Sony Says Nazi Blood Transfusion Ad is Fake

Sony says the odd PlayStation 3 ad which featured a grinning kid giving blood to a Nazi officer while a pair of distinctly creepy nurses stand watch is actually a fake and has nothing to do with the console or the company.

The Chilean ad caused consternation and confusion when it debuted. Why is this guy donating blood to Erwin Rommel? What’s the deal with the Vampirella nurses? What does any of this have to do with the PS3, anyway? If it wasn’t for the presence of a tiny PlayStation 3 logo, there’d be absolutely no way to relate the ad to the console, or much of anything else for that matter.

Not that such bewildering ads from Sony are unprecedented: Early PS3 ads were famous for running the gamut from intentionally offensive to outright weird, so while this Nazi blood transfusion (and the Joan of Arc heart transplant that accompanied it) was completely nonsensical, it did, in an odd way, make sense. And because of that, nobody stopped to question whether they might not be legit.

Our mistake, it turns out. In a message to Engadget, Sony said the ads are fakes, part of a “mock campaign” put together by advertising company BBDO Chile and released without its knowledge or approval. The executive president of BBDO Chile also released a statement further explaining the matter.

“This creative design did not involve and was never approved by Sony Computer Entertainment or Sony. This ‘mock campaign’ was developed by BBDO Chile staff and was submitted to various creative competitions/festivals without prior notification or approval from SCE/Sony, and it is not representative of the views or advertising policies of SCE/Sony,” he said. “BBDO Chile apologizes for using this creative concept without authorization or prior approval, and for its misrepresentation of the PlayStation brand and its values.”

It’s a bit too bad, really. I was hoping Sony was going somewhere with all this. No idea where, of course, but throw in a couple more ads featuring Hannibal’s kidney and Genghis Khan’s spleen and we’d be half-way to Serpentor 2.0 shilling for the PlayStation. Tell me that wouldn’t be cool.