Final Advertisement- Play Station Portable White

These are the final advertistments that we re-design for the Sony Playstation Portable White.

Final- Essay

For this assignment, we are ask to pick an advertisement that we are most dissatisfied with given reasons and how it is related to the culture and society. We are required to do a research on a specific advertistment that we had selected. Thus, we had picked an advertistment about the new Play Station Portable White. In this rationale, it contain a brief description of the advertistment that we had chosen and it's purpose. In addition, we will be stating its relation to the culture and society it was made for and how different and effective is our idea in relation to culture and consumerism.

This controversial ad from Sony promoting the new white PSP was done by an advertising agency called TBWA where the agency are specialize in "disruptive" marketing. A quote taken from the company's website.

"Disruption is the art of asking better questions, challenging conventional wisdom and overturning assumptions and prejudices that get in the way of imagining new possibilities and visionary ideas." TBWA 2012 (online)

The purpose of this advertistment is to promote the new Play Station Portable White. In this advertistment, a black and a white girl were used to represent the white and black Play Station Portable. Besides, this advertistment was used to show the emphasis of the new Play Station Portable colour which is white.

The definition of “Racial Discrimination” is discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race. This is related to the culture and society because people this days are conservative towards racial discrimination as it's a sensitive subject to be used as promotional purposes. Racial discrimination is a very sensitive issue in the western culture.

This advertistment need a change because the racial discrimination issue is clearly shown in this advertistment and it might cause an uproar between the two races shown in the advertistment. It's irrelevant to promote a gaming product using interracial models posing in a rough manner as it gives people the thought of violence between the two different

race.

Our idea is effective and different in a way that we improvise the billboard advertistment into an a press advertisement with a whole new art direction where it is related to the target audience. Our target audience are gamers between the age of 13 to 17 years who are interested in up-to-date gaming consoles. Adolescents around that age these days are oblivious towards racial discrimination. Thus, is a bad example for the younger generations. Our direct packaging served the purpose of promoting the new product which is the Play Station Portable white in a more appropriate way.

We were given an assignment for our Culture and Consumerism class and it is a group project. Our group members are Melissa Teh, Michelle Yu, Veronica Tey and Chee Kar Man. For this project, we were asked to find choose and advertisitment that we are most dissatified with. So, after a few discussion among our group members, we decided to choose the advertistment on the new Play Station Portable White. The reason we choose this advertistment is because the racial discrimination issue is clearly shown in this advertisitment. Through the process of this assignment, we had gain lots of useful knowledge on how to produce a good advertistment. Besides, we had learnt about the importance of teamwork through this assignment. We also learnt how to manage our time better after doing this group project and we learnt about group cooperation which helps us to get to know each other better.

References

2012, definition, Racial Discrimination, (Online), Available at: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/racial+discrimination, 4^th December 2010, 11.00 am

2012, article, Sony ad provokes race accusations, (online), Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2006/jul/05/sonyadcasues, 3^rd December 2012, 3.15pm

Idea Development 2

After going through few discussion with my group members, we decided to work on this idea where we think it will be more suitable for the product that we are dealing with which is the PSP White. 

(Carmen)

Final Tagline

After doing some research about better tagline for the advertistment that my group is working on, we had figure out a tagline for our ad.

We came out with a mind map that related to the word "white".

So, for our final ad, we decided to use this headline,

"The New Angel is Here"

The reason we used Angel to replace White because we don't want to use colour to represent the product. 

( Veronica & Melissa )

Example of Slogan/Tagline

The definition of slogan:

1. A phrase expressing the aims or nature of an enterprise, organization, or candidate; a motto.

Our group are working on an ad about PSP White. For our final new ad, we have to come out with a new tagline/slogan.

These are the few taglines/slogans that was found in the internet:

- "Wii would like to play" - Playstation Wii

- "This is living"- Playstation 3

- "It only does everything"- Playstation 3

- "Live in your world. Play in ours"- Playstation 2

For our ad, we are making a new ad for the new Playstation Portable White. There are few taglines/slogan that we had figure out for our ad:

- "Meet the brand new PSP White"

- "It's NEW! It's BETTER! Meet the new PSP White"

References:

- http://examples.yourdictionary.com/catchy-slogan-examples.html

- http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2011/01/50-examples-of-catchy-and-creative-slogans.html

(Melissa Teh)

Another Ideas ads create

I had created my new idea for new PSP white portable with our group PSP headline "new angel is here".

So, i created this ads with pure white baby angel with PSP.

(michelle)

Sample PSP ads

Sample PSP ads doesnt contains discrimination/racistism

(Michelle)

White PSP ad sparks racism claims

Apparently bowing to the public outcry, Sony has just announced that it is pulling the ad. Nonetheless, the question remains, where do we draw the line between advertising that is designed to be provocative and draw publicity one way or another, versus images that conjure up a racist history of prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes?

