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Sony Defends Controversial Ads - UPDATED

Posted Jul 05, 2006 at 08:00AM by Christopher C. Listed in: Opinions & Analysis Tags: Sony, UK
Ó


PSP ad



UPDATE 1: Just a quick note to let you guys know that the images in question have apparently been taken off the Dutch PSP homepage and replaced with the following:


PSP Ads - Image 1       PSP Ads - Image 2



So is this an admission by Sony that the initial images were in bad taste? Not necessarily, as we learned this morning the ad consists of over 100 diiferent photos and these images might well be the next step in the the ad campaign. Still, it is pretty coincidental timing.



Well that was quick, you'd almost think they had a statement ready... almost like they expected to have to use it. Before I get into posting Sony's reply to yesterday's controversial ad, let me state something plainly. I never once in the original news story called the ad in question, or Sony, racist. It's a silly notion that such a huge multinational corporation might be racist and I don't believe for a second that that is the case, however, I do think that Sony approved the ads knowing full well the sort of controversy it would pull and banked on just that to make the campaign a "success". I expect the ads then, are a success, if the barometer by which you measure the success of an ad rests solely on how many feathers it ruffles (sigh, and yet here we are talking about it, ruffling feathers). Anyway, let's move on to Sony's response, which reads:

"The marketing campaign for the launch of the White PSP in the Benelux focuses on the contrast between the Black PSP model and the new Ceramic white PSP model. A variety of different treatments have been created as a campaign to either highlight the whiteness of the new model or contrast the black and the white models. Central to this campaign has been the creation of some stunningly photographed imagery, that has been used on large billboards throughout Holland."

The spokesperson also goes on to say:

"All of the 100 or so images created for the campaign have been designed to show this contrast in colours of the PSPs , and have no other message or purpose."

If the idea was to merely show a contrast in colors then why not have both models standing side by side, or playing a game of chess with some black and white pieces, or heck even arm-wrestling? Why show them in direct conflict and in a position of domination and submission? Does the metaphor for "people as PSP's" even carry over to this state of conflict? Are the white and black PSP's fighting for market share and superiority now?

It's not the fact that image is racist (because really it is not) it's the fact that it's so easily interpreted as such, and that it lends itself to that reading and that Sony would disrespect its customers to such a degree as to use this tactic against them.

Perhaps most telling is a statement from a representative at Sony's UK office concerning the ads chances of leaving Holland:

"I would like to confirm that we categorically are not running this advert creative in the UK."

Now you have to ask yourself why it seems the UK office is so quick to distance itself from this bold new advertising campaign, after all what's good for the goose is good for the gander, right?

As always you're invited to share your thoughts and comments in the form below, please try to keep the discussion civil and clean, thanks guys!

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95 Comments


Sort by:
   by citizen - 2006-07-05
 » w00t
1st comment!!!!

   by comedy - 2006-07-05
 » it could go the other way
what i see is that although the 2 versions of the psp are the same, they look different... it's almost a comment on how we're all the same, whether or not we look different.

yeah, so people could misconstrue the whole thing as somehow showing tension between black and white. i would have thought the world was getting slightly beyond that kind of thing though. personally i saw nothing offensive at all about it, just a very stylised campaign.

i have a feeling that oversensitive prudes get their way a lot in the world, and it's not fair. i don't know anyone who takes offense at these ads, so why on earth are people saying they could be offensive?! they're not!


yes, it's a storm in a tea cup, but i feel that it does highlight a slightly different issue - that's overreactions, it's starting to get annoying.

   by Limburg (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » Billboards
I Live in The Netherlands
and i've seen this billboards a couple time.

And i need to say " i love these ad's "

   by Feark (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » Register user that post a "first comment". Shame
Anyway, cant really see anything wrong with these "controversial" image.

   by 1sr post whore (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » get lost
pathetic

   by jhjgh (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » stfu
sony wants you to be a *****ing idiot and make a big deal out of this, and you are.

   by lame (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » heh
hey atleast this is psp news..

   by liquidtenmillion (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05

Why not shut the ***** up, stop complaining about racism that isn't there, and get a GOD DAMN LIFE!

I mean for CHRIST'S SAKE! People like the original poster of this article are the racist ones, not the people who made this article.

This is 2006, a white person and a black person can be in an ad together without it automatically being racist. Get with the times.

   by Advertising -
   by THEDUDE (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » BLACK vs WHITE clearly racist when u throw humans in there
why did they had to put and ungly black women OR is dat a man? on that ad why couldnt they use BROOKE VALENTINE or HOLLy BERRy .....thats how i view my black psp as sexy as
A. American superstars....

   by twothirteen (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » Ingnorance reigns supreme.
I can't see anything wrong with these ads. If people want to blow it all out of proportion simply because there is a black woman and a white woman in the ad, so be it. Ignornace knows no bounds.

Along those lines, should I, as a white man, be offended since Sony brought out the black PSP first? Are they not saying that black is superior and that white is just a secondary novelty item? No, I shouldn't. Want to know why? Because not everything in this world is a comment on race. Black can be just that, black. A color. It doesn't always have to represent black people. White can be just that, the color white. It's not always going to signify white people.

The only things that are being represented in these ads are the black and white PSPs. No sly, underhanded commentary on races and the perceived differences between them. Just when it feels like the world is making some tiny bit of progress in understanding that we are all in fact, humans no matter what our skin color may be, ignorance rears it's ugly head and we slip back a few centuries.


