Hot Coffee Makes List of Dumbest Business Moments

Via Next Generation a list of 2005's Dumbest Business Moments, which rightly lists the Hot Coffee debacle as one of those ignoble icons. From the article: "In June a Dutch programmer releases software that lets players of Take-Two Interactive's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas access sexually explicit content left in the game's source code by its developers. Already marked 'Mature' for 'blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, strong sexual content, and use of drugs,' the game gets rerated 'Adults Only,' causing Target and Wal-Mart to pull it from stores. Take-Two's quarterly revenues fall $40 million short of projections."

Comments

I wonder why a bunch of others are not on this.

[Avillia]

The Sims, World of Warcraft, and a thousand others who display at least partial/censored nudity which have third-party modifications which show full nudity of characters.

Re:I wonder why a bunch of others are not on this.

[Feanturi]

Actually I did read someone somewhere, might have been Jack Thompson, ranting that The Sims was a tool for pedophiles to practice seduction techniques on kids. They stated it was made even worse by the nudity patch, which the author of course had an enourmous problem with, however the article had strongly emphasized that the game was pedophilic enough without mentioning the patch.

I think that for somebody to come up with that suspicion, they've got to have some issues. It takes one to know one...

Tom Lehrer knew this:

"Old books can be indecent books
Though recent books are bolder.
For filth, I'm glad to say,
Is in the mind of the beholder.
When correctly viewed,
Everything is lewd.
I can tell ya things about Peter Pan,
And the Wizard of Oz - there's a dirty old man!"

Strange

[Eightyford]

I find this surprising. I would have guessed that all of the publicity would have actually helped the game, and I wouldn't have been surprised if Take-Two let the Hot Coffee easter egg out on purpose. Usually bad publicity is good publicity (Public Enemy, 2 Live Crew).

best one

[corbettw]

20. He's a perfect 10 -- a 1, plus 9 glasses of sparkling Lambrini!
  Having barred alcohol marketing that associates drinking with sex, British regulators block an ad that shows women imbibing Lambrini sparkling wine while using a fishing pole to hook a hunky guy. The Advertising Standards Authority says the ad violates its guidelines because the guy "looks quite attractive and desirable to the girls." It would pass muster if only he were "overweight, middle-aged, balding, etc." The company then runs a version of the ad using a paunchy, chrome-domed model.

Yeah, cause showing a bunch of drunk women getting so horny that even a fat bald guy looks good doesn't violate any standards linking sex and alcohol, does it?

Re:Don't you find it strange

[NetRAVEN5000]

Perhaps you could explain, then. Why is killing less "dangerous to impressionable young people" than sex?

Sex is a perfectly normal thing. Everyone at least thinks about it at some point in their life. Killing? Not so normal.