Sony pulls controversial PSP ads

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Jul 11th 2006 at 11:20PM }

Depicting a white woman grappling with a black woman, a recent series of Sony PSP ads in the Netherlands have caused many to engage in some grappling of their own, mostly with issues and allegations of racism. After defending the images and claiming that they had "no other message or purpose" besides flaunting the white PSP, Sony has now confirmed that they have yanked the ads and banished them to a mysterious marketing misfire graveyard.

A Sony representative informed Gamespot that the decision was made based on the global reaction to an ad that was largely aimed at a specific country. The representative goes on to say that Sony "further recognize[s] that people have a wide variety of perceptions about such imagery and we wish to apologize to those who perceived the advert differently to that intended. In future, we will apply greater sensitivity in our selection of campaign imagery, and will take due account of the increasingly global reach of such local adverts, and their potential impact in other countries."

Interestingly enough, Sony claims to have only received a single complaint from within the Netherlands. It's unclear as to which is the more important lesson to be learned from all of this: Is it that marketers should wear gloves when handling potentially explosive material? Or perhaps it's that the internet always has a global eye on the moves of a large and popular corporation?

[Thanks evilmax17!]

Tags: Advertising, black PSP, BlackPsp, controversy, Netherlands, Racist ad, RacistAd, Sony, Sony PSP ad, SonyPspAd, white PSP, WhitePsp

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

epobirs @ Jul 11th 2006 11:27PM

So, an ad run in one small market got people throughout Europe, the US, and elsewhere talking about the new white PSP.

Mission accomplished! Somebody is getting a big bonus for getting so much mileage out of the Netherlands ad budget!

Josh @ Jul 11th 2006 11:33PM

Well, this ad surely did create buzz for the white PSP, the PSP in general, and Sony in general, but all it did was lower my opinion of the company and further solidify my decision to not buy the PSP, in any form.

Petrie @ Jul 11th 2006 11:36PM

I don't think anyone will be getting a bonus for this blunder. Bad publicity isn't always going to be good. This has really shed a negative light on Sony with a serious part of their demographic, and I for one think they will be stinging from this stain for quite a while.

zero @ Jul 11th 2006 11:37PM

It's kind of sad that so much attention was paid to the one specific ad (the white female "dominating" the black one) but there were two other ads in this campaign. I guess that’s just a sign of people only seeing what they want to see and ignoring everything else...

Knoxximus @ Jul 11th 2006 11:39PM

It's 2006....you can't aim stuff at a "specific country" anymore...thanks to the internet, TV and other forms of media, nothing is really isolated anymore. Sony, of all corporations (as they deal in media and media delivery mediums) should know this.

Ludwig Kietzmann @ Jul 11th 2006 11:42PM

I don't agree with you, epobirs. I think people were talking about the images in the ads far more than the product they were advertising. The white PSP became nothing more than a cameo, I'd say. :)

Zero - that's a good point, but the problem is that the other two ads are not present on that giant billboard. I don't think the other images make this one any less controversial.

baberg @ Jul 11th 2006 11:48PM

Further evidence, in my view at least, that this was all just a publicity stunt. The PSP ads had fallen off the collective radar of mainstream websites as we focused on other things, so here Sony comes back removing the ads in a very public manner guaranteed to get them back on the front page for another day. It would have been better if it weren't so transparent a ploy.

Whatever. I don't own a PSP and I don't intend to ever buy a PSP until they get a few must-have titles for it. From what I've seen, they're just not there. This publicity stunt didn't affect my opinion of the PS3 either.

Padriac @ Jul 11th 2006 11:55PM

This ad changed my opinion of Sony. For the better. I'm glad they had the balls to run something like this. I can't believe the overblown accusations of racism some are having. To each his own, I suppose.

Now we can go back to the awesomeness that is normal advertising with some guy skateboarding through a ring of fire while chugging mountain dew. That's way better than something that makes you investigate your own racial attitude. Thank you, overly sensitive people.

Zach @ Jul 12th 2006 12:01AM

Americans think of white and black differently than they do in Europe because Americans have a history in slavery. The ad wasn't as big of a deal in the Netherlands because they haven't had to deal with slavery and race issues as much as Americans have.

Roth @ Jul 12th 2006 12:13AM

"I don't think anyone will be getting a bonus for this blunder. Bad publicity isn't always going to be good."

