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A new billboard in Holland advertising the white PlayStation Portable has sent a US civil rights group, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), into an uproar. The ad itself boasts a white woman with white hair and matching clothes grasping a black woman's jaw; the text reads, "PlayStation Portable White is Coming."

The San Jose branch of the NAACP issued a statement claiming Rick Callender, chapter president, had referred to what was a recent assertion of racism toward the seemingly innocent PSP game LocoRoco, stating: "The days of blacks being portrayed in minstrel shows ["blackface" music and comedy skits] are long gone, and with good reason. The minstrel show was an awful chapter in history and this ad smacks of that age and time."

Despite currently being exclusive to the Netherlands, Callender refocused his ire on the billboard. "The latest Sony ad conjures up bad memories of when stereotypical and offensive images of people of color were accepted means of selling a product. Sony should immediately apologize and discontinue these archaic advertising tactics." Leland Yee, California's Assembly Speaker, agreed with the comments made by Callender, adding: "I am deeply disappointed in Sony's senseless decision to publish this racially-charged advertisement. I can't begin to determine Sony's motivation but I believe this marketing strategy is unnecessary and is clearly offensive to many in our community."

In response to the NAACP, a Sony spokesperson has insisted that the images are not intended to be racially offensive nor are they meant to be taken as such.

"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. 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."

One must wonder how different the arguement would have turned out had the same ad been for the black PSP instead...

Sources: EuroGamer
GAF - Billboard Images

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

Hah, yep, heard of that. Really kinda silly. It's to contrast the white PSP and the black PSP, humans always take things out of proportion...

Although, to be frank, I couldn't even see the other person on the billboard until I really tried, causing me to be wondering what everyone was talking about.

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OSonic Rave
/ \Last Arcanum
[ ]Strike Raid
XRagnarok

I think the ad's fine. I don't get Sony though; you don't want to even near this sort of thing in your advertising.



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The Collapse of Heaven and Earth

Sony should have considered that American lobbyists stick their noses in everywhere and can make a mountain from the smallest of molehills, but frankly, the NAACP should be paying some bloody attention... are the Netherlands part of the USA? Is there a fuss in the Netherlands? It's not their turf. Their country is not the world policeman and they are not even a government organisation. They have no right to act outside America.

Had it been anyone else but one of the most counterproductive organisations known to man, I'd find this startling. It's constant playing of the race card and bleating about the slightest thing that feeds the lunatics like the BNP, Combat 18, and their ilk.

This post has been edited by Del S on 9th July 2006 14:03

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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

Heh, I heard about this too. It seems to me that once again people are being overly sensitive to matters like this, considering the ad itself was in the Netherlands where racial tension isn't as apparent as in the United States. In my opinion I believe that actually making big issues out of a something so minor as an advertsiment where there is no actual racism involved. If the ad had somethng like a white man whipping a black man, then yes, I could see how it becomes a problem.

To me it looks simply like the the person on the right managed to get the upper hand on the person to the left. However it looks like Sony is trying their hardest to make their advertising more innovative and sparking more conversations and hype, looks like its working too.

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Life is not a practice, always play to win.
I buried Ponce.

Anything that spurs controversy in advertising is a good thing. Personally, I like the ad.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Racist? Probably not. Incredibly stupid? Yes. This is another reason why I'm glad I turned my back on my degree as soon as I got it - nobody seems to understand that trying to be edgy in your ads usually just makes you look like an idiot.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

how surprising is it that the naacp manages to find racism in an ad depicting a white actor showing any sort of dominance over a black actor?

the white woman is completely white; she has white hair and clothes -- even white nail polish -- to go with her face. the black woman is completely black; she, incidentally, is decked out in a black outfit to match her skin and hair. i wonder what these two actors could *possibly* represent, here? there isn't a smidgen of racism present in this ad. clearly, the black woman, with her surprised look on her face, is somewhat overtaken by the sudden arrival of this shocking new white woman.

silverforks wondered if there would have been any controversy if the ad had switched the positions of the two actors and put the black woman in the domimant position. of course there wouldn't have been a peep from the race relations watchdogs.

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in the Netherlands where racial tension isn't as apparent as in the United States

As a Dutchie who has visited the States and has had quite a few discussions with my US relative(s), let me assure you that that isn't true in the slightest. We have several fairly large groups of etnic minorities, and there are quite a few people who are very uncomfortable with that fact which leads to tension on both ends.




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The Collapse of Heaven and Earth

Do I like the ad? No.
Do I think Sony was racist in intent? Not at all.
Do I think it was a stupid move? Yes.

