Sony defaces cities to advertise PSP

[Neo]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051229/...e/graffiti_ads

PHILADELPHIA - Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news). 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 left by The Associated Press. 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."

An urban nomad - just what I always wanted to be

[Null]

old news. been reported on engadget.com for weeks now. even tho they found that sony paied the owers of the buildings it was put on.. i think its a pretty stupid form of advirtisment anyway.

[MuGen]

yah thats kinda lame... which leads me to the question... Why... WHY... and Why?

[Ginkasa]

Did anyone see that commercial... umm... "Sony PSP: Kind of like carpet you can take with you" or something like that?

They're getting weird...


/me shrugs and walks away

[MuGen]

I just wish there was a commercial where the PSP was on a pedestal... rotating slowly and then letters come up saying "Get one... you know you want it"

Something simplistic..... I've been despising these commercials where PSP's are being thrown into other peoples hands and each of them playing something. I sure as hell didn't share MINE like that....

They need a simple and sophisticated commercial.... bleh...

[Jonbo298]

Sony is trying to go after the "Cool kids and rappas, fo sho" Thats why they are doing those odd commercials

[Teuthida]

I've seen plenty of these ads in Manhattan. It's not art...it's not even graffiti done properly.

The little kids I tutor worship 50 Cent and are the ghettoish group of kids you'll ever meet...yet everyone of them plays a DS. One brought a PSP one day...they all marveled at it...and then went back to playing MKDS.

And mentioned in another topic about this that graffiti artists use Nintendo characters in their own work because they love the games...not cause they're getting paid to do it.

[MuGen]

I like to think of the PSP as a treasure to behold....the DS is something you can get any day of the week lol... not that thats a bad thing....

[GameMaster]

The PSP is about as ghetto, urban, and hip-hop as Mr. Roger's neighborhood.