Any publicity is good publicity actually, and I'm not even a Sony fan.

The only reason I've been thinking about getting a PSP is because of the sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3, but I'm not going to purchase the white PSP even if I do. I mean, no matter how hard you try, that white PSP is going to look dirtier than the original. It's bound to happen, especially if you're an on-the-go-gamer.

voice of reason @ Jul 12th 2006 12:18AM

im realy dissapointed in sony. if a company will go as far as being so insensitive just for a little publicity, i want nothing to do with it... im sorry, but i dont want to support a company with no morals. sony, you have lost all of the respect that you may have had from me.

if this was the first time then sure i could understand, but sony has had a history of distasteful ads.

im not anti-sony, i just dont agree with the way they are going about things.

Petrie @ Jul 12th 2006 12:24AM

The whole "all publicity is good publicity" thing is ignorance at it's
finest. By that monicker, Sony could run an ad where a man takes a
shit on a 360, and they most certainly would not be pleased with the
publicity they'd get, even though it would get them a ton. The urban
demographic Sony clamors to with most of it's ads will be quite turned
off by this sort of advertisement, and I don't think it is going to
help sales at all.

Conn @ Jul 12th 2006 12:25AM

I think most (North) Americans are just to quick to call 'Racist'. I see aboslutely nothing wrong with the ad, or any of the 3 ads for that matter.

cringer8 @ Jul 12th 2006 12:34AM

The saying is "wear kid gloves," not just gloves. It's in reference to gloves made out of kid (baby goat) skin. They were very delicate and dainty gloves that would damage easily.

T-Bag @ Jul 12th 2006 12:42AM

Am I the only one here who saw a black man/teenager? Clearly someone must of edited out thou tits.

On a side note, 400 redneck hillbillies clashed with law enforcement officers today over the removal of a pro anti-Negro billboard. Reporters on the seen claimed to have seen several of the men on horseback and wearing what seemed to be ghost costumes. Flags were also seen waving amongst these hooded men. Rumors have told tales of figures of Ken Kutaragi's (Current president of S.O.N.Y or Slavery Offers Negroes Happiness with the Y being silent) head displayed on the flags with a menacing smirk on his face.

... We'll be back to you with more at 11.

This in no way is meant to offend any man of color.

The3rdNuisance @ Jul 12th 2006 12:44AM

I see why you guys think its racist, but honestly, who cares? Its skin color, stop making such a big deal.

P.S. All publicity is good publicity, if that publicity is focused. This ad isn't that good because it won't get anyone interested in a PSP that hasn't already heard of it, and backed down from getting one because of the color. If Sony made an ad "where a man takes a shit on a 360" as Petrie so eloquently put it would be a horrid ad, because if you just saw that on TV, you'd be curious what the hell is going on. However, if they put the name of a product at the end of the commercial, they'd be curious what the hell is going on, and try and figure out. And if someone on the internet reads about it, they'll go find out about it themselves. Honestly, if it wasn't for the contreversy of this ad, I'd of never known they were releasing a white PSP, so if it was intended to make contreversy, they did a damn good job.

Drew @ Jul 12th 2006 12:46AM

I don't think I'm going to rush out and import a white PSP, my black one gathers enough dust on its own. The ads weren't racist just misguided but this is a dead horse.
The real issue is can Sony release some good games with the White PSP. I'm sure thats something my Black PSP could appreciate. Their slogan could be "White PSP is coming ... with games that don't suck (PSP games compatible with White and Black PSPs, PSP although differing in color are functionally equivalent. PSP differences are purely in color of casing. Case color for portable computer entertainment system in no way reflects world wide racial tension. Any resemblance to skin tone, facial features, or other identifying features is purely coincidental. PSP is not a video game handheld console it is a multimedia device with the ability to play games designed for Playstation 2 computer entertainment system. For more legal details see www.sony.com/we-are-not-racist-on-purpose/)". That last bit could be in that fast legalese talk.

rhork. @ Jul 12th 2006 12:54AM

@reason

"im realy dissapointed in sony. if a company will go as far as being so insensitive just for a little publicity, i want nothing to do with it... im sorry, but i dont want to support a company with no morals. sony, you have lost all of the respect that you may have had from me."

