Wow. I've never commented before, but that was an upsetting image so I decided to give it a shot. There's a lot of debate about how this picture was one of a group and how that somehow balances it out...? Uh, no. That's totally racist. Seriously. Did they actually think that would flow well with the public?

I can't find the other two ads in the series. Does anyone have a link?

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/04/ad-critic-sonys-racially-charged-psp-ad/

That's the link to the other ones.

It's a pretty lame ad campaign, but I fail to see how it's necessarily racist.

Especially considering it's an ad campaign for Holland (and not the U.S.A.).

The ad reminds me of other lame ass pseudo artistic advert campaigns...especially fashion ads from the early 90's.

Lame-Yes.
Outrageous-Not so much.

How on earth is that racist ?

xyz, because it features a white woman dressed in white and a black woman dressed in black, and it looks like they are either making out hardcore or fighting.

THAT IS WHY IT IS RACIST...ISN'T IT OBVIOUS TO YOU? DO I NEED TO SPELL IT OUT!? THERE ARE TWO PEOPLE IN THE AD OF TWO RACES...THAT EQUALS RACIST!

Maybe I'm overly dramatic, but the body language seems a bit intimidating. The whole grabbing-face is just creepy. I think they could've used a less catfight-like scenario to advertise a little Playstation.

are you people for real?

THERE ARE TWO PEOPLE IN THE AD OF TWO RACES...THAT EQUALS RACIST!

Are you for real ? I genuinely don't get what you mean. What you are saying is that if an ad features two people of different races it is racist ?

Do you know what racist means ?

No, I was being sarcastic xyz.

I too don't think the ad campaign is racist. If it only featured pictures where the white psp woman was dominating the black psp woman, than I MIGHT think that the campaign was racist...

But, seeing that one of the ads features the black psp woman clearly dominating the white woman by straddling and choking her menacingly, I would think that this ad campaign is not of the racist variety.

It is a lame ad, however, and I don't dig on the fashion style of it as I said before. At least now I know that the PSP is coming out in white plastic now (I totally didn't know until I read this thread).

Eshew Obfuscation was being sarcastic. (And kind of nasty if you ask me.) If you can't see how racist this is, I don't even know what to say. White is coming? While menacing white woman grabs the disembodied face of terrified black woman?

There is a really interesting discussion going on in blac(k)ademic's comments, folks should check it out.

I feel slightly (albeit only slightly) better about the ad now that I've seen that other billboards have the "black" PSP dominating the "white" PSP, but seriously, folks: Building adverts around a race war dynamic? Aren't the geniuses at Sony concerned that most people don't see billboards in sequence, will see this one by itself, and will be just a LITTLE bit distressed?

Showing a white woman grabbing a black woman by the throat with the caption "[product] White is Coming" is ambiguously racist and certainly in poor taste. Simple as that. I can't see why anyone thought this was a good idea.

Cheers,

TH

Oh sorry Eshew, I should have thought about that one a bit more.

I was just aghast that this is labelled as racism. It seems that some people actually believe what you are saying sarcastically.

Some peoples ability to take offence where there is none to be found never fails to amaze me.

Some peoples ability to take offence where there is none to be found never fails to amaze me.

Maybe instead of being "amazed" at why people would find a racist ad racist, you should look into why you don't.

I agree with Jessica on this. I think it was obviously an offensive ad to many people.

The ads use interracial violence as the central metaphor to sell white and black objects. Charming.

The face-grabbing ad comes off as a parody of the most famous lynching photographs: Black and white image of white person physically dominating black person (who just happens to look like a slightly hipper version of Aunt Jemimah), white person has black person's face tipped upwards in a particularly humiliating posture.

The fact that other ads in that campaign aren't quite as offensive as that one is neither here nor there. The other two of the ads are just race-as-metaphor-for-product-meets-voyeuristic-lesbian-catfight. Hallelujah! How progressive. Totally makes up for the lynching parody.

Why would I find it racist ? I need someone to explain it to me. I can see nothing racist in that at all. I don't see how it says one race is inferior to another.

I thought all races were supposed to be viewed as equal, that colour is transparent.

To be fair, the Black woman's head is not "disembodied". She's clearly wearing a jacket with shiny buttons.

