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."

Comments

Great!

[9x320]

Now pull this one.

A Question

[ggKimmieGal]

How do people from the Netherlands feel about the advertisement? I'm more interested in their opinion than politically correct America. What was the reaction in the Netherlands?

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. If you go to Google News and search for "sony racist ad" you'll overwhelmingly see only the first image.

Re:Stepped up?

[Dark Paladin]

Of course not. Which is why when I was in Saudi I was told that Egyptians always steal, and Jews are out to kill Muslims.

And when I was in Kansas, I was told that the fact my sister-in-law had once dated a "nigger" was reason to be mad at her.

The fact is that racism, religiousism, whateverism is still alive and well in the world today - and it is *exactly* by pointing it out that you extinguish it. I hear people complain about "political correctness", and how its destroying things.

Of course, the counter argument, as Jon Stewart once pointed out, is that Thomas Jefferson used to fuck his slaves.

So every time you see someone do something that vaguely smacks of racism, you have to squash it, and squash it so hard so that the people who still believe in that crap are reminded that the rest of the world doesn't agree with them. When Congress doesn't want to renew the Civil Rights Voting act because they feel that the areas it targets aren't racist anymore, you get right in those people's faces and tell them "Oh yes it is", and then you show where voters are intimidated or have their names removed from voting lists by using criminal lists from other states.

Sony fucked up, and I don't care what country they do it in: they screwed the pooch big time. There were plenty of ways to show that the white PSP was coming - but to show a white woman subjigating a black woman

Oh, and for the "well, they have an ad showing a black woman beating up on a white one", you go through centuries of slavery, then more decades of racism, then continued glares from people who think that you're a thief just because you're black, or have problems registering to vote or get ticketed for "driving while black" and continued segregation of the schools, *then* tell me if you don't mind the black woman beating up the white one. That one was just as bad in my opinion, and just because you don't find it offensive doesn't mean that it wasn't.