Sony’s Ad Execs Causing A Stir Again
There are, in my limited experience, at least three ways to run a marketing campaign that generates a lot of attention. You can be clever and impress consumers with your wit and creativity; you can be edgy and arty and impress people with your sense of visual impact and modernity; or you can do what Sony seems to have become adept at: pissing a lot of people off.
Way back in March I posted about a series of ads that had folks a little ruffled at the sexual connotations. What I was not aware of was the accompanying ads in that campaign, which stupidly encourage, in a very socially irresponsible move, London Tube riders to “take a running jump here” across the tracks. Absolutely appalling.
Well now Sony has got themselves a whole new ball of stink to deal with following what many feel was a montrously large public relations and marketing gaffe. Non-gamers that I’ve polled about this particular ad have universally responded with “who would ever think that that was a good idea??”. I have to agree with their assessment, and the buzz has been flying all over the blogosphere about them being “racially charged“. A series of Dutch ads promoting the upcoming release of the white PSP showed aggressively posed women (one porcelain white and one jet black) staring each other down under the phrase “Playstation Portable White Is Coming”. One ad showed the White PSP woman clutching the throat of the black PSP woman with a snarl. The company has since pulled the ads and you have to wonder whether this was a stunt all along.
As far as ad campaigns go “White Is Coming” has producd a controversial boom of attention for the gaming giant. Whether it makes people want to run out and buy the new white PSP remains to be seen, but the swirl of attention that it created may outweigh the damage done. how long though, can Sony keep pumping out the contentious ads before they either a) alienate their users or b) people become so accustomed to it that they don’t even blink an eye anymore?
1 opinion for Sony’s Ad Execs Causing A Stir Again
Aaron Brazell
Jul 18, 2006 at 5:47 am
Why do I feel a sudden urge to buy a PSP? :)
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