Additionally, I don't think her expression conveys terror, actually, I think it conveys the opposite, stoicism in the face of fear.

If the racial roles in the advert were reversed, I would find it similarly non offensive.

(If it was the black psp making it's debut, and the background was white...etc.)

To be fair, I don't think that "lynchings" and "Aunt Jemima" are two archetypes that are predominant in Dutch culture.

I'd be surprised if the similarities were even recognizable to the artists, much less intentional.

Did somebody swap the picture ? The PSP had a black case to begin with, so what we have is an anthromorphization of the white-case PSP taking its place alongside the black one by way of some weird Euro BDSM crap. Bizarre and stupid, but not stereotypical or aspersive towards black people.

I think we would do well to remember they are not fighting over which race is better, but rather which colour psp is better.

Objecting to this is saying we can't depict a disagreement between people of two races without assuming there is racism involved. How are we ever all going to integrate if we have that attitude ?

Sony's agency says that they're using human race as the metaphor for the different plastic cases on the PlayStations.

They're using racial superiority as a metaphor for PSP plastic superiority.

And yes, it is inappropriate to use images of violent racial dominance and subordination to sell video game consoles.

It doesn't matter whether your campaign lets the different races take turns being on top.

Really, Lindsay and Tom have said all I would say, so my only comment is this:

"Sony's agency says that they're using human race as the metaphor for the different plastic cases on the PlayStations."

Dumbest. Idea. Ever. I mean, really.

It's a stupid ad, but I think the only people offended by it are those looking for things to offend them.

To look at a Dutch ad for a Japanese product featuring a white model holding the face of a black model and decide it is a parody of an American racial lynching and Aunt Jemimah is ridiculous.

While it did raise my hackles a bit to see the "white plastic toy vs. black plastic toy" rivalry personified as white woman vs. black woman, there is another aspect of the advertising campaign that some may be overlooking. I happen to be a gamer. I suspect this ad is also supposed to invoke the look and feel of some of the popular fighting games in which the characters who fight each other are usually ethnically diverse AND are usually designed with dramatic color themes and costumes.

Wandergrrl, I was going to make a similar point, but I forgot about it.

The ad definitely reminded me of some of ps2's more popular games (like Soul Caliber) which often do feature fight scenes like this one.

Seriously, I don't think the ads are racist at all.

Wow, I can't even begin to comment.

I'm also pretty amazed at the commentary here -- I mean, are you guys who are saying "Oh it's okay, it's "balanced" because there's one with the black woman on top" serious? How does that make it okay? How is the one with the black woman on top not also offensive, and how is this offensiveness not clearly the "hook" of this ad? And where's the commentary about gaming systems (i.e. machines with controllers that entertain you) being personified as sexy, "edgy" women?

At first look, I definitely felt uncomfortable at the image. The white woman seems to be subjugating the smaller black woman.

But when you take a look at the context of the one ad by comparing all three pictures, and knowing there are actually 100 pictures in the set, then it becomes a bit more understandable. Still not reasonable to me, or welcome, but I understand the context better.

Both products (black and white), belong to Sony. I couldn't figure out why if they're trying to advertize another color of the same product, do the products not seem the same in ways other than color. For example, the women are not the same height. The white woman has her mouth open and seems expressive. The black woman is deliberately non-verbal and unexpressive. The white woman has stylized clothing, the black woman is non-descript. The only thing I can think of is that they want to highlight the grand arrival of the white version and therefore are making it more prominant. But these underlying elements of the ad are what is disturbing.

Aparently Sony is trying to create some kind of sexual/racial/bdsm/surreal/fighting kind of image. They are deliberately trying to be noticed and even be controversial. They've done this before. But they're not succeeding.

On a side note, I don't know why inappropriate racial references get people more upset than sexism. Women are portrayed as objects in advertizing, they show up in music videos as whores, are raped and mistreated in popular video games, etc. So why is all that not a problem?

I understand why a person of color would be offended at the one ad, in that context. They should be offended. But then if they go out and play with a video game that degrades women, then they have no credibility at all.

If this ad is supposed to show in Holland, then why is the writing in English rather than Dutch?

Alon...this is from www.holland.com

"Dutch is the national language of Holland. However, English is spoken by almost everyone."

