Civil rights group slams Sony ad News

Boy has someone got a cat stuck up oneth arse.

Can't say I disagree... we're not exactly in danger of going back to that era. If Sony even dared try push more of these ads, there would be an apocalyptic shitstorm. It's one image, very clearly not thought through well and yes it does have racist overtones, but let's not jump the gun here.

Sony really didn't think this one through. Still, it's never going to be seen on a US billboard, right?

Leave LocoRoco alone! It's love, don't they see? Love on a UMD!

And a Sony marketing exec holding a purple one with green spots.

I predict bad things for this thread. As ha been seen before...

Its a Sony news thread.
So 60+ replies are guaranteed.

Is that a band wagon I see? You're a US civil rights group, sony is a _Japanese_ company advertising in _Holland_. Wouldn't this group's time be better spent reducing inequality in their own country?

*Wonders if should make a team america world police reference. Decides against it, it's been done to death...*

They better watch out if they are making a black ps3!

Hmmm

I think the phrase 'people of colour' could be seen as offensive.

Jesus......2006 really has been their Annus Horriblus......

First the Rootkit palava, the payola scandal on american radio, the fake movie reviews, the general lament of the PS3 and now a shit storm that could only get worse if Ken Kutaragi blacked up and started singing 'Hello Mammeeee'...

I know people go on about how fashionable it is to knock sony, but they do make it criminally easy.

I heard bernard manning is working on a sony gag as we speak........

Metalfish is right. Stop worrying about other countries and focus on your own. Though being American I can't see that happening anytime soon. ;)

"people of colour" is indeed politically incorrect

Ha!
The ad has worked really well in my opinion. Only shown in Holland but everyone everywhere seems to be talking about it! Any publicity is good publicity right? Quite clever.

Sony must be loving all this free publicity they're getting :-)
For generating awareness and discussion, this has probably their most successful ad campaign for a very long time.

This has gone beyond a joke. Hypersensitivity will not make society equal.

what the....this ad isn't even shown in the US!

Yanks eh?

Perhaps they should invade Japan and put a stop to .... oh, er.. they already did.

Lets hope Sony decide to produce one in Guantanamo Orange

Indeed, Sony sure got some publicity for it's advertising buck...

Like that guy from the civil rights group says, the time when "stereotypical and offensive images of people of colour were accepted means of selling a product" is long gone. Today people in general know better and therefore should also be able to distinguish between something that in fact is stereotypical and offensive and what not. In my view, Sony had no racist intentions with the ad. It's a metaphore for a battle between 'colours', not races.

Misguided bleeding heart twats.

All publicity is GREAT publicity

Shame the 'White' PSP is just an attempt to copy Ninty .. who copied Apple and want to make that utterly dire hand held look 'Cool'

"The days of blacks being portrayed in minstrel shows are long gone, and with good reason. "

Err, sorry? Blacks? Don't you mean African? Not that I really care, but concidering the organisation that you work for...

I understand the sentiments but I really think that all this fuss is over the edge. I mean, non of my 'non white' (...) friends seem to give a toss. If they posted an advert with an african doing the same to a 'white' guy, I wouldn't give a toss either.

As for that game; Tjees, seriously. They are really looking for things now imo. I mean, it is a great little game with absolutely no harm intended. I could find better examples to call racist.

It is even further unacceptable that some people still think corporations use racially charged media images

Why don't these organisations do something meaningful rather than jumping on the crap media hype like this... everyone is too PC now-a-days and it just makes everything a pain in the arse... Everything's too over feminised as well... that's why all eveyone want to do now if debate every trivial little detail... grrrrr. >:(

"All publicity is GREAT publicity"

That's one of the most overused clichés there is, and it's wrong. There is such a thing as BAD publicity. Everyone may be talking about the ads but they're not saying "boy I'd love a PSP", they're saying "how fucking stupid are Sony to have put an advert like that into the public domain!"...

all said and done, the Sony ad is better than anything Microsoft has come up with. Even Nintendo are superior than Microsoft when it comes to advertising. Some companies just lack ideas and foward thinking.

I dunno, that birth and death ad from Microsoft was good, its a shame it was canned. The ad that ripped off Spaced was good too but that was never shown on TV.

Why are some people such wankers?!

Xerx3s: "If they posted an advert with an african doing the same to a 'white' guy, I wouldn't give a toss either. "

They have - in another advert the black woman is dominating the white woman.

Or the one where all those ppl shoot other ppl with imaginary guns.

Hmm, looks better than it sounds. ;p

And the best advert ever; renting the building across the street of the PSP launch event and sticking a huge 360 advert on it. Pure genius.

