Sony's woes... AGAIN.

I realize that out of any companies I write about, I probably complain about Sony the most. And by now, it may seem like I go out of my way to pick on Sony. But in reality, they're just doing stupid things that I just have to comment on.

I'm referring to Sony's advertising campaign to celebrate PlayStation's 10th anniversary. Sony launched a series of ads that featured a young man, wearing a crown of thorns (with the thorns made up of the symbols on a PlayStation's control) and the motto, "Ten years of passion." Aside from immediately pulling the ad after adverse reactions, Sony Italy released a statement saying that the "spirit of the message was misunderstood." I guess my two major question is: (1) How was the spirit of the message supposed to be understood? (2) How do you make an advertising campaign based on the premise of religion, and not expect anyone to be offended? A lesson Sony execs could've learned is: People fight wars over religion. It is a serious topic that shouldn't be thrown around without consideration.

The Fool's Rich Smith speculated that Sony could've offended up to 2.1 billion potential customers with this ad campaign - potential customers that could very easily turn their gaming preferences over to Microsoft's Xbox 360 for their next generation gaming needs. With Sony already in somewhat of a decline, they really cannot afford to offend anyone else.

I cannot even begin to fathom Sony's thought process in this whole situation. Like they've already forgotten about Urban Outfitter's infamous "Jesus Dress Up" magnet and all the controversy that started. Or it's own blunder months ago regarding their use of fake critics to sell movies. Or the fact that their LCD TV sales are on a mass decline. Irregardless, someone at Sony needs to massively turn around and clean up their public image.