I maintain my position that videogame companies should STOP trying to seem "oh so unusual and cool" in the ads they make. For one thing, a simple background color difference would have made the point very effectively if applied skillfully. For another thing, I don't know about this ad in particular, but I'm tired of seeing ads that don't actually sell the product and are not funny at all (man laughing at an ostrich pacing across a beach in an FF4 ad comes to mind).

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Quote (gozaru~ @ 9th July 2006 10:37)

silverforks wondered if there would have been any controversy if the ad had switched the positions of the two actors and put the black woman in the domimant position.  of course there wouldn't have been a peep from the race relations watchdogs.

QFT. Just goes to show that people like that act only in their own interest. What if it had been a PSP yellow? Would someone cause an uproar saying it's degrading to asians? PSP red, a low blow to indian tribes? What about PSP green? Man, the aliens would've been pissed over that one... Or maybe they're just colors after all.

Little off-topic, but I'm of the opinion that anti-racism groups consist largely of people whose sole occupation in life is to attempt to turn as many situations as possible into a racist context for...

1) Attention
2) To justify a need for their organization
3) Legitimate purposes

...in order of importance.

The ad may not be anything short of dumb, but let's be honest with each other: tacky or not, it conveys the message that there's a new color for the PSP. Cool. Maybe it's a lame ad that tries too hard, but I certainly can't see how it'd be in Sony's best interest to deliberately make it into a racist statement of white supremacy. What's next? "Nigga stole mah PSP Purple!"?

I've noticed that the boards' skin is primarily white. What gives? Where's the black skin? I'm ashamed of posting here... Tsk. It's clear that the mods are racist. Yep. Quite clear indeed.

This post has been edited by Silverlance on 10th July 2006 00:23

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Racist or not, it looks like a shitty campain to me, Because what does that have do really do with PSPs? nothing, The campain might as well have a glass of chocolate milk in a white room, while a kid sits there drinking regular milk. with their akward slogan at the bottom.


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"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

I agree with the camp of thinking that this was the intention of the Sony advertisers.
It would have never flown here in the States, home of litigation, so they tried a market
that they probably felt would receive it the best---and failed but succeeded. I had
never heard of this ad, although I've read the internal memos instore about euro launch
dates and limited volumes. Without the controversy and culture shock, it would never have
received the power it has now, and that seems to be the common theme in ads now.
For a good example of shocking yet effective advertising, think to those Volkswagen
commercials which end in a shocking car accident, then show the sedan alright, as a
testimony to its safety rating. Shocking, controversial at the time (at least, FoxNews
tried to make it so), and ruthlessly effective: CB+K is reaping the benefits of buzz
while their client's sales are increasing this quarter and last. That's what Sony
wanted. Instead, even as a caucasian-cultured hispanic, I find the ads disturbing.

Bear in mind that Sony needs the PSP to survive. Their last attempt to revive the market
was to ensure movie releases to the PSP, crucially to provide new media in lieu of new
games. And with their recent business decisions, does anyone see the ghost of pre-Sony
Nintendo lingering in the Sony aura?

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Putting the A's in W lm rt: A11smart, Jobclass: Retailer.

The ad has been called "stupid" and "dumb" several times in here.... I'd like to know why.

It accomplished its goal of drawing massive amounts of attention to it's product. In the marketing world, isn't that called a resounding success?

On the other side of the coin, what makes it "stupid"? Is it when someone thinks that it's racist that it becomes a "dumb" ad? Is it a dumb ad if it fails to draw attention to it's product, even if it really was a clever piece of material? I'm just curious to hear from the camp that thinks the ad is unintelligent.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

For one, you're confusing our personal consideration that it's stupid with the real qualifications for it to be a successful ad campaign. I personally think virtually all advertising is stupid, whether it's successful or not. It's soulless and cynical and like much of the media at large, it offers itself to the lowest common denominator first.

If sensationalism was the only attribute of an advertisement that made it a success, then agencies and corportations would be lobbying governments worldwide to remove any limits that advertising currently has. And every ad campaign would be like this one - bold imagery that really doesn't have much to do with the item at hand - or worse.

Of course, they really don't have much choice at this point. They need sensationalistic advertising because the product they're trying to push, as far as I'm aware, has no benefits over the original aside from its color. Look at it this way, what kind of advertising would get you to trade in your blue Hyundai for a green one that is otherwise identical?

The purpose of advertising is to raise the customer to a new level of awareness relative to the product. I'm sure I have all my notes from my senior-level courses somewhere at home, but this is what I'm talking about. To me, that ad campaign has no ability to raise a consumer anywhere beyond "awareness," and that is a bit thin - anyone who wasn't already aware that a white PSP was forthcoming probably isn't in the market to buy one. You could make an argument for the level of "comprehension" but I think that the concept of the campaign is nebulous enough that it's not going to work for everyone.

