PSP White: Questionable European Marketing

Friday, Jul. 7 2006 | Author: Spengs

I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time…

A European marketing campaign for Sony’s upcoming PSP White has been causing quite a stir among the peoples of the Internet. The campaign, featuring advertisements of a white woman domineering over a black woman to usher in the new age of the PSP White, were never intended to be seen outside of Europe. Never-the-less, the images have offended many, as some believe the ads contain a subtext of white superiority.

The Guys at Sony had this to say:

“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,” the spokesperson said. “All of the 100 or so images created for the campaign have been designed to show this contrast in colors of the PSPs, and have no other message or purpose.”

Never-the-less, they say “Any publicity is good publicity”, and this ad has created such a scene on the internet it’s likely twice as many people are aware of the PSP White than would have been without the ad. Only time will tell whether this tactic will work in Sony’s favor or not.

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9 Responses for "PSP White: Questionable European Marketing"

Danny

July 7th, 2006 at 14:12
1

I’m sure in the world of marketing, there are all kinds of fancy concept and talk for this kind of advertising …

But that ad is plain offensive.

THAT IS IT.
There is no way around to it. There is
‘creativity ‘ and there is ignorance in the name of creativity.

That white girl is squeezing the black girl’s
jaw and looking down on her for crying out
loud.

The most igonorant and moronic and racisit
AD I’ve ever seen in my life.
Brian Larter

July 7th, 2006 at 18:05
2

inb all honesty i never knew this was happening until you wrote about it so bad publicity is still publicity. but i do agree that ad definatly wasn’t thought out too well.
Ronin AnimeLover

July 9th, 2006 at 02:47
3

Haven’t they heard of the old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words”? I think this also applies to the various interpretations scattered around the Net, and also the cause of the uproar you mentioned.
k-sound

July 9th, 2006 at 11:34
4

No coincidence that most of the people taking offense are Americans. I live in the benelux myself and I am heavily against racism (and believe me we have lots of it here in Belgium). To be honest I don’t see the problem with this ad. The real problem is most people are so freaked out about racism that anything that may be considered as racism is a complete outrage.

Honestly, would everyone react the same way if things were the other way around (black girl squeezing a white girl)? Race has nothing to do with it the PSP used to be black and now there’s a white version, doesn’t seem very hard to get the analogy.
Spengs

July 9th, 2006 at 13:05
5

Funny you mention “the other way around”. It turns out there was a companion ad showing just that, and it’s been conveniently ignored by all the media. I posted it a few blogs upward.
Ignacio Gil

July 10th, 2006 at 03:26
6

“No coincidence that most of the people taking offense are Americans. I live in the benelux myself and I am heavily against racism (and believe me we have lots of it here in Belgium). To be honest I don’t see the problem with this ad. The real problem is most people are so freaked out about racism that anything that may be considered as racism is a complete outrage.”

I’m also european, and feel the same way. I don’t see any problem with the ad. Just two models of PSP fighting, and nothing more.
This kind of foolish controversy does not do any good to the real fight against racism.
Jonathan Wagakusei

July 12th, 2006 at 07:45
7

And realize too that America has that whole issue with not-so-distant slavery and the country as a whole is still sensitive from all of that, so of course this picture struck a nerve. I’m not saying that I agree or disagree, but given that context, yeah, instant uproar.
seether

July 22nd, 2006 at 07:53
8

the black girl in the ad evidently didnt think it was so bad,she AGREED to be in it!
seether

July 22nd, 2006 at 07:58
9

in america racism is mostly by the black society,
there is no white cable television,
no white college funds,
no white expo that always erupts in violence,

look into black entertainment network,know as(BET)
or the indianapolis black expo,
the the united negro college fund,
no white kid can be accepted by that college fund,isnt that racist?

and black people are the first to point fingers at white people calling them racist!