Obviously this debate will not be settled any time soon, but my two cents is that companies are free to use whatever images or advertising they want in order to generate some publicity and attention for their product but they should then be prepared to accept whatever consequences arise from the images they use and the outrage that it engenders.

In other words, if Sony used these particular images unaware of its potential cultural connections to White domination over Blacks, then it deserves to be called an aloof, out-of-touch, and culturally ignorant company. If it used these images knowing that some/many would consider it racist, then it deserves to be called opportunistic, arrogant, and irresponsible.

Finally, Sony needs to accept that if they were going to stick with their ad, then they need to accept the consequences of whatever boycotts and other collective action arise from their activities. Thankfully, Sony chose to pull the ad rather than let the outcry escalate. That’s probably the best move Sony has made in this whole episode.

Black groups in the USA are up in arms over the latest Sony billboard advertisements for a white PSP. A new billboard advert for Sony’s white PSP has caused consternation across the US videogaming community. The ad shows a white model dressed entirely in white threateningly grasping the face of a black model.

Next to them are the words, “PlayStation Portable. White is coming". Sites such as Kotaku, Joystiq and Digital Battle have questioned whether the ads are racist. So far the debate has split comments sections with some condemning Sony and equal numbers defending the ads as a harmless personification of the handheld console’s two available colours.

Clearly, whatever the justifications, the intention is to be provocative. According to Joystiq, the adverts have been created by TBWA an agency that speciliases in ‘disruptive’ marketing.

If there is one thing Sony is most definitely good at, it's causing controversy with their advertisements for thePlayStation Portable (PSP) console. You might remember, for example, how Sony came under fire for running a graffiti ad campaign. Some slammed Sony for"defacing public property". Sony also ran into trouble over advertisements in the UK. Now Sony has run into trouble in the Netherlands.

This time however, it is a little worse as accusations of racism are being thrown at the company over a particular advertisement for a new ceramic white-colored model of the PSP. Most of the ads are fine. They just include a white woman promoting the PSP console in various ways. However, many claim one particular ad shows the woman assaulting a black woman. 

Specifically, on the left on the billboard there is a black woman dressed all in black. On the right there is a white woman dressed all in white. The problem people have is the fact the white woman is holding the black woman by the jaw. The ad contains the words "PlayStation Portable White Is Coming". 

Sony claims that there is no ill intent with the advertisement. "The marketing campaign for the launch of the white PSP in the Netherlands focuses on the contrast between the Black PSP model and the new Ceramic White PSP model. A variety of different treatments have been created as a campaign to either highlight the whiteness of the new model or contrast the black and the white models. Central to this campaign has been the creation of some stunningly photographed imagery that has been used on large billboards throughout Holland. All of the images created for the campaign have been designed to show this contrast in colors of the PSP's, and have no other message or purpose." a Sony rep told GameSpot. 

Obviously this debate will not be settled any time soon, but my two cents is that companies are free to use whatever images or advertising they want in order to generate some publicity and attention for their product but they should then be prepared to accept whatever consequences arise from the images they use and the outrage that it engenders.

In other words, if Sony used these particular images unaware of its potential cultural connections to White domination over Blacks, then it deserves to be called an aloof, out-of-touch, and culturally ignorant company. If it used these images knowing that some/many would consider it racist, then it deserves to be called opportunistic, arrogant, and irresponsible.

Finally, Sony needs to accept that if they were going to stick with their ad, then they need to accept the consequences of whatever boycotts and other collective action arise from their activities. Thankfully, Sony chose to pull the ad rather than let the outcry escalate. That’s probably the best move Sony has made in this whole episode.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2006/07/06/white_psp_ad_sparks_racism_claims

(Michelle)

Modern Racism and Modern Discrimination

The Effects of Race, Racial Attitudes, and Context on Simulated Hiring Decisions

1. John B. McConahay

   1. Duke University

Abstract

Researchers in American race relations have demonstrated the ambivalence white Americans feel toward black Americans. The prejudiced white behaves positively or negatively toward blacks depending on the context of the behavior, while the less prejudiced white behaves more consistently across contexts. In this study, the ambivalence concept was used to demonstrate the construct validity of a relatively nonreactive scale of racial prejudice-the Modern Racism Scale. Eighty-one white college students were pretested on the scale and then evaluated job candidates with identical resumes (except for a picture of a black or white male) under contexts designed to elicit positive or negative discrimination by ambivalent (presumably prejudiced) subjects. As predicted, when the candidate was black, the Modern Racism Scale was negatively correlated with hiring evaluations in the negative context and positively correlated in the positive context. When the job candidate was white, context and the Modern Racism Scale were unrelated to hiring evaluations.

