Sony Removes The PSP Ads

After we published the story about Sony’s white PSP ad in Holland, the story spread quickly to various news sites and weblogs, something that put Sony in a rather negative spotlight. Sony received a great deal of criticism from people and organizations like the NAACP. A Sony spokesperson has confirmed to GameSpot that all billboard ads have been removed:

Whilst the images used in the campaign were intended solely to highlight the contrast between the different colors available for the PSP, we recognize that the subject matter of one specific image may have caused concern in some countries not directly affected by the advertising. As a result, we have now withdrawn the campaign.

Sony also apologized for the ads, saying:

We further 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.

I still wonder why Sony didn’t run the ads in countries with a greater black population, like the UK and US. Maybe because they knew the ads were “pushing the envelope”, and it was a far bigger risk to take?