   Re: IntelligentBlackMan (Unregistered) - 2006-10-12
 » That "Black" word
In Brazil, the newspapers never use the words "Black" or "White" to describe someone's skin color. Or so I've heard from a friend from that beautiful country. In America, it's more common. Nevertheless, the words are loaded, not simply because they can be taken one way but a multiplicity of ways. And unfortunately, most of those meanings are grounded in negative connotations (very few are positive). So, for SONY to employ such language exhibits more than a carelessness. Marrying the word "Black" (here used to define an ethnicity but it's also problematic) to the image of a woman of African descent in violent opposition to a woman of European descent married to the word "white" denotes some reference to skin color. We live in the 21st century, folks. Have we not learned the problematic of such terms? How race and slavery depend on violence enacted on the black body? Have we not learned that peoples of African-descent (myself included), especially in historically colonized/oppressed nations prefer to reappropiate their own images and not be bound by the dominent culture's rules of identification? SONY is ignorant. That ignorance is bread out of a denial which is part and parcel of the nature of racism. So yes--it can be read as racist; and SONY should know better.
   by Flava (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » Uhm
I think you're making a big deal over nothing really - if you see a black person and a white person fighting in the street, do you think that's racism? No it's not.

If it was two white people fighting, or two black people fighting - then it's unlikely you'd call the ads controversial. Yet for some reason people seem to think that colour of skin matters and then make a big deal about it - when really we shouldn't.

Fact is, there are two colours of PSPs - a white and black PSP. The ads show the two colours together - and whether they are fighting or arguing or whatever, it's just colour and people take it a step too far.

There is no message behind these ads, apart from that the new white PSP is out to somewhat 'rival' the black PSP. It doesn't say that we should go fighting and strangling other people.

   by bob (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » its sexy
i like the ad,... its sexy not racist - geesh who are all these whining idiots?

   by THEDUDE (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » if you say so
ads well be ads

   by Muscrat (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » LoL
Qj is already a sucker for this particular ad... Sony wants people to discuss the ad, they want websites to have it in there news, they want it to be on TV. The fact is when people see this they remeber it, its pretty hard not to forget, and thanks to its 'contreversy' news of it has spread far and wide... The buety of it is Sony is getting coverage, and publicity on TV, radio the internet, whatever, and all they had to do was come up with these bill boards....

Think about it this way and you will realise that you too have also fallen victim to the ad campaign; because just like me your gonna remeber it :D

   by cv (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » dada
that aint racist considering I am black.

   by CHINAMAN (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » IF YOU LOOK AT THE PICTURES closely
it almost look like a ying yang sign lol^_^

   by Advertising -
   by Jx1 - 2006-07-05
 » nice.
Anyone ever thought this can be considered quite Kinky?
as she is dominating him.
more like a S&M kind of thing. which I love in the artistic way they portray it.

Love the ideas they come up with.


*in the other, you clearly see the guy dominating her.

   by carl (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » just my 2¢
the white psp should have a reflective screen instead of a backlight like the gba so then it would be completely white and then the white psp would work better for bright places while the black psp would work better for dark places lol

   by Peter (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » ...

Hi Christopher C....

I think these comments show you're really the one who's started all this *****. Not Sony. I live in holland and no one is talking about it over here. At least not about the ad ralated to racism. As far as I know you're the only one relating it to racism.

I think you wrote the artikle really fast after seeing only one picture. After seeing the other pictures you were to "proud" to admit you were wrong. In my oppinion that's a sad story

   by OZZU (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » BEFORE and AFTER
LOOKS LIKE A MICHAEL JACKSON TRANSFORMATION HAHAHAHAHAHAHA "it doesnt matter if your black or white....
AHEEE HEEE!!!"

   by None of your business (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » ...
I printed it out and asked 7 people what they thought about it out of context and they all said while not positively racist there is could be something implied which in my opinion is bad for the gaming community as a hole.

   by Peter (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » *****s
*****s *****s *****s

   by Greg (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » Farewell
The quality and credibility of the contents of pspupdates is going from bad to worse. I'm not going to visit this page anymore.

   by hummm (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » humm
I must say that if I was in charge of advertising at sony and someone brought me this I wouldn't have used it. I wouldn't have fired anyone for being racist either, its just not in good taste.

   by RTaiderX (too lazy to log in on public computer) : (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » "All of the 100 or so images created for the campaign have been designed to show this contrast in colours of the PSPs , and have no other message or purpose. All of the 100 or so images created for the campaign have been designed to show this contrast in
he said it twice?

   by bob (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » ...
heh!,... makes a good wall paper for ur psp aswell!

   by Advertising -
   by Chris C - 2006-07-05
 » he said it twice?
Sorry about that, fixed.

   by Bob (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » Of course they're not putting it here in England
They'd get slaughtered by the political incorrectness squad for the one with the white woman in power.

   by Kouba (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » wow..
wow... it take almost no time for Sony to defend itself...
well I first though it was a bit "hard" for the "black psp" to be treated like that... shame on the "white psp" hahaha.... (inside joke)....

   by e.phat (Unregistered) - 2006-07-05
 » OMG THATS RACIST!!!1
seriously, i can't stand people who try to find a subbliminal message behind every damn thing. just like the whole 'loco roco' uproar. I'm black myself, and the only thing offending me here are the people that use every excuse to portrait how 'politically correct' they are.



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