http://psp.sagepub.com/content/9/4/551

The History of PSP Advertising

manufacturer: sony computer entertainment

type: handheld game console

Genration: 7th

retail: 12 DEC 2004

availability: 24 March 2005/1 September 2005

Units sold: 71.4 million worldwide

Media: UMD digital distribution

CPU: MIPS R4000 based

Storage : memory stick duo

Capacity: Stick PRO Duo

Memory: 32MB/64MB

Display: 480x272pixels

Connectivity: WiFi, USB, Bluetooth

Online Services: PlayStation Network

Best selling game: Monster hunter

Predecessor: PocketStation

Sucessor: PlayStation Vita/Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray

Resources: wikiperdia

(michelle)

The hugely popular Play Station Portable (PSP) handheld game console manufactured by Sony, which was launched in 2004, had sold more than 52 million pieces by the beginning of May 2009. The success of its marketing campaign can be judged by the fact that it had initially trailed Nintendo in the total quantities sold for the first 3 years after launch, but picked up after that and now leads in market share.

What many people are unaware of is that there have been a number of controversies regarding Sony's promotional campaigns to increase market share of this, one of their most prestigious products and a big profit earner. Some of the issues related to the PSP advertising campaign are listed below:

•A online guerrilla marketing campaign for the PSP console to try and go viral in December 2006 by the Zipatoni advertising firm of St. Louis in the US put Sony under a lot of scrutiny for unfair trade practices. The firm had got advertisers to pretend to be young bloggers desperate to get themselves a console by any means possible. The blogging and related sites were traced back to the advertising agency and then back to Sony.

•Earlier the same year, Sony released an ad in the Netherlands showing a white woman supposedly intimidating a black woman, with the message that 'PlayStation White is coming'. Apparently Sony was trying to convey that the consoles were available in these 2 colours. This particular image was considered in bad taste because of its racial overtones and implied threat. While 2 other images with the same participants were also released, these were not so controversial as one showed the black woman dominating over the white woman and the second had the two women facing each other, seemingly about to start a fight. All these ads were removed after the controversy erupted in July 2006 in that country and they were never released elsewhere in the world.

•A PSP poster campaign in the UK had one design with the slogan 'Take a running jump here', When these were put up in a Manchester Piccadilly tram station, the posters were asked to be removed as authorities considered that it might suggest suicide to those who were so inclined. This controversy happened in 2006.

•Sony had hired graffiti artists to spray paint PSP advertisement on walls across San Francisco, New York City and Philadelphia towards the end of 2005. Philadelphia's mayor had filed a 'cease and desist' order against Sony and threatened further legal action, including a criminal case. Sony admitted the charges but said it was paying owners of the buildings as well as businesses for using their walls as advertisement space.

Although the above examples may seem minor controversies, it reveals to what extent Sony felt pressure to ensure the full and unhindered success of the Play Station Portable. Having achieved that, the controversial campaigns also seem to have tapered off. In all likelihood it would have been the local branches / franchisees who would have implemented these campaigns.

http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/the-history-of-psp-advertising-1405933.html

Sony ad provokes race accusations

 

A new billboard advert for Sony's white PSP has caused consternation across the US videogaming community. The ad shows a white woman threateningly grasping the face of a black model. Next to them are the words, "PlayStation Portable White is coming". The photo can also be seen on the Dutch official PSP site, along with other images from the same shoot, showing the two women fighting.

Sites such as Kotaku, Joystiq and Digital Battle have questioned whether the ads have racist connotations. So far the debate has split comments sections with some condeming Sony and equal numbers defending the ads as a harmless personfication of the handheld console's two available colours.

Clearly, whatever the justifications, the intention is to be provocative. According to Joystiq, the adverts were created by TBWA an agency that specialises in 'disruptive' marketing. From the company's website:

"Disruption is the art of asking better questions, challenging conventional wisdom and overturning assumptions and prejudices that get in the way of imagining new possibilities and visionary ideas."

It's questionable, however, whether the world is ready to explore themes of race and domination in the context of a videogame console ad. Although not as wilfully controversial as Benetton's infamous 'United Colours' campaign, many viewers will be unwilling or unable to decode the imagery until it becomes about two different colours of plastic.

Importantly perhaps, the ads are for the European release of the white PSP and are appearing on billboards in Amsterdam rather than in the US where racial tension usually receives more sensitive handling.

UPDATE: A Sony spokesperson has been justifying the ad to Gamesindustry.biz. "All of the 100 or so images created for the campaign have been designed to show [the] contrast in colours of the PSPs , and have no other message or purpose," he explains
(Michelle)