This is exactly what has come to bug me so much lately. Society must be concerned with racial sensitivy and this concern certainly does show that our world has not matured to the point where we can see an ad like this and take it for what it is - an ad about a portable gaming device.

I believe I'm repeating myself, but for the sake of it being a week later:

Let's be logical and rational about this: Sony is a company with no social agenda. They want to sell their electronics/software/entertainment... make a hefty profit... maybe even monopolize a few markets (heh), but I can see no reason why sony would have a racial bias against africans. There isn't a single reason to believe that there is some white supremacist movement anywhere within the japanese based company. So- as far as I can tell in this single case- there isn't any reason to take this as more than an eye catching ad for the psp.

For racism to be abolished, sensitivity to racist bs needs to take the appropriate steps too.

As I've said before- You're white, you're black, you're... some other color. Get Over It... Please.

Tourian @ Jul 12th 2006 1:07AM

Well now, thanks to the forcefully politically correct attitude of a company the world has become a little more boring.
Church: Check
Black People: Check
Homos: You're next on Sony's mean ads!! (hopefully, it keeps the boards alive and constantly flowing with heated discussion!)

RazorElite @ Jul 12th 2006 1:20AM

This ad just made me hate Sony even more. Because its racist? No. But to see how the company could be so insensitive to people's opinions or feelings. It's really not hard for someone that has been subjected to or experienced any type of violent racism to look at this ad and immediately come to the assumption its racist. So all of you who think 'people need to get a life' just 'cause they may not have been fortunate enough to live a hate-free life like you do, STFU!
The ad was distasteful to say the least, and I still don't see it's point. It just gained bad publicity, which as some people don't realise, is not always a good thing.

Insomnia Bob @ Jul 12th 2006 1:24AM

Ah, chalk up another mark in the 'follies of Sony' category. Now we can Zzzzzzzzzz....

Seriously, at this point, what can Sony do to shock us any more? Short of invading a third world country and setting themselves up as El Presidente for Life, I'm not sure what's left for Sony to mess up.

I still wish them the best of luck on the PS3 (Not, mind you, because I like Sony, but because I like GAMES.), but these guys need a reality check. A blank, signed, novelity sized reality check.

Trae @ Jul 12th 2006 1:25AM

I want a company with no morals. I enjoy buying products from companies that wish only to make money. I have no problem with capitalism.

olhado @ Jul 12th 2006 1:28AM

You know.. mention of the PSP in relation to that ad is virtually non existant, and mention of the White PSP scarce indeed. It's mostly just, 'Hey, look how dumb Sony is.' No one even realizes they are in fact trying to sell something.

Judd @ Jul 12th 2006 1:41AM

"Sony claims to have only received a single complaint from within the Netherlands. It's unclear as to which is the more important lesson to be learned from all of this:Is it that marketers should wear gloves when handling potentially explosive material? Or perhaps it's that the Internet always has a global eye on the moves of a large and popular corporation?"

No, actually it's choice C. The lesson to be learned from all this is that the Netherlands isn't as sensitive/politicaly correct as the rest of the world. Something is only portrayed as sexist or racist if you live in a society where you can spot it easier. People in Holland didn't recognize it as racist, because their history isn't filled with the image of whites dominatating blacks, and that association doesn't come to mind as easily to them as it does to us. The word "negro" literally means black in Spanish, but in English it is offensive not because of the word(as is the case with any curse word) but the context behind it.

So the two important lessons actually are: Most of the time people are offended by something they are actually offended by something it reminds them of. And... the reason Netherlands has such loose weed laws is because they're so laid back.

Night Elve @ Jul 12th 2006 1:48AM

Oh come on, give me break. There is nothing about racism stuff in that ad.

Dont go with the "We American people had a racism past", because every country had a racism past even some of them still have.

I dont like racism stuff, i dislike racism people. But that Ad? come on.

Night Elve @ Jul 12th 2006 1:49AM

racist*

Cynders @ Jul 12th 2006 2:04AM

Yeah, so specific to the Netherlands that the ad was printed in English. Nice try, Sony.

