Intellectual Property Law

Controversial Ad Leads to Outrage ... and Potential Lawsuit

By Chris Bennett, Tudor Carsten, Michael R. Coburn, Sarah Dale-Harris, Pablo Guzman, Danielle (Dani) Lemon, Chris Metcalfe and David Spratley

In response to a printed ad released by the U.K. government, it is reported that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe ("Sony") is considering legal action. This ad was published as part of the Change4Life campaign, backed by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research and Diabetes UK. It is reported that the campaign's intent is to promote an active lifestyle among children. The publicity depicts a young boy looking bored holding a PlayStation-like game controller and suggests that playing video games could "risk an early death". The message behind the ad has sparked outrage among gamers, publishers and industry trade groups.

It has been reported that the ad agency behind the publicity had not contacted Sony before using the PlayStation-like controller in the ad, leading to Sony considering legal action. Sony has reportedly stated that this negative portrayal of gamers is "a serious issue for the video games industry and one that needs to be dealt with by the industry as a whole".

In light of this controversy, some have suggested that such a lawsuit would be an overreaction, being that a limited number of people will be able to tell that the ad shows a PlayStation-like game controller. Furthermore, some have also stated that the real issue that should be looked into in this case is the misleading message behind the ad.

Coverage at EscapistMagazine.com and Techdirt.com

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Full post as published by Video Game Law Blog on March 22, 2009 (boomark / email).