It doesn't come as much of a surprise after the virulent reaction we saw last week, Sony's pulled the plug on their
"PSP White is coming" ad campaign in the Netherlands, which depicted, well, you know. We're not gonna call it an admission of guilt or anything (and neither did they, read on), but Sony did apologize to those offended by the campaign, also stating, "We recognize that the subject matter of one specific image may have caused concern in some countries not directly affected by the advertising. As a result, we have now withdrawn the campaign." We're quite well aware of the cultural context in which advertising must be taken, but it's apparent the world holds a company like Sony to a higher standard, and Sony can apparently recognize this as well. So, case closed, let's all move on with our lives now, yeah? We've got some toys to obsess over, no time for this foolish business.
posted July 12th 2006 7:22AM
I think what everyone is reacting to is called "White Guilt". isn't Sony based in Japan?
I have a great idea.
To end this thing once and for all, Sony must make some minor modifications to the ad.
1. Put in an Asian guy in the background
2. Let the black guy(or gal? not sure) grab the asian by the throat
3. The asian guy in turn grabs the white woman
4. Sony develops a yellow PSP
Parfait! Don't you think?
Sony! Are you taking notes?
ROXXOR, try visting Europe before calling the society hetrogenous. The Netherlands, for example, has a significantly large black Caribbean community, not to mention large Eastern African communities.
I do agree that the ad is offensive, but don't generalize Europe as not being diverse, when the fact is that cities like Paris, Amsterdam, and London are some of the most diverse in the world.
I fully expect that marketers will soon have no other option than to ensure that all characters in their ads are green and androgynous so as to remove any remote possibility that neither racial nor gender stereotypes are perceived in them by the increasingly hypersensitive viewing audience.
I have only one word for this: hypocrits. Americans are just hypocrits.
Making a fuss out of this but ignoring their president that spies on his own people and tortures prisoners and thinks the can just invade any country because of the oil?
The more I read and see this kind of stupid and hypocritical stuff going on the more I understand why Al Queda did what it did on 9/11.
PUSSIES!!!!!!! Lets all cater to all the little hoos in hooville who cry boo f'in hoo hoo hoo about every little thing!!!!!
'nuff said.
Henk, who says Americans are "ignoring their president"? Last I heard, his approval rating was barely 30%. And the fact that we currently have to live under an increasingly despotic and out-of-control government, doesn't make us hypocrites for merely pointing out how ridiculous the reaction to this Sony ad has been.
@PongGod: Whose reaction is ridiculous? Sony? They pulled the ad after all you American whiners objected to something that is not even going on in your friggin country. Go home and start addressing the racial issues in your own country! Go to the ghetto in Compton and solve your problems there first before you start complaining about stuff in other countries: YANKEE GO HOME!
Henk, I never whined about this ad (I suggested it was nothing to make a fuss about) while YOU are the one bitching about America and its problems. So, who is the hypocrite?
By the way, I am home right now.
This is blatant institutional racism plain and simple! Given the fact that a large segment of the PSP-buying market includes impressionable youth who form base many of their attitudes on what they see in the media, Sony's intentions are irrelevant. I will DEFINITELY not buy any Sony products in the near future.
If it was a black girl holding a white girl, no one would have said anything
Nothing new. I don't blame Sony, I blame the ad agencies that are made up with white creatives that aren't educated about other people in the world, and how their insensitive advertising can be read as being racist.
They say the world is a global village, but ad agencies
need to come out of the their lilly white caves, and
increase diversity in their agencies. Hire minority creatives!
which one is beter, black psp or white psp?