Sony to sue over Change4Life UK ad?
The new Change4Life campaign shows a PS3 controller and implies games can cause health issues.
Sony apparently feels that it is being singled out by the campaign too, which shows a controller being used by a young boy alongside text that reads 'Risk an early death, just doing nothing'. The controller bears a remarkable resemblance to a PS3 controller.
The Change4Life campaign is a new scheme that attempts to tackle the issue of child obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. It has been using a run of national magazine adverts to try and promote an active lifestyle in children.
Sony is apparently worried however that the campaign is drawing a direct correlation between the PlayStation and these health-issues, as although the controller depicted is apparently not an official Sony controller, it does bear a resemblance. Check out the full advert here.
According to MCV Sony may be looking to pursue legal action on the basis that the controller patent may be infringed, as the advertising agency did not seek permission to use the controller in the advert.
Is Sony over-reacting, or is the company right to object to the way the advert draws a relationship between games and poor health? Let us know what you think in the forums.
Previous Article
24 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyIs it just me, or does Change4Life sound like some awful pacifist Left4Dead mod? You go around hugging zombies and encouraging them to express themselves creatively, thus restoring elements of their previous lives.
but yes postive images are better, advert with a kid playing a pc is much more creative.
The sofa looks pretty cool though.
Why the HELL would I want to live longer if I cant play games? I'd rather die happy at 50 than live to be an abstinent, joyless 90 year old husk.
In all honesty, given some of the extremely large groups of kids wondering around my neighbourhood over the last few years, I'd rather they were home playing games than just wondering down the street swilling from a can of beer and attempting to get that crown of disaffected teen life - the ASBO.
Besides... the same argument can be used against reading or studying - you're sitting there not getting any exercise... you should be outside! Pfft. Yeah, like the youth in Britain aren't already illiterate enough.
j/k btw. I a PS3 myself and not a 360/Wii lol
And all that.. in not bad areas.. so I dread to think what its like in worse areas. So many of the young generation now are arseholes no matter where you are.
And people wonder why kids prefer to stay in doors? lol - should have brought more healthy eating into it, maybe parents walking kids to school or what ever. - How about parents bringing kids out on walks lol? bring them some place interesting.
Your right!! I can't believe these AD guys are so stupid. These type of Ads just puts up a brick wall and a ton of excuses. Everybody loves "something" that has to do with outdoors and exercise. Take the kid out to do what ever you know he's interested in with friends. If he notices he can't keep up with the others his age he will think to him self "Man, I need to get out more, I'm pathetic." Then you never have to shove exercise down his throat with words,... never works.
There ARE positive association ads running as well, this is supplementary. Sony are just stomping their feet because it's a PS controller and they think people are going to think their console is more murderous than MS or Ninty's, obviously (!). Frankly, anybody that can recognise it as a PS controller has more than likely had enough exposure to them to realise they're not poisonous, or going to randomly explode or anything (Sony limit that to their laptop cells, you see, it's a USP).
If parents need to be told about simple things like this they're not fit for the job in the first place, saying that though those same people probably thought it was a maturing beer gut rather than a growing baby...
http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00487/Wayne_Slob_487012a.jpg
Standing there playing the wii wwith your mates is quite a workout, as is jumping around on hard mode on guitar hero.
I would suggest to parents to walk your kids to school rather than fill up the roads at rush hour with your useless 4x4 landrovers.
I was just going to mention this... excluding myself I've never met a fat gamer (and mine comes from years of drinking fizzy drinks and not exercising), but I suppose my love for Guinness isn't helping a great deal
Hmm, If you can do this without feeling like a tit and not drinking, then there may be something wrong with you.
Which is quite an excercise by itself, as they tend to run away...besides, after the first one bloodstained your sofa, it's WORK to get anotherone into knife-range...
...or wasn't this what you meant?
Back to Topic:
I for one definitely need to get out more :)
You want to be fit? Go for a run and eat decently, the Government know nothing regarding fitness and think employing silly celebrities will fix the nations problems. People get fat because they eat the wrong foods and don't workout, so, what do you do to get fit? Do the exact opposite of how you got fat.
Now people do need educating regarding the whole fitness thing, what carbs and sugars you can't eat, how many carbs you need to eat a day, how much meat you need to eat, protein, how much you need to workout, and different intensity means different time limits etc. That needs to be sorted out via the internet IMO. All the information is there already for free on many bodybuilding websites (and they are the only websites you will find decent information on for free because they are packed full of people who live to be fit).
The problem is finding the information, and if you don't have enough knoweldge on the subject, then you just won't find it.
Heh, I sit on my ass all day playing games some days, but I'm still fit and eat decent.
fantastic! :D