Sony Pulls Controversial PSP Ad, Issues Apology

xenongamer writes "Sony has finally stepped up and pulled the racially controversial PSP ads out of the Netherlands. 'We... recognize 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,' said Sony in a statement."

Re:Goddammit

[Kevin_Peters]

The billboard ads, which debuted last week in Holland, depicted a white woman forcefully grabbing the face of a black woman in a "racially charged" manner according the ad campaigns critics. Sony asserted that the ads were designed to show the contrast in colors between the original black PSP and the new Ceramic white PSP with "no other message or purpose."

Re:Goddammit

[(trb001)]

Specifically, one of the ads (there were three) was deemed racially insensitive because it showed a white chick in a dominating position over a black chick. Example article with image here [gamespy.com]. What people haven't talked about so much is that there are two other ads; one with the black chick in a dominant position over the white chick, and one where they're on equal footing.

--trb

Re:Goddammit

[LocalH]

It wasn't racist at all. Here's why:

Sony had three ads - one where a white woman was holding a black woman by the chin, one wherre the black woman was overpowering the white one, and one that looked more neutral. Of course, everyone screamed "racist", spread the news about the first one, but not the other two. It just took me five minutes to find a site that had the other images [joystiq.com]. If you go to Google News and search for "sony racist ad" you'll overwhelmingly see only the first image.

Re:Goddammit

[cyber0ne]

Google Images to the rescue:

http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/images/sfgate/techchro n/2006/07/11/sony_ad300x225.jpg [sfgate.com]

Re:About Time...

[LocalH]

It's about time you got your head out of your ass and looked at the other two images [joystiq.com].

Re:Stepped up?

[rcamera]

it wouldnt bother you if it was the other way around

it was the other way around as well. there were 3 ads. one features a black girl and a white girl on equal footing, one featured the black girl in a dominant position over the white girl, and one featured the white girl in a dominant position over the black girl. why does everyone just keep talking about the white over black ad? even my local news failed to mention the other two ads...

check out this old post [slashdot.org] for links to all three ads.