Philadelphia Slams Sony For PSP Graffiti Marketing

The fallout from Sony's secret PSP graffiti campaign continues, this time in the City of Brotherly Love.

This morning's Philadelphia Inquirer reports that city officials plan to cite a property owner who leased wall space to Sony for its underground graffiti art marketing campaign to promote the PSP handheld system.

According to the paper, the city has strict billboard regulations which require a permit from the Department of Licenses and Inspections before putting up an advertisement. Neither Sony nor the property owners obtained such permits.

Fred Wolfson, whose truck rental business at Eighth and Girard bears the PSP graffiti told the Inquirer Sony paid him an undisclosed sum to keep the graffiti visible for one month

"It's an interesting little wall mural," he said. "I don't have a problem with it."

At least one local critic sees the ads as a slap at the neighborhoods in which they were placed.

Mary Tracy, a member of the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight (SCRUB), told the newspaper, "It's not mural art. This is someone trying to sell a product. This is commercialism. You have a multi-conglomerate operation coming into the city and breaking our laws. They're not putting this on walls in [wealthy neighborhoods like] Gladwyne or Ardmore. These are poor neighborhoods. The whole notion that 'if it's urban, it's OK' is very arrogant and very disrespectful."

Former Philadelphia managing director Phil Goldsmith believes the PSP campaign condones graffiti, an issue which the city has fought by successfully promoting wall murals.

"Sony," Goldsmith said, "should forget the advertising and donate its money to the Mural Arts Program."

GP: In the interest of full disclosure, GP points outs that he has been the video game columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer for the last eight years.