The Change4Life campaign that’s supported by the British Department of Health & the British Heart Foundation has launched a new run of print ad’s within women lifestyle magazines Heat, Reveal and Star. The campaign focuses on encouraging children to be active, something we can all understand with the rising levels of child obesity in the UK. However, the image featured in the campaign consists of a child holding what appears to be a Sony PlayStation 3 control pad, something which has subsequently angered the games industry.
However, when in Sony’s position do you let the campaign, which doesn’t mention your brand name, slip by, ideally with most of the readership of the magazines not distinguising the controller as a Sony product; or alternatively do you act to get the campaign adjusted/blocked, removing the link to the Sony brand but potentially drawing more attention to a campaign that is currently confined to a magazine page. It appears that this very situation is being considered by the Japanese electronics giant as we speak:
As the first page of hits on Google for the tag line “Risk an early death, just do nothing” are all gaming websites or forums, I would definitely look to let this slip by if I was part of Sony’s PR department, or at least look to get the gaming industry to act as a whole rather than risk creating an even stronger link solely between the PlayStation brand and this campaign.
I guess a link to death really tests the notion that “any publicity is good publicity”!