Sony, what were you thinking?

Does this ad make you want to go out and buy yourself a PSP? Sony apparently thinks it does. This ad ran first on billboards in the Netherlands, and can still be seen on the official Dutch PSP site. It has been produced in support of the new launch of a white PSP (as opposed to the regular black one), and is drawing an awful lot of flak in the US as well. It is important to note that the billboards have thus far only appeared in Amsterdam, where racial tensions are perhaps a little less overtly charged. The ads were created by TBWA, a company that specializes in "disruptive marketing." Their website says that "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."

Wait. Hold on...let me get this straight. Did Sony just pay somebody to challenge the idea that racism is bad? What exactly are we supposed to infer from this sort of statement? I guess it does generate press for Sony, but this doesn't exactly seem like a smart move ever, not to mention one for a company who's currently facing some flagging fan support because of all the wrangling over the PS3. Yes, we've had some racially charged sorts of sentiments appearing in ads before, but the last ones I can remember were for Cross Colours, and that one promoted a vision of unity, not domination.

I hope Sony's just looking at this now and shaking their heads, because that's what the rest of the world is doing too. I join them in asking, "Sony, what were you thinking?"

UPDATE: Sony did in fact pull the billboard campaign on Tuesday, July 11, and apologized to critics of the campaign. That's better. Whether it's overt or covert, and whether it's supposed to make you think or not, it's still racism...