PSP NEWS: Sony's Stealth Marketing | PlayStation Portable Ads Graffiti-like

[Ishiyoshi]

Sony's Stealth Marketing | PlayStation Portable Ads Graffiti-like

Graffiti-style art have both artistic and anti-social elements associated with it. Unfortunately, this form of art - especially urban graffiti - has been associated with the illegal expression that constitutes vandalism to the larger society. What are your thoughts on this? Appalling or much more?

PHILADELPHIA - Sony Corp. scouted out an unusual place to advertise its PlayStation Portable before the holidays: the side of an abandoned building in a gritty North Philadelphia neighborhood.

The black-on-white graffiti shows wide-eyed cartoon characters riding the PlayStation like a skateboard, licking it like a lollipop or cranking it like a Jack-in-the-Box.

But there's no mention of the Sony or PlayStation brands - nor any hint the wordless display is an ad.

The stealth marketing campaign has popped up in San Francisco, New York and other large U.S. cities.

"It's all about hip-hop, urban and all that. They're just trying to get into the teenagers' minds," said Eddie Torres, 29, who works at a nearby furniture shop. "I think it's sharp."

Anti-blight advocates think otherwise.

"They're breaking the law," said Mary Tracy, who runs the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight, a watchdog group that fights illegal or ill-advised billboards in Philadelphia.

Tracy said Sony ignored the zoning process that regulates outdoor commercial advertising in the city.

Philadelphia Managing Director Pedro Ramos on Wednesday faxed a cease-and-desist letter to Sony Computer Entertainment's U.S. division in San Mateo, Calif. He could seek modest fines allowed by city code or sue to recover any profit the ads produced.

"My fines aren't going to scare Sony," Ramos said. "What will worry them is what the parents and their users will think. This really flies in the face of everything we've been trying to do with our anti-blight initiative."

The Sony division did not immediately respond to the letter or to a telephone message. However, Sony spokeswoman Molly Smith told an Internet news site earlier this month that Sony was hiring artists in seven cities - Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago were the others - to spray paint the pre-drawn designs.

"With PSP being a portable product, our target is what we consider to be urban nomads," Smith told Wired News.

In San Francisco, the ads were defaced soon after they appeared as word spread that Sony was behind them. "Get out of my city!!!" and "Fony" were written on one.

"I thought it was sneaky. Not cool," said Zan Sterling, who works at a bar near one of the ads, which has since been painted over. "I hope that they paid for the cleanup and removal."

Critics and supporters agree the campaign is designed to crack through the clutter of marketing that pervades daily life. Others have criticized its visual appeal.

"They hired artists to just copy this same figure over and over, which isn't too creative," said 29-year-old Jake Dobkin, a New Yorker who writes for the blog Gothamist.com.

That matters little to North Philadelphia resident Leslie Griggs, 39, who said the Sony ad is an improvement over the handbills and scrawls it replaced.

"I don't think that's graffiti," Griggs said as she paused beside the PlayStation ad. "That's art."

[Ascariss]

Saw this on CNBC I believe and even though it looks like grafitti I have nothing against it. Except that sony as far as I know didn't get a permit to put up an advert there according to one the people on cnbc.

here we go:

"They're breaking the law," said Mary Tracy, who runs the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight, a watchdog group that fights illegal or ill-advised billboards in Philadelphia.

Tracy said Sony ignored the zoning process that regulates outdoor commercial advertising in the city.

Philadelphia Managing Director Pedro Ramos on Wednesday faxed a cease-and-desist letter to Sony Computer Entertainment's U.S. division in San Mateo, Calif. He could seek modest fines allowed by city code or sue to recover any profit the ads produced.

The sad thing is, if you put up an advert in an area where some if not most of the people can't afford a psp, how are the ads supposed to be useful? If we are assuming they are in low income areas.

[Bijl]

They paid the owners of the houses monthly, so I don't see the problem.

[bogon07]

Music CDs that hide programs on your hard-drive.

Now stealth advertising. I have no problem with Sony advertising products but this seems slightly dishonest or atleast misleading.

What next "virtual product placement" http://news.com.com/Advertisings+twilight+..._3-6015863.html

Sony's movie division could use this subliminal advertising technigue for Sony products on its DVD releases.

Have SonicStage and ConnectPlayer planted anything else into your harddrive ?

Did Sony not release the 2ndGen Hi-MD in Australia to make it easier to dump existing stocks of 1st Gen Hi-MD. (yes I'm still pissed off at that strategy)

It is getting to the stage where you will have to treat anything to do with Sony with some suspicion.

I like the equipment they produce but the company itself less so.