Filling a swimming pool with fake blood and body parts to promote a video game never seemed to me like a particularly tasteful idea in the first place. It’s even less so after a grisly machete killing, described as an act of terrorism, roiled anger throughout London this week.
Capcom planned the stunt to promote the May 24 U.K. release of Resident Evil: Revelations on consoles and PC. It filled 55,000 gallon pool with fake blood and dumped in a bunch of fake eyeballs, body parts, intestines and brains, challenging people to dive in and swim to the bottom for free stuff.
https://kotaku.com/first-a-human-meat-market-now-this-mcv-reports-that-c-499573288
That was before the murder on Wednesday of Lee Rigby, in the London neighborhood of Woolwich, an attack described in news reports as a beheading. Rigby’s killers are said to have made jihadist statements on a video taken at the scene of the murder, which has incited anger against Muslims in that country. Right-wing groups have gone on the march in London and elsewhere since the slaying.
http://gawker.com/far-right-groups-march-through-northern-england-after-a-509872663
Capcom announced shortly thereafter that the Resident Evil promotion, which was to have been held Saturday and Sunday, was off. Probably a good idea. Last year Capcom ran a “human meat market” in East London to promote Resident Evil 6.
https://kotaku.com/resident-evil-6-meat-stunt-might-make-you-lose-your-lun-5947404
Resident Evil’s U.K. Event Cancelled After Soldier’s Killing [Anime News Network, h/t Grace]
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