http://psp.ign.com/articles/717/717138p1.html

Seriously, who at the company could have possibly thought this was a good idea?

The article mentions that "one particular ad, however, shows the white woman gripping the black woman's face in a dominant gesture," but makes no mention of another ad from the same series in which the black woman is on top of the white woman, throttling her by her shirt's collar--certainly just as much a dominant gesture. If people and groups are going to cry racism, they should acknowledge the whole picture instead of picking and choosing only the bits that support their claims.

I can understand the outcry, and it's not a direction I would've chosen (I really don't see how pictures of two women attacking each other effectively sells a handheld in a new color--I'm not really sure what it's supposed to say), but I feel that people are making too much of this. However, I suspect Sony anticipated the reaction all along, as many of their ads have had subtle racist undertones. It gets people talking, I suppose. From what I catch on TV and in print, being politically incorrect is en vogue these days.

Those ads were for the European market -- they weren't designed to stir controversy and "get people talking". This has been discussed on Slashdot about a week ago, and the Europeans found it funny because they didn't see any rascist element in the ad until so prompted by the Americans.

The extent of political correctness..

I agree it gets people talking...But I don't see how mentioning how stupid something is (MUCH too stupid to be offended by) connects with the idea of a $200 portable system with nothing* I want to play on it. More like talking how much Sony seems to be slipping from a once dominant position.

Can't wait to see their ads once they realize Blu Ray is about 5 years away from becoming useful. I can see it now: "Getting gay with Blu Ray".

*I have too many PS2 RPG's at the moment, Luminees is coming to PS2 and the Megaman updates aren't enough to sell me a PSP right now, considering all the new 2D platformers on DS.

This says more about journalists scraping the barrell for a story than it does about Sony. Take one image in isolation and cry 'racist'.

In my opinion, this does nothing to help reduce racism. It gives these images more power than they deserve by creating racism where there may have been none. There is more than enough real racism in this world without actively going looking for it.

I do think it's in very poor taste, and I can see why some people would call it offensive.  Unfortunately there's a lot of racism all over the world, and although these ads may not fuel that fire, they certainly are inappropriate in my opinion.  If you saw the image itself, without the Sony logo, without knowing what the purpose of the picture was, what would you think?  I really don't know what Sony was thinking (or lack thereof)...

-avatar!

I'm racist against Sony.

Even if another ad had the two differently-colored ladies in opposite positions.  I think it's tacky at best to market an ad depicting two humans as products where the only difference is color.  Especially since they are promoting one over the other.  That is the definition of racism.  It may or may not be hasty to jump to that conclusion, but then again Sony gave reason to question them.

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you've seen Sony ad, heres one from Nintendo that some people could find offensive(as 70% of americans have overweight problem) - if it was real...its not, - still quite funny.

http://digitalbattle.com/2006/07/08/the … s-lite-ad/

That's a funny pic.  That said, weight is not one of the things that is 100% uncontrollable.  That's like comparing obesity to cancer in a non-smoker.

nintendo might counter with the new DS-GPS that automatically turns towards mecca 5 times a day and they will try to sell it in israel...

I'm sorry, but I don't think the ads were in bad taste.  I just think it was meant to show two different colours in contrast to each other... it just really seems to be me people were getting a bit too politcally correct about it.

What I did find offensive was Sony's marketing campaign for the PSP in the US... I don't know if any of you saw it, but they had this video featuring chipmunks (or something.)  I found that to be, if not offensive, then just plain stupid.

Pssshhh. SQUIRREL, PLEASE.