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Jul 06, 2006

Getting Played?

Portable-White

This billboard, touting the new white Sony PSP (Playstation Player), was recently launched in Amsterdam.

Other sites that have profiled this ad (example 1, 2) ask the question: Is it racist?

Perhaps the real question, though, is:  Are we being set up?

Isn't "buzz marketing" supposed to be provocative enough to shake things up, but not past the point where the ad/message/image loses all ambiguity?  To the extent the ad attracts the attention of sites like this -- whatever our determination about the image -- isn't that "a win" for the corporation, and the campaign?

More shots from the series here, here and here.

(hat tip: acm. images via joystiq.com)

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