Xerx3s: "If they posted an advert with an african doing the same to a 'white' guy, I wouldn't give a toss either. "

They have - in another advert the black woman is dominating the white woman.

So, what is all the fuss about? The thought goes both ways yet I never read about that. Or is it oke to be a 'racist' towards 'white' ppl?

*yawn* hello summer slump.

"All publicity is GREAT publicity..."

Yeah, just look at Gary Glitter's album sales... :)

"And the best advert ever; renting the building acros that PSP launch event and sticking a huge 360 advert on it. Pure genius."

Actually, the best advert ever was a similar incident, where Commodore UK managed to buy an advert on a single billboard right next to Sega HQ shortly before Christmas with a picture of the Amiga CD32 and the slogan "To be this good will take Sega ages"

Sadly, it was a last gasp desperate effort by Commodore to get the CD32 some much-needed publicity, but Commodore International went bankrupt a few months later and it was all over. Still I remember reading about that advert and laughing out loud for a good few minutes. Clearly Microsoft were taking notes... ;-)

"It's a metaphore for a battle between 'colours', not races."

That's all race conflicts have boiled down to in history, though - colors

Err, sorry? Blacks? Don't you mean African? Not that I really care, but concidering the organisation that you work for...

No, blacks. By the time minstrel shows were popular, many of the blacks in America were simply descendents from Africans and not the original generation themselves.

If they posted an advert with an african doing the same to a 'white' guy, I wouldn't give a toss either.

Yes, but have caucasians had a history of being oppressed by blacks on such a massive scale? Once again, it's not just about the image but about the references that some people find in them.

If anything, I just hope Sony stops making dumb ads, be them racially charged or not.

And this isn't targeted to either of the people I quoted, but I think all of the NAACP hyperbole is just about as bad as some of the comments made here that there's nothing amiss with the advertisement.

if there was a ' i can't believe its not butter' ad depicting Japenese skin in contrast to butter on a billboard in Jap, would that be offensive ?

Sony tell them to fuck off and got a proper job.

That ad was in bad taste. The could have used White vs Black anyone, but why people. And if it was people why not people dressed in gaming attire, say sports clothes or battle armor or something even remotely related to games to take the emphasis off skin color.

The only think black and white was skin color. Hmmm, what does that signify...

^Their clothes and the backgrounds were also BnW. Did you even look at the ad?

The NAACP lost touch a while ago, though. This is a knee-jerk reaction from their side. The simple fact they are using expressions such as "people of colour" shows it.

Both PSP models are identical apart from the colour. Both sexy, both a battleground, both fighting for our attention. Which one do you choose....

Is it that fucking hard to understand?

It does seem alot of fuss over nothing. Although its easy for me to say that, as nothing in the ad offends me, if it affends other people who am I to say they're over-sensitive.
The thing is, the people at Sony must surely have seen this coming? they can only blame themselves for any bad publicity they get. And no, the "all publicity is good publicity" talk is just bs.

PSP Lite is Coming?! Yay!!

looks liek Sony are pulling a Rockstar..

this is fucking stupid

There is only one race, the human race. Any other thinking by anyone of any colour perpetuates racism.

Politically agressive lobby groups trying to gain standing by being loudest about every imagined slight only serve to drive people away from any reasonable accomodations or behaviour modifications they might otherwise make.

If you want to know why political correctness really has gone mad you should listen to just how loudly and confidently many people I have to mix with will make racist jokes where in years gone by they would have barely dared whisper them.

/me gets off soap box

"Shame the 'White' PSP is just an attempt to copy Ninty .. who copied Apple and want to make that utterly dire hand held look 'Cool'"

Well, ordinarily I'd agree with that redesign statement...

But I think anyone who has gone from DS to DS Lite (Myself included) can tell you it's a really very f**king good redesign. Nintendo hit the right note with DS Lite. It is a much cooler, more fashionable design and yes, there smacks a little bit of Apple to it all. But at the very least, it worked for Nintendo. And people like that kind of thing.

Sony can't say the same with PSP. It's "another colour". Meh. Big deal. Nintendo can boast they improved their design... and in launching the white version and this subsequent advertising, they unleashed a mini-backlash.

I once would have agreed with the "No publicity is bad publicity" line. But it isn't true. Once the media has you in their sights these days, it's like being chased by a rabid Rottweiler. Defending the ad and trying to play dumb isn't going to shake this puppy. Sony could do the decent thing and say, "We did not initially realise that this ad would offend people, and would like to apologise for any offence we may have caused, and we will remove the offending material with haste".

