Sony's Marketing "Genius"

I'm assuming that's a European advertisement.

its in amsterdam and they purposefully kept it out of the u.s.

Why? People in Amsterdam don't get it?

It's because to the Japanese, we all look alike.

That White PSP is ass ugly.

There are actually two other ads, one of which shows the characters facing off equally and another showing the black woman "defeating" the white woman. It's kind of uncomfortable from an American perspective but I'm not ready to accuse them of institutional racism. More directly though, you'd think someone would question the marketing decision to imply that their products hate each other. Just a bad idea all around.

It's wacky, but then a lot of European advertising seems to be.

There are about a million marketing blunders commited by Sony since e3. I think this should be way down on the list.

and in no way is the ps3 going to blunder...wait..

I think you'd have to have your head buried in the sand for the last 50 years to think that a billboard depicting a white person grabbing a black person in apparent hostility and superiority wouldn't offend anybody. The fact that it's part of a larger ad campaign means nothing, as people will nevertheless see that as a stand-alone advertisement.

I'm not saying it's intentional racism, I'm just saying it's a shitty idea for an ad campaign. Still, I'm sure Sony is digging all the free marketing they're getting from the press...

so I'm guessing the black PSP is better at sports?

Except hockey.

Put a white PSP on the billboard to fill the space. I'm pretty sure that would get the point across.

The point of marketing is to get people talking about the product. Sony has managed to turn a single billboard in Amersterdam into a conversation on an international messageboard, where several people have demonstrated prior knowledge of the ad. How is this dumb marketing?

And it's not racist, it's provocative. The ad shows no bias towards or against either of the two races. If it was a white woman and a black man (which I originally thought it was), would it be sexist against men?

The races hating each other and kicking each other's ass.

Nice message, Sony!

I know people love to say these things, but is there any real evidence that this sort of talk about the ad campaign will actually increase sales of white PSPs? Or does it just garner attention for the campaign itself? Seems like if these things were really true, actually resulting in higher sales, we'd be seeing controversial ads two or three at a clip, week in and week out.

I've already said I don't think it's intentionally racist, but you can't tell me they were so naive as to think they weren't going to stir up controversy.

basically, what they're saying in the ads is that the white handheld is better than a black handheld.

ie, the Nintendo DS wipes the floor with the PSP.

At least the folks at Sony are honest.

I don't know if it results in better sales, but obviously the marketing people think so. Not saying I like it, mind you.

I think the point is that they want to stir up controversy.

I agree 100%, which is why I find their disclaimers somewhat disengenuous.

i can't wait to see the add for the PSP Yellow.

that ad will likely be the white woman pissing on a japanese man....

what's provocative about that?

There are no 'huh? I didnt see that...', anymore (even the McDonald's "I'd hit it" campaign). Its sad that in the internet age big companies now realise and make the play for the "WTF?" email:forward market. Some marketing stooge must have eventually sat down and calculated the dollar worth of "All your base..."

Where the McDonalds one was at least funny, this really is a new low. Someone should get some skinheads to heil that board, and then recirculate it. See how Sony values their brand.

Marketers are spawns of Satan with the adage "Any press is good press", so here you may have a point, but....

...here is where you are back to form. The implied racism is the provocation. Otherwise, no one would be talking about it. And the "would it be sexist against men" is just complete stupidity, as there is no comparison of black/white racism versus a virtually non-existant male oppressive feminine regime.

It´s like an United Colors of Benetton ad, except for videogames.

This is something stupid marketing teachers tell their students who will then grow up to be stupid marketers. The 'any press is good press' adage may work for someone like Paris Hilton, but with regards to actual products, that's not the case.

For products with low awareness, crazy marketing works because people start talking about something they didn't know anything about before. For a major company for which everyone already has a high level of awareness, such ad campaigns do nothing but turn off a great deal of people. People are already talking about the PSP, specifically about how it isn't as good as the DS. Changing the talk to 'damn, Sony is just getting dumber' isn't a great marketing effort.

Beyond any offensiveness or racism, the ad concept is just fucking stupid. Why pit the same product in two different colors against each other in the first place? What are you trying to say with that? It's absolutely meaningless. If you have a product in more than one variety, just fucking say so. This is the most arrogant and wrong-headed way to simply say "it comes in white now." How hard can it be to put that message out there without resorting to quasi-racism?

They could've just did a 3 pane comic.

Frame 1, a black psp propped up on a sterile table.

Frame 2, Ron Jeremy's back obstructs our view of the psp.

Frame 3, a nice shiny white PSP for all to enjoy.

That would be the best billboard ever.

Sony hit the trifecta with the ad, racist, dumb, harming the brand.

I was an advertising major and these are three of the five things that you don't want people to think after an intial viewing of an ad. You stay away from racist images for a fear of backlash and organized boycotts. You never want people to look at an ad and think it's dumb because any time you see more ads or the actual product, the initial negative reaction will surface. The PSP is a huge dissapointment not only here but in Japan and Europe as well with the DS Lite handing it it's ass. Having an ad with symbolism that shows a different version of the same product as superior or inferior causes customer confusion and isolates existing consumers. You don't see apple showing the video ipod pissing on a click-wheel ipod. Nintendo has made no mention of the 1st gen DS whatsoever in its ads. And those products made actual improvements on the previous products. The white psp is just a new option with no improvement. Sony is losing every P.R. battle on every front right now. PSP, PS3, and BlueRay have all taken signifigant hits in PR this summer so I would be a very worried fanboy right now.

ooh ooh! Me wanty!

U R Racist!!!