You might say "well, the arguments you're making here can be applied to 80% of the ads I see, so why don't you complain about those?" And you're right. But this topic is about this particular campaign, which I think is not patently racist but is pretty lame nonetheless.



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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Thank you R51.

Also,

Quote (Hamedo)

It accomplished its goal of drawing massive amounts of attention to it's product. In the marketing world, isn't that called a resounding success?

You don't want negative attention if you actually want to sell your product.

--------------------

Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Quote

You don't want negative attention if you actually want to sell your product.

I used to question buying a PSP ,but after watching those hainously retarded commercials with dustbunnies. It made me decide to buy a DS instead. I have never like the PSP campain at all. They seem to not understand people need to like your campain, then they might buy it. Their focus is solely on awareness, and they got it from the NAACP.

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"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

This all seems par for the course for Sony, or at least someone (possibly heavily
invested in Nintendo or Microsoft---ha!) keeps authorizing these kinds of message. I
see an underlying threat in WhitePSP chic versus BlackPSP chic, which is less racist
than subtlely violent. After VGcats ripped on the last american ad campaign, it all
seemed less obtuse in their delivery.

This is like Microsoft trying to court Office users to upgrade by calling them
'dinosaurs' (Microsoft's greatest competitor to any new release of their Office
suite is, actually, themselves: there's also a lingering base of installed users who
don't upgrade, thus causing lost opportunities for sales. Given that Office costs
so much, Microsoft seemed to think this ad campaign would spurn traditional sales,
even while facing harsh innovation from Ajax, GoogleSpreadsheets, and even
OpenOffice). Does Sony feel that this connects them to hiphop mainstream
youth culture?

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Putting the A's in W lm rt: A11smart, Jobclass: Retailer.

The ad isn't really racist, just kind of stupid. It looks to me like they're playing up the "sex sells" angle with the girl-on-girl dominance between the two ads rather than any kind of race imagery.

Is the white and black PSP supposed to be competing with each other? Or is having two together going to net any benefit?

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

The ad is not racist, and I personally think that no one is offended, but the NAACP just so happens to like to make everyone look like a bigot. The ad was supposed to pull a "Dan Brown" if you will - cause a huge controversy and then use it to sell your product. It's too bad that a white PSP does not happen to have the truth behind the holy grail, because then the controversy would have worked. Whatever, says I, though, because I try to stay as far away from the PSP scene as possible (as many people have stated before, their entire marketing campaign has been nothign but "edgy", or as I call it, "crappy").

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Can you pull down the dawn?
It's been so dark since you've been gone
and we've been begging for the morning to come.
We were so optimistic,
wasn't it so easy to be?
We were young and naive.
-The Hush Sound: Eileen

I don't think the ad is intentionally racist, but I wonder what the reaction would be if it was shown to an audience that had no idea what this PSP stuff was all about, or who couldn't read the language of the ad. What happened to ads that show their products?

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I had an old signature. Now I've changed it.

Ha! I imagine few PSP games will ever have the interconnectivity that the DS has.
Remember when Sony lost all steam behind its XboxLive competitor platforms, with
PlayOnline and similar services? They hate to admit other companies could have
good ideas too. The DS, and both GameboyAdvance and SP all tout Nintendo's
firm belief in interconnectivity over internet...y. Nintendo just might be right: with
the advent of wifi everywhere, they're the best investment in user-to-user local
connection experiences.

Cause a huge controversy and then use it to sell your product? ThatSpoonyBard is
dead-on, just more succinctly that some of us. Would we ever had heard of this ad
otherwise? Or converse on it? From the awareness perspective, I agree with R51:
this is a battle that they won, with the specific failure of NAACP attention factored
into the plans.

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Putting the A's in W lm rt: A11smart, Jobclass: Retailer.

The ad in question, I do not believe was intentionally racisist. I am not impressed by the ad but I am not unimpressed. I would still like to get a PSP but not because the ad told me to do so. My only gripe is that Sony has made a new color rather than focusing on expanding content.

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Elena Indurain

Currently Playing: Suikoden II

I'm not meaning to go too offtopic here, but an Elena99 and Elena1999? What are
the odds?

Using personification-of-product, even with implied insult, can work, too. Although
I'm a PC fan, and will continue to purchase PC technology (hardware and software),
I think the latest Apple ads are great. They depict a youthy SteveJob-character and
a youthy/unlikely-pudgy BillGates-character talking about Macs vs PCs. In this, the
delivery is superb, and still uses people without actually having the product in
prominence.

Is there an official Sony product that would allow you to tailor tivo'd-into-PC tv into
something storable and playable off a MemoryStick? That's the functionality, and as
software, I want to see added. The thirdparty solutions are horrifically complex.