I agree with them though that it is a stunning image. It is, actually, rather beautiful and could also be construed as perhaps rather "naughty" in the nicest sense possible (Just needs some slightly more... interesting clothing). It would be a stunning ad, if it were not for the fact that the contrast being used in the ad is skin colour. This is the problem. Not least the stereotype of a very dark-skinned woman. It can so easily and so clearly be seen as having a racist tone to it, whether they intended it or not. The message is there, and there is still an issue of racial equality in some countries as well, more so in this day and age than ever before...

It's a stunning image, yes... just... not the correct image to use...

Very clever for getting publicity...over a mediocre product.

What's next? "New antivirus software" depicting Jewish refugees as virii and SS soldiers as Norton's new psp functionality?

In my opinon, the fact that people kicking off about this ad is racist - to me, its simply an ad, advertising a games console, and thats aaallll it is.

If you look for rasicm, you can, and will find it any anything whether it was intended or not.

Also, I find the term "people of colour" offensive - why do these people come up with such a term and then complain when they are treated differently??? (not that they have been in my opinion). If you want to be like everyone else, stop referring to yourself as though you are different!!!!!!

Can we talk about something else now please?

Sony's marketing and management teams seem to be single-mindedly attempting to run the company into the ground.

God,


A lot of you folks on here don't seem to understand what the problem with this advert is. I believe Talha and many others have clearly and succintly stated what the problem is.

Sony could try: Nazi vs Jews, Japanese vs Chinese, Indonesians vs Ethnic Chinese.

Those'll do just fine for creating controversy, right? Does that mean they should go and do it? I don't think so! They are an international company and one couls assume Sony have more brains and sensitivity to know that one, the internet would help spread this advert, two, that it would stir up bad feelings and three, they should find another way of promoting their new white PSP. Oh, wait, they got what they wanted right? Publicity!

Hoooray for Sony!

Why don't y'all try getting over a few centuries of slavery, the belief of European (white) superiority to the "inferior" people of color, that still exists in some places and has now been used as an advert in the Netherlands; even after seeing the other version of this ad, it really doesn't change my initial feeling -- It produces a feeling of strife, racial strife.

I can't get across to you how strongly some people feel about this advert. It really sucks people, especially knowing the history, for y'all to trivialize this is insane.

For those of you who are white and have forgotten the meaning of racism here it is. Race prejudice plus the use of power of systems and institutions. It is when systems and institutions reflect and back up racial prejudices of individuals or groups. Now that we got the education out of the way. Let me assure you that there is no such thing as racism against white people.Although it does sound good as a come back. White people in our collective history set up a system of racism for which anyone who is white benefits whether they want to or not. It was true then and those systems remain intact providing the same white privilege and maintenance of power now. In Government, politics,education and big business which has become the catalyst for wealth in this country and abroad.One of the things that have happened in this country because of white privilege and the socialization of racial superiority is that white people feel they are entitled to speak for people of color regarding everything. Right down to telling us how we should feel and why we should let something go. Let me just say this to interrupt all the white privilege that has been expressed in these multiple post. If you are not the target, you don't have the right to speak about whether it is offensive or not. When it comes to issues of black and white. White people claim ignorance in understanding this fact. You do however understand it in terms of gender. If a man says something offensive about a woman. White men don't come out of the wood work telling those women they shouldn't feel offended. They know enough to respect the perspective and feelings of the targeted group. I would ask all of you who are not people of color, African American or black to try respecting the perspective and feelings of the many black people who were reflected in that add in a subordinate position that we are working so very hard to dismantle.Your comments are not helpful, bright or cute. Respecting life for me means to honor all forms of it and all shades of it. People of color have had to learn that from the cradle. Why is this so hard for white people who by default become self proclaimed experts on the issue of race and racism when it was their foremothers and fathers who constructed this evil and delivered it to our world as a legacy of slavery.I am going to assume by your comments that you just never got a good lesson of history where it pertains to these matters. I do not appreciate the struggle of people of color in this country being trivialized by any of you for the sake of a non human inanimate game. Sony owes black people an avid apology as well as a retraction of the add in the netherlands, Europe and Asia. This add should be shown to NO ONE! Racism in this country and abroad was an intentional construction and if we are going to get rid of it we too must undertake intentional work towards dismantling it. One step is to stop tolerating the perpetuation of it's bias and beliefs in ad campaigns. It takes big people to stand up and speak out against injustice. It takes nothing to go along to get along for fear of losing the privilege of playing the game. What is more valuable to you, Peoples lives or a button on a video game. That is the moral question perhaps you may want to ask your selves folks.