEVER advertise with the games. Not in Europe, as far as I can see. Not only don't they show games in the TV spots, they don't show them in print ads either.
Sure, they mention the games, but only in this magazine two weeks before the release ... but the whole magazine - Consoul - features only like 3 or 4 games and all the rest is just people playing, the Blue-Ray catastrofu%k - sorry, Daily Show - and more bs.

And fun thing: only pre-rendered shots of Motor Storm.
They only show following games: Motor Storm - pre rendered cut scene stills only, Resistance - Sonic - which also sucks on the 360 and Fight Night ... also 360... I mean, COME ON:
It's been how long since the launch in the US and Asia and all you have is the same games and Sonic? COME ... ON ... ;)

Our GameStop still has spots for pre-order and release is on the 23 of march at 0:01h ... hurry, you can still not buy the PS3, too ... hihihihi

Ah, and wanna know what they advertise with in their large windows? Imma tell ya: Stalker, Trade-your-old-Xbox-for-360-deal ... AAANNND ... Halo 3.
There is only a little sign inside the store which says when the release is and that you can still pre-order ...

Should I go there on midnight and film the release in a big german city? Mmmm ...

john @ Mar 17th 2007 6:19PM

The only relevant thing in that ad is the suitcase of money blowing up at the beginning.

Dan @ Mar 17th 2007 6:28PM

I saw that PS3 ad the other day on tv, and because the station wanted to cram all the adverts in, the final frame that says playstation 3 was barely discernable, and so all of my housemates had no idea what the advert was even for, and some didn't believe me when I told them it was for the PS3!!

Matthew Walsh @ Mar 17th 2007 6:38PM

Perhaps it's more telling of Joystiq's frame of mind that they'd assume she was defecating rather than urinating.

Not that I'm defending the rather silly ad.

Arturo @ Mar 17th 2007 6:45PM

despite the lame and awkward ad, the girl is damn fine :D

nfoo @ Mar 17th 2007 6:53PM

After watching the ad for a second time:

Anybody else reminded of the Genesis / Sega-CD time ads by SEGA? They didn't advertise with the games, either ... 'caus their hardware was nothing special and inferior to the SNES, for example ...

ALH @ Mar 17th 2007 7:05PM

What i gathered from this was that they were trying really hard to rip the 360 ads, i mean, you have lots of different people interacting in one area, one of them pretends to shoot a gun, then a fat guy throws a grenade which blows up a suitcase full of money and..actually no, fuckit.
WTF sony.

Ratchet the Lombax @ Mar 17th 2007 7:11PM

Maybe Sony is saying that you should "flush your Wii"
LOL it's just a joke Nintendo fanboys don't hurt me as I'm allergic to pain. :)

Nick @ Mar 17th 2007 7:17PM

Taking a leak or a dump? Hmmmm.... I say dump because a leak would remind people of the Wii since they probably wouldn't get that this is a PS3 ad.

Szu @ Mar 17th 2007 7:22PM

I can't speak for all of Europe, but I think the French are the only ones who will get this ad.

Of course, that's even more reason to hate Sony.

Thomas @ Mar 17th 2007 7:26PM

Print ad, whatever.

But I really like the video. It reminds me of Twin Peaks. No wonder it doesn't appeal to everyone.

Code601 @ Mar 17th 2007 7:42PM

Sony is the girl and we (europe) are the toilet.

Sony has sent us many lies out way that I just dont have any faith in them any more, certainly not enough to risk £440 on thier new console. Im still bitter over the psp, I mean I have like three games for that thing, They are SILL priced super ridiculous.

As a ps2 fanboy I would like to say its hard to diss sony, but seriously I actually hope microsoft and nintendo beat them into nothing.

Jake @ Mar 17th 2007 7:51PM

Sony's way of saying to Europe, "You will wait longer, pay more, and still buy it anyways. Hell, we'll even equate it with taking a dump through our advertisements, just for our own sick pleasure, and you'll still buy it. You twits, we own you."

mccomber @ Mar 17th 2007 8:08PM

I know that it won't mean much to most of you, but I'd like to reiterate what a couple of other people have already said; this is a magazine, not a single print advertisement. Besides which, it is creating awareness. How many of us would have seen this if it weren't all over the intertubes?
Beyond that, if you were at the bar and saw a stack of these for free, you know you'd pick one up to see what the hell was going on. Next thing you know, you're reading a 50+ page ad for sony's new product. The girl on the toilet? Who the hell knows. But people are talking, and I'm sure they'll be reading this thing where it's available.

driven2sin @ Mar 17th 2007 8:09PM

it is the same girl in the same undies taking a shit and jumping on a bed... what will she do next? actually PLAY the damn PS3?? nah....

Korova @ Mar 17th 2007 8:24PM

Hey, I enjoy taking a dump as much as the next boxom young blond, but does the contemplation of the fact make me think of buying a console? Uhhm, no.

I do take a load off when I play video games - a feeling not dissimilar to dropping a load, but ... I still dont get it.

Maybe its a word play: Freud/Freude? Thats pretty cerebral. So they are marketing to adults who know a shitload of thing. With their price, that has to be it.