Playstation earns ire of Catholic leaders in Italy

To the left is the Sony Playstation advertisement that is being condemned by Italian Catholics as blasphemous.

The ad celebrates 10 years of Sony, as the original PlayStation launched 10 years ago. It features a young man’s face, encircled by what appears to be a crown of thorns, but on closer inspection is actually the square, circle, and triangle shapes of the PlayStation controller. The caption underneath the picture reads “Ten Years of Passion,” an obvious allusion to the Passion of Christ.

Cardinal Ersilio Tonini called the advertisement “irreverent” and went on to say, “Already I often hear children say that Heaven is the place where people drink coffee, remembering also in this case an advertisement. Now children can think that the Passion of Christ is a game.” [source]

It will be interesting to see if Sony changes the advertisement as Burger King did in response to claims that one could see the name of Allah on it's ice cream cups. But I doubt it.

Using religion to promote commercialism...some things never change. I'm not sure how one deals with this - public boycotts no longer seem effective and it is clear that you can't appeal to a common sense of decency and respect either. Perhaps all you can do it strive to increase true devotion to Christ in your life and the world around. And pray for the souls of Sony executives.