Dux @ Jul 12th 2006 2:06AM

Why are we making such a big deal out of it? The ad was not even targeted torwards us. It was towards the Netherlands. So unless you are from the Netherlends in here, just dont care. I say dont pay attention to it period. This is a Netherlend issue but w/e people will always have opinions on everything.....:(

Insomnia Bob @ Jul 12th 2006 2:07AM

I'm going to come out and agree with people that this ad is relativly harmless. Did it offend people? Oh, you betcha. SHOULD it offend people? Uh, no.

The Sony ad is not going to make your great grandfather bale cotton. Oh. See, now THAT was insensitive. It's a joke, though, people. And so was the ad, or at least it seemed that way to me.

The fact of the matter is the we (people from America, Canada, England, and any other similiarly minded nations) live in a world where people seek reasons to be offended. I mean honestly, think about curse words. It's a collection of sylables, just like any other word, but when put in the right order... OH MY GOODNESS! THERE ARE CHILDREN IN THE ROOM!

The history of America's involvment in the slave trade is arguably our darkest time from a moral standpoint. But slavery has never been exclusivly about oppressing humans of African decent. Sadly, it's a much bigger problem. The strong, in any human culture, dominate and oppress the weak. The definition of 'strong' and 'weak' have changed, but it continues even now. In America, and most capitalist countries, those roles are filled by 'rich' and 'poor' now. Don't be fooled. Just because you have cable doesn't mean you arn't oppressed. You're just more comfortable that previous generations, and in a lot less danger. That's progress for ya.

The point is, humanity needs to grow up, and we all need to get to the point where we can look at an ad like this and go "Hm. I don't think I'll buy that because I heard it doesn't have any games."(cheap shot, I admit) as opposed to thinking over the racial conotations.

Is this ad REALLY racist? Of course not. But we're all so afraid that it MIGHT be racist that we're ready to drop a hammer on it, as a knee jerk reaction. Myself included. And that, folks, is the real tragedy here.

whatever @ Jul 12th 2006 2:08AM

Please, americans GET A LIFE, elect a new president and stop your bitching about advertising that is not even meant for you.

epobirs @ Jul 12th 2006 2:40AM

I'm inclined to think that the hand wringers who go into a tizzy over any recognition that humans come in a variety of colors and if dressed in monochromatic clothing matching their skin can appear to be iconic representations of matching colored models of a product, that those people are a silly minority.

Perhaps they also think Blue Man Group is deeply insulting to a ethnic group that exist in some parallel universe and might take offense.

I'm still waiting for the complete version of the ad where they get down to the hot PSP-on-PSP action, if you know what I mean and I think you do.

Dave @ Jul 12th 2006 2:47AM

There you go. The people have spoken. It probably didn't hurt their image, and racists will now buy a PSP. Mission accomplished.

Havok @ Jul 12th 2006 3:01AM

I love to read how many of you lost faith in Sony etc. because of this ad. It just shows that you are all extremly anal retentive, getting fired up over an ad that wasn't even racist.

Calling the ad racist was the only thing that made it racist "OMG A BLACK WOMAN AND A WHITE WOMAN!!!1 AND THEIR FIGHTING!?!", I thought the world had come further and that we didn't focus on skin color.

The only people who actually focused on it - who saw racism where you so called anti-racist people. You're the ones throwing fuel on the fire here.

boneyard @ Jul 12th 2006 3:10AM

>

i would like to add something to that: or perhaps the internet is filled with whiners who will complain about everything they find remotely offensive or just want to complain about for the fun of it.

the fact that sony just got one complaint from the netherlands says enough, how about worrying about your own country first before starting such a rampage about a harmless add in another country.

Havok @ Jul 12th 2006 3:12AM

Oh and this about sums it up.

http://www.sorethumbsonline.com/d/20060710.html

Magnus @ Jul 12th 2006 3:58AM

Maybe we've learned that America always has to transfer their traumas to other countries... Nobody here in Europe would think even twice about this ridiculous ad...

Gary @ Jul 12th 2006 6:40AM

Perhaps Sony pulled the ads in preparation for a new ad in which they will show a young soldier taking a break outside of an ethnic cleansing kiln to play his white PSP, all the while his kiln is the only one in the camp to belch white smoke out of its stack.

sjenky @ Jul 12th 2006 6:55AM

Congradulations to the one dutch guy/girl who complained about the ad!
You must be the first dutch person to see "The color purple". Damn you Oprah.. damn you..

