Sony withdraws racist ads

The PSP White ads many felt to be openly racist (discussed here) have been withdrawn, according to Sony:

The billboards, which went up in the first week of June only in the Netherlands, showed a white woman dressed in white threateningly grabbing the face of a frightened-looking black girl, with a message saying "PlayStation Portable White is coming."

The provocative image was one of several versions showing the two women in different poses, company spokesman Nanako Kato said Wednesday. They appeared exclusively in Amsterdam and several other major cities in that country.

Sony said the ads were intended only to emphasize the colour contrast between the existing black PSP and the new ceramic white PSP.

Of course, the ads have more than repaid their creation costs by raising awareness of the company and its upcoming product release. In fact, by making a public gesture to withdraw the ads, the company has probably doubled the effective reach of the ads; people who were unaware or indifferent to the offensive quality of the ads are now being informed about the ads (and the product they promoted) in a different context. Sony's advertising agency has probably earned a nice bonus for all this.