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Putting the A's in W lm rt: A11smart, Jobclass: Retailer.

I just noticed the agressor in the second ad seems to be the black woman.



I feel my image as a white male violated by this racist depiction of black supremacy.

Oh but wait, it's fine - it's not a white-oppressing-black view, just a black-getting-honorable-vengeance-on-white view so nobody's hurt by this. For some reason, I'm starting to think that if anyone's truly racist, it's the people who constantly push themselves to find new creative ways to label ANY act against black people as an act of racism. We don't care. So I beat up a black man because he gave me the finger - how is beating up a white man for the same reason any LESS of a hate crime? What is that, a not-liking-very-much-crime? How does the color of anyone's skin have anything to do with hate? I hate everyone all the same, white or black.

But seriously, it seems like the ad campaign swings both ways in terms of who aggresses whom. What gives?

This post has been edited by Silverlance on 12th July 2006 04:21

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Quote

Just goes to show that people like that act only in their own interest. What if it had been a PSP yellow? Would someone cause an uproar saying it's degrading to asians? PSP red, a low blow to indian tribes? What about PSP green? Man, the aliens would've been pissed over that one... Or maybe they're just colors after all.

Little off-topic, but I'm of the opinion that anti-racism groups consist largely of people whose sole occupation in life is to attempt to turn as many situations as possible into a racist context for...

1) Attention
2) To justify a need for their organization
3) Legitimate purposes

...in order of importance.

I agree with that... as long as something can be made to seem wrong it will be. Example: Its okay to have black pride marches and groups but when white people do it, its racist. They even have a black history MONTH... i never even heard of white history DAY, let alone month... When a white person beats up a black person, its a hate crime but when a black person beats up a white person, its just a fight. people take things WAY to seriously... just to be nice, they can call it the PSP Cracker...

side notes:
- African-American is pollitically incorrect... most black people don't come from/have never been to africa.

-There is no NAANCP (National Association for the Advancement of Non-Colored People) or NAAWP (National Association for the Advancement of White People) or NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Caucasion People)

This post has been edited by Zantetsuken on 12th July 2006 04:29

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In order to be politically correct, I am no longer a "White Person," I am a Caucasian-American.

Quote (Silverlance @ 12th July 2006 05:14)

I just noticed the agressor in the second ad seems to be the black woman.



I feel my image as a white male violated by this racist depiction of black supremacy.

Now, see, there's the danger of jumping to conclusions for ordinary people and not ideo(il)logical nutjobs. Sadly, the NAACP, being somewhere to the right of Ghenghis Khan when it comes to inciting moral panic, don't ever seem to care when they are hoist upon their own petard so qualify as 'Ideological nutjobs'. They'll probably claim the petard is actually a caucasian's petard and not theirs.

They'll call statement of fact that does not fit their opinion racist, just like the Israeli's call critics of thier foreign policy (If it's Arab and moves, kill it) anti-semetic holocaust deniers. But hey, the race/religion card is a far more efficient Aegis than a tank division.

May-the-atrocity-commited-to-us-then-excuse-the-atrocity-we-commit-today, hoorah!

This post has been edited by Del S on 12th July 2006 09:26

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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

Quote (Zantetsuken @ 12th July 2006 00:16)

side notes:
- African-American is pollitically incorrect... most black people don't come from/have never been to africa.

-There is no NAANCP (National Association for the Advancement of Non-Colored People) or NAAWP (National Association for the Advancement of White People) or NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Caucasion People)

Your logic is flawless.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

I actually saw the ad the other day. The thing is *massive*. Seriously, it covers buildings.


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The Collapse of Heaven and Earth

Quote (Zantetsuken @ 11th July 2006 23:16)

Example: Its okay to have black pride marches and groups but when white people do it, its racist. They even have a black history MONTH... i never even heard of white history DAY, let alone month...When a white person beats up a black person, its a hate crime but when a black person beats up a white person, its just a fight. people take things WAY to seriously... just to be nice, they can call it the PSP Cracker...

side notes:
- African-American is pollitically incorrect... most black people don't come from/have never been to africa.

-There is no NAANCP (National Association for the Advancement of Non-Colored People) or NAAWP (National Association for the Advancement of White People) or NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Caucasion People)

Really? A Black History month? How dare them negroes! Maybe you haven't heard of "White History Day" because, you know, it's just about every single day. You are just as bad as the people shouting out racism at this ad. Don't even get me started how illogic your the rest of your post and sig are.
...

I agree that the ad isn't racist. It's just stupid. Stupid really jives well with Sony's entire PSP ad campaign (the graffiti ads, anyone?). There is a reason the DS is doing better than the PSP.

This post has been edited by SSJ_Cloud on 12th July 2006 14:13

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"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." - Aristotle