Perhaps that is why the writing is in english... Practically, everyone in Holland does speak English.

I have big a problem with anything that uses race as a means of separation, comparison, and especially to resolve conflict. We live in an age where we are either going to slowly but surely extinguish an us and them (and to some extent still us vs them) mentality or allow it to linger in the background for generations to come. This whole campaign is done in extremely poor taste especially if just to advertise something as silly as plastic color choices/preferences for a psp. While it is perfectly acceptable to have a personal preferences as far as colors go in portable electronics, it is of utmost importance in my opinion to actively promote ignoring race in the choices and decisions we make.

MsJane said: "I understand why a person of color would be offended at the one ad, in that context. They should be offended."

Yeah, those darkies just don't know what's good for 'em, right Jane? How very condescending of you. I don't think the ads are racist, but I think you might be.

Don't you think that it is just enough controversial and racist to spark world wide debate and draw attention to the product but not enough so that they can get into trouble. It's like it is so perfectly on the line of acceptable as to deliberately split people and spark debate.

Cynically and well marketed (like most of the products that piss me off).

Don't you think that it is just enough controversial and racist to spark world wide debate and draw attention to the product but not enough so that they can get into trouble. It's like it is so perfectly on the line of acceptable as to deliberately split people and spark debate.

Cynically and well marketed (like most of the products that piss me off).

Jeez. I get here and find that Jessica, Tom Head, and EG (as usual! :)) have summed everything up perfectly and I have nothing left to add.

Except this: How can you people who say "this is not racist" think that? I just don't get it. The idiot who posted "all races are equal" is especially confusing. Uh, yeah, they ARE equal. That's why we are disturbed at an image of one race subjugating another! In essence, you make our argument for us, then pull a blank face and say, "What's the problem?"

Either you're a troll and you do get it but want to pretend otherwise, or you really don't get it.

And I can't get THAT.

EO, if you want to compare this to Soul Caliber, at least be fair and point out that there are no black characters in that game.

You're making this sound like a SC advertisement - and it's not.

EJ, my comment was obviously a response to Wandergrrl's response agreeing with her perspective on part of the ads composure.

In no way did my comment overtly state or even imply that the ad was an advertisement for a specific fighting game (Soul Caliber is the only fighting game that I know of off of the top of my head, and I've only played it a few times...I'm not a gamer so I had absolutely no idea that there are no dark skinned ladies to be found on the game), but rather I said the style of the ad reminded me of one on one combat games that I had seen and/or played. I added my comment because I had a similar thought as wandergrrl before she posted her comment.

Why you singled out my comment to comment on and not both of our comments together (as they made the same point), is beyond me, as is your conclusion that I made it sound like the ad was an ad for soul caliber (unless, saying "The ad definitely reminded me of some of ps2's more popular games (like Soul Caliber) which often do feature fight scenes like this one." makes it sound like I was saying the ad was an advertisement for Soul Caliber, when I obviously said nothing remotely of the sort.)

EJ, your opinion is simply your opinion, and while you may believe in your opinion 110 percent, that belief doesn't make your opinion fact. For you to debase others opinions as contrafactual, when there is no conclusive evidence for your individual perspective is pretty lame.

Sure the ad outraged you, but that doesn't mean that it should outrage everyone.

In fact, in an ideal world, this ad should outrage noone (as has already been stated).

If the ad had the white woman on a horse in a white hood instead of a classy suit, charging at the black woman with a slogan that said "White playstation is coming! Death to the blackies!" then yes, I would understand the racist slant. But from what I see, there's another ad with the race roles reversed, so I don't see the problem.

I still think it's a stupid and tasteless ad, however.

"and no, just because the black woman is dominating the white woman, does not make it any less of an offensive ad. this brings up a whole bunch of nasty stereotypes of black women that i won't even get into. i also noticed that in the second image, the white woman seems to fight off the black woman, while in the first image, the black woman just "takes it."

I always find Blackacademic's insights amusing. She never gives any mention to the posibility of white stereotypes, and I don't understand her interpretation of "taking it".

EJ,

Calling me an idiot and suggesting I'm a troll simply because I don't think this ad is racist shows what a bigot you are. Unlike you I haven't insulted anybody, I've just stated my opinion and asked some questions.

