Sony's fony graffiti sparks lashback

by Vladimir Cole { Dec 3rd 2005 at 5:15PM }

Sony's guerilla graffiti campaign promoting the PSP in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco has pissed some folks off.

The best way to fight corporate graffiti? With graffiti, of course.

Pictured here: one vandal's response to the PSP ad campaign. Sony's not the only company that has co-opted modes of underground expression. Rockstar plasters NYC with stickers, Microsoft did the same to promote MSN, and so on. A bit of the ire directed at Sony probably has to do with the whole rootkit fiasco.

[Via Digg]

Tags: Ads, Advertising, Marketings, Sony, Sony ads, SonyAds

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Justin Nolan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

Funny, I'm pretty sure I saw some PSP graffiti like this in Philly the other day. Didn't think much of it, and don't remember where I saw it.

Seems pretty low for Sony (or any corp) to hire people to commit crimes. The fines for this should be much higher than they most likely are.

bubbacrosbysucks @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

i can't believe you guys actually censored that.

vc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

Bubba: I curse like a sailor sometimes, but we try to keep the site safe for viewing at work. If the site is too nasty, corporate IT departments blacklist it and we lose lots of readers. Sorry man.

the_game_master @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

So is chalking some old dirty run down building a new penny saving way of marketing your products. What ever happened to billboard advertising? Oh that's right they got taken over by Clearchannel.

Momus @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

Those kids look positively mesmerized by the PSP's ability to be ice cream.

Leomar @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

I feel a disturbance in the SONY force, I think Stringer is hurt, my psp is no more.

DG @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

"Bubba: I curse like a sailor sometimes, but we try to keep the site safe for viewing at work. If the site is too nasty, corporate IT departments blacklist it and we lose lots of readers. Sorry man."

I certainly appreciate it. My work day would go by much slower without this site.

And didn't they steal this from an episode of the Apprentice?

Jeremy Wright @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

"A bit of the ire directed at Sony probably has to do with the whole rootkit fiasco."

Erm, no offence to people who live near this graffiti, read it or responded to it... But do we really, really believe that the guy who talked about teabagging a mime was deeply offended by the rootkit incident?

I mean... Come'on!

had2comment @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

Guys, I am not convinced this ad campaign was made by Sony. It is more likely an ad campaign generated by Microsoft.

Look at the pictures. Really, look at them:

http://www.woostercollective.com/2005/11/sony-psp-ads-what-do-you-think.html

I had the same thoughts as poster 18 did in the other thread joystiq ran about this ad campaign:

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000680068452/#c603797

These ads focus on how the PSP has replaced many different toys for children. But each child who was playing with their PSP has become distracted. Their eyes are hypnotized and focused on something else. Their hypnotized eyes look suspiciously similar to the hypnotizing circles that the Xbox 360 is using for their own brand association:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/screenshots_library/dir_282/vortal_pic_141359.jpg

Thus implying that kids who have the PSP are so infatuated with the Xbox 360 that they don't even want to play with their PSPs anymore.

Further, look at the timing of the ads. Right before the release of the Xbox 360.

Think about it.

It is Microsoft's ad campaign. Not Sony's.

Bonus points to Microsoft for promoting its product while at the same time causing Sony a headache when people think Sony put these annoying things up.

Kristian @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

had2comment, no matter how interesting that theory is, I doubt it's true. Microsoft wouldn't put up an ad campaign which is so cryptic that people will not realize it is 360-friendly. It is going to generate attention for the PSP either way, thus increasing public knowledge of it, and people's likely-ness of buying it. As you are the only one who managed to think of 360 = good from it, I don't think M$'s advertising team is that stupid.

had2comment @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

Kristian,

I agree that these ads are generating attention for the PSP. But it is not positive attention.

If it were positive attention, the kids would be focused on playing with their PSPs. But they're not. Instead, their attention is elsewhere. The kids are clearly mesmerized and distracted by something else. Something other than their current toy, the PSP.

What is that something else? Could be another Sony product. It could also be a bag of Doritos. But if the hypnotic circles in their eyes are any indication, coupled with the dates these ads started popping up, that something else is the Xbox 360.

The only reason we see a PSP featured in the ad and not something else, like some version of a Gameboy, is because Microsoft is specifically targetting Sony's gaming market share with its Xbox 360.

So I agree that the ads generate attention for the PSP, but only as far as implying the PSP is old news and everyone should go get a shiny new Xbox 360.

Jeff @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

Well, it doesn't actually excuse it, but I've only seen Rockstar plaster *public* property with stickers, and only then in areas where plenty of others have already done the same. Again, not to excuse it, but it makes it a question of degree and I think what Rockstar does is more in tune with what the overall community in that area has grown to accept (Rockstar is part of that community; they're located in that area).

What Sony did was put this graffiti advertising all over the place, indiscriminantly. And then they tried to disguise what it was; there's no disguising what logo is on a Rockstar sticker. They just did it in a far more insidious, uncaring and corporate way that showed them to not just be shameless in their marketing, but something worse, at least in NYC: *outsiders*.

We don't take kindly to outsiders coming in and mucking our place up. If we want to do it ourselves, that's one thing. But you don't take that as an invitation to come in here uninvited and do the same.

ii @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

Isn't it a great offense among taggers to paint over someone else's work, or deface it? I think whoever vandalized this psp graffiti wasn't another tagger, but an angry 360 fanboy with a marker.

Ace_ofspade @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

Real fucking great. Now they have ugly drawings of kids with paint all over their faces and profanity in their public area advertising Sony's newest toy. Better, right?

Josh @ Dec 18th 2005 9:06PM

Tats cru? x'd out is a disrespect to them, it seems like, they are a big thing in NYC. I know one of their crew down here in atlanta, Totem ( h**p://www.mr-totem.com/ if your intrested ). his shit is sick, but anyways tats crew is a big thing just in case you didn't know much about graf. rock and effin roll. Drink another beer, yeah.

JOsh