Theft as marketing
It looks like Sony have vandalised an important landmark in Amsterdam in order to promote a new game (hat-tip: Dina).
It probably seemed like a fun idea to Sony’s marketing department, but I do hope they will be prosecuted harshly, because it sets a very dangerous precedent if you can commit crimes without punishment if it’s for marketing purposes.
I mean, in the first instance it might only be the letters in Hollywood’s logo that get stolen, but what will the next step be?
Will you be allowed to hijack planes to promote a new plane game, or perhaps even blow up a building to promote a new version of Worms?
Sometimes you can’t by the same amount of publicity by paying for advertising that you can by making vandalism (who doesn’t remember the blended goldfish or the decapitation of the little mermaid?).
I wonder if SONY actually calculated with the risk (and price) of being prosecuted for the theft in their budget? If so it’s even scarier, but honestly I cannot imagine that they wouldn’t have taken that risk into account before removing the letters; meaning that they must have thought it worthwhile anyway.
Ah, but ’tis Art, and for Art all things are legal!
Haven’t thought of it like that before.
I wonder if one can say that the difference between art/statements, and creating awareness about a company/brand, is that the one has as its aim to make people think, the other to make them buy?
It’s not infrequent that art is used for creating awareness about a company — see the Starbucks Love Project for one.
Besides, being art is a flimsy excuse for doing illegal things, and will (probably) not hold beyond simple vandalism/disappearance acts.