Jay @ Jul 12th 2006 7:02AM

epobirs; I know your a smart one and that, but this sort of thing is good. We're all talking about it, just as we all talked about Bin Laden and Saddam. But does that make them good? If anything hearing more about them in negative media just makes me hate them more. Same can be said for the PSP.
Abram Games said that "there is no such thing as bad publicity" in regards to his own adverts that were quite controversial. It worked for him in that more and more agencies contacted him as his work wasn't specifically on one item. Now, the PSP is getting it's name dragged through mud at this. Sure, I've seen the advert but has it made me want one? Quite the opposite.

Staticneuron @ Jul 12th 2006 7:06AM

I am black. I did not see anything offensive in this ad. What I did see is alot of people jumping to conclusions. it really didn't make sense that sony would market a racist ad anyway.

Havok @ Jul 12th 2006 7:53AM

Jay, you base your purchase on an ad? So instead of looking at all the cool things the PSP has, you decide to base it on an ad, which was started in the netherlands, and was blown way out of proportion?

You are the assholes I'm talking about further up, stop being so righteous and tell us the real reason you won't buy (expensive, not many great games, expensive... and, hmm... expensive).

I have one, and I want the white just because it's white. And the black is ugly, it gets dirty just by looking at it. I wish I had a nice black DS lite though, but I have to settle for the white one I got.

P.S. How many found the above sentence "racial"? If you found it to be racial, you are also an asshole.

Thank you.

Intangible 360 @ Jul 12th 2006 7:58AM

@Zero

Your comment makes no sense, if I pay you two compliments then insult you, it doesn't diminish what I've done. Why would any focus go towards billboards that had "nothing" wrong with them?

Jedite @ Jul 12th 2006 8:16AM

Told ya, they should have just left out the black chick

DG @ Jul 12th 2006 8:20AM

Know what's funny? All the people complaining about the people complaining about racism. Every other comment is from some smug white guy apparently too cool and advanced for quaint notions of racism, that obviously to them, don't exist anymore. Therefore, they must scream and yell at the non-existent offended majority. Talk radio has taught you well.

Really, who's being oversensitive here?

32_footsteps @ Jul 12th 2006 8:28AM

Okay, one more time, for all you drones who think any publicity is good publicity -

The purpose of publicity is to make money off of a product (in this case, the PSP). Thus, in order to be good publicity, it has to cause an uptick in sales of the product. Did this ad cause an uptick in PSP sales, as opposed to any other factor?

While I don't have global PSP sales onhand, I'm personally going to guess no, based on the overall negative tone of the comments. Therefore, it is not good publicity. It's failed publicity.

Or, if you can only understand things in the form of a snide comment, it's not like molesting children has helped Michael Jackson's record sales.

Anticrawl @ Jul 12th 2006 8:42AM

http://cad-comic.com/news.php?i=1153

Yeah Tim covered this a couple of days ago and made his own little comic spoof. Honestly he's got a point, no one would have said a word had it been the other way around and if you look at the series of ads it is the other way around in some but those didn't get the publicity on news sites.

Basically everything I have to say on the matter was touched on by the guy at that link, check it out.

This shouldn't be that big of a deal, and there is nothing wrong with the ad. Also yeah I personally despise Sony.

Anticrawl

Jay @ Jul 12th 2006 8:45AM

Havok; oh I had a black PSP. I sold it due to many reasons. but now Sony are trying to get people to buy a white one instead, just on its colour alone?

Course adverts affect general feel towards a product. Ever heard the expression "leaves a bad taste" etc? Adverts have a massive influence over consumers. If a product gets negative press (in this case newspapers and the internet) then the general feel towards to product lessens too. it doesn't translate to the item what so ever, the discussion is about how bad the advert is. Out of all the countless posts made about this how many have said "Oh, this advert makes me want to buy a white PSP" so far?

Nintendo have the right idea in the UK. they're advertising where they need to gain a market, pretty much all of Channel 4's comedy shows are sponsored by the DS. the ads aren't controversial or silly. they're normal ads. and they're pulling people in. that's how it works.

Lukino @ Jul 12th 2006 9:01AM

other that pointing out how ridiculous are americans about racism (other comments did it great 12-24-27-29-etc.) I'd like to ask why that black girl is pointed out as "afro-american"? I bet she has nothing to do with america... It's like more racist than the ad (which i think is not)