And yes, I am sure the people behind the ad were aware it would be controversial because they expect people to have glib attitudes like yours, but I truly don't see anything racist in it.

The link to race in this ad is on the most superficial of levels i.e. the colour of their skin. There is nothing to suggest that either of these people are racists or that there is any racist intent in the ad. The fact that you CHOOSE to see racism in it says a lot about your own prejudices.

If an ad featured a white person fighting another white person would you assume either of those people or the people behind the ad hated or looked down upon white people ? I assume not, so why do you assume racism in this case ?

I suggest you take a deep breath and think about what equality really means.

"Calling me an idiot and suggesting I'm a troll simply because I don't think this ad is racist shows what a bigot you are. Unlike you I haven't insulted anybody, I've just stated my opinion and asked some questions." -xyz

This is how EJ "argues". She just called me a "fucking idiot" on the boozy woman thread because I had the gall to ask a question.

So the non-racist view of races is that it is an external appearance issue only, much like brown vs. blue eyes - right? Variations are just that, and have no value judgement attached.

And this is an advertisement for a machine that now comes in two colors. Two colors that are purely external cases and do not affect the function of the machine itself.

And the thing for sale is used (among other things) to play games that feature hot women fighting.

I dunno, the ad campaign seems kinda logical and non-racist to me, especially given that it's Dutch, where images like lynchings and Aunt Jemima aren't likely to occur to viewers. If it were American, I think that would be different, since those images are part of our history here, but it's not.

Just my opinion.

One commenter on Majikthise noted that Holland is right now in xenophobia overdrive, so an ad campaign that would invite a major backlash in the US or Canada would be acceptable there. That commenter added that Sony was hoping on people's outrage in the US and the UK to provide free advertisement, sparing Sony the need to launch the campaign in these countries.

Alon, makes sense to me.

The ads made the local Fox news here last night. I'm sure other local news affiliates and network news stories aren't far behind.

xyz, Jessica made pretty much the same comment that I made: That this is obviously racist and we can't understand how anyone can see otherwise.

Why don't you call HER a troll, too? I stated my opinion. I don't see how anyone COULDN'T see this as racist.

And, yes, I do think it's kind of dumb for you to say, "But I thought all races were equal! Why is it racist for a white person to beat up a black person?"

"the non-racist view of races is that it is an external appearance issue only, much like brown vs. blue eyes - right?"

Absolutely not. Brown eyes and blue eyes do not carry this huge societal context and history of subjugation of one of the eye colors, and if they did, they wouldn't merely just be "an "appearance issue." Skin color is and is not something purely aesthetic -- it IS because ultimately we ARE all equal, but it is not because of its key role in a long history of racism.

When does something like this become racist? How is it that some people here seem to require bricks to the head in the form of visual cues like a KKK outfit, or verbal ones like racial slurs, in order to recognize something as racist? And, no one's answered my question yet about how its being in a series of pictures somehow makes this individual picture or the series or the entire ad campaign somehow "okay"?

EJ,

I didn't call you a troll and I'm not about to call Jessica a troll either. I'm more interested in having a discussion than slinging insults at people.

Jessica didn't say the same thing as you at all, you called me an idiot, which is why I directed the comment at you.

A white person "beating up" a black person, or a black person "beating up" a white peron is not inherently racist.

You can say "That this is obviously racist and we can't understand how anyone can see otherwise." and I could say "That this is obviously NOT racist and we can't understand how anyone can see otherwise." until we are blue in the face. Why don't you try explaining why you think this is racist?

Racism will exist as long as we have categories of people like black, white, etc.

I understand how a person can find two of the pictures racist. But, I don't agree with the opinion that they are racist.

I am going to refer to the pictures as #1, #2, and #3 in the order joystiq.com has them listed in Update 1.

I'm very confused here. If some people here are offended by #2, why are those same people not offended by #3? To me, #3 is exactly like #2, just with the fight in the other direction. Subjugation? Most fights do not end in a draw. Did Ali subjugate Fraiser?

"I understand why a person of color would be offended at the one ad, in that context. They should be offended." -MsJane

By your reasoning, then a white person should be offended by ad #3? Only a white person? Only ad #3? Your own statement seperates people by skin color.

I always thought that racism could be found offensive by all people.