Game Politics ([info]gamepolitics) wrote,
@ 2006-01-06 05:55:00
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Entry tags:graffiti, philadelphia, psp, scrub, sony

Philadelphia Anti-graffiti Group Celebrates Win Over Sony PSP Ads

SCRUB 1, SONY 0

GamePolitics recently reported on hard feelings caused in Philadelphia by Sony's underground street art campaign designed to promote the PSP.

Last evening we received a copy of a celebratory e-mail sent out by a prominent Philadelphia anti-graffiti activist. Mary Tracy is a member of the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight (SCRUB). Tracy's e-mail celebrates the painting over of PSP wall ads in Philly. It reads, in part:

"SCRUB is pleased to report that Sony's graffiti-inspired ads have been eradicated from Philadelphia... I want to express our thanks... to Mayor John Street... our officials took the matter seriously and took Sony to task for this brazen attempt to circumnavigate our laws... Sony has remained silent, not responding to... Philadelphia's 'Cease and Desist' order... you may not be aware that this became an international story... as far away as London, India and Australia."

"I am also pleased that trade publications that cater to the advertising industry are considering the implications of Philadelphia's outrage... Graffiti-inspired outdoor advertising is an emerging trend, and we need to be vigilant in our efforts to keep it from invading our neighborhoods."


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Ahhh... Sony :)
[info]goodrobotus
2006-01-06 11:39 am UTC (link)
You ever want a lesson in how to completely destroy your companies reputation in under a year, these are the guys to go to. Rootkits, Graffiti.... Next thing you know they'll change their name to 50NY ;)

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-Vader
(Anonymous)
2006-01-06 01:01 pm UTC (link)
Sony... Your a Japanese company... Not a urban gaming company... You make systems and games for Gamers and everyone else... not the urban community... Please stick to good advertiseing...

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Re: -Vader
[info]ianc14
2006-01-06 03:45 pm UTC (link)
Sony?

Good advertising?

Bwah?

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[info]notasholyasthou
2006-01-06 06:01 pm UTC (link)
It's like cheese...you can listen to outside! :rolleyes

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[info]jabrwock
2006-01-06 08:14 pm UTC (link)
:rolleyes

Ditto. It's like the whole gimmick is to make you remember the ad by how much brain damage you felt watching it. The stupider you felt, the better the ad?

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(Anonymous)
2006-01-10 01:39 am UTC (link)
Good one. This obviously shows how SONY advertises. It hurt my head just watching it!

-AC

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Re: -Vader
[info]mrfalcon
2006-01-06 10:40 pm UTC (link)
Ah, but all good advertising starts in the ghetto, because all the little suburban kids wanna be gang-sta. It doesn't matter if inner-city kids can't afford PSPs. If you make it look cool enough, they'll steal them from rich kids. Then when other rich kids see the gang-bangers walking around with them, they'll just have to own one themselves! Its the metropolitan circle of life!

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Stick to The Man, Sony!
[info]seifd
2006-01-06 01:46 pm UTC (link)
Oh, wait! You ARE The Man. So, Sony, you're sticking it to yourself?

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Someone needs some shootin'
[info]unclemidriff
2006-01-06 02:06 pm UTC (link)
God-damn- I'm glad those advertisements are gone! I don't particularly care about the graffiti aspect of the advertisements; the same drawings could be on a billboard, in a magazine, or on my TV screen, and they'd still piss me off.

Seriously. Some afro-pic dude holding a -marionetted- PSP?! A jack-in-the-box PSP?! What the f***, Sony? What. The. F***?! Oh snap, Sony, you are so edgy. You are so urban and "street" and hip and cool that I just can't help but want to buy your PSP. Please, have my urban-street-hipster babies, Sony. F*** off.

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Re: Someone needs some shootin'
[info]goodrobotus
2006-01-06 03:20 pm UTC (link)
I don't think I'm the first person to post it here, but those 'people' in that graffiti look very very seriously on drugs to be honest.

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Re: Someone needs some shootin'
(Anonymous)
2006-01-06 07:14 pm UTC (link)
I'm not sure why, but when I was young, foolish and on drugs, my eyes never did that swirling thing.

Or if they did, nobody mentioned it.

I'm surprised the people who were fighting this corporate vandalism (congrats to them btw) didn't mention the message Sony is putting out, which seems to be that "cool people trip out on LSD, vandalise their neighbourhoods, and hallucinate PSP"

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Re: Someone needs some shootin'
[info]awel_cruiz
2006-01-06 11:23 pm UTC (link)
Until I got mine, I WAS hallucinating PSP.

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[info]dreamrot
2006-01-06 02:16 pm UTC (link)
I'm curious, who paid to have the ads painted over?

It just seems that if it were anyone but Sony paying for the ad's removal, it's not much of a victory.

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[info]goodrobotus
2006-01-06 02:47 pm UTC (link)
That's a very good point. I agree, Sony should be charged for the repair bill.

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[info]jabrwock
2006-01-06 06:14 pm UTC (link)
Sony could actually demand their ad money back from the store owners, who sold billboard space where they weren't allowed to. It's not entirely Sony's fault that the billboards were in violation of Phili's bylaws.

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Remember back when...
[info]jabrwock
2006-01-06 03:36 pm UTC (link)
Everyone was accusing Sony of paying vandals to "tag" buildings, and then they found out it was actual ads, fully paid for, and with the consent of the store/building owners (even if the ads violated most city bylaws)?

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[info]notasholyasthou
2006-01-06 06:04 pm UTC (link)
If the ads are legit, then that would make this censorship on the part of the city of Philadelphia. That's bad.

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censorship? no, just advertising bylaws
[info]jabrwock
2006-01-06 06:13 pm UTC (link)
If the ads are legit, then that would make this censorship on the part of the city of Philadelphia. That's bad.

They're legit in the fact that Sony paid the store owners, and not just vandals. They'll not legit, because Philadelphia has billboard bylaws, which presumably say you can't have billboards on the side of your store without some kind of permit. So the store owners are in violation.

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Re: censorship? no, just advertising bylaws
(Anonymous)
2006-01-06 06:14 pm UTC (link)
Gotcha.

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Re: censorship? no, just advertising bylaws
[info]notasholyasthou
2006-01-06 06:15 pm UTC (link)
That was me, sorry.

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Sony should fire their PR teams
[info]tsknf
2006-01-06 05:16 pm UTC (link)
They seem to do a worse job than anyone else in the industry at adverts.

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Philadelphia must be the world's safest,richest city
[info]quartermaine
2006-01-06 08:58 pm UTC (link)
How else can we explain the fact that instead of focusing on fighting crime and drugs, or dealing with homelessness and poverty, they're worried about some silly little advertising campaign?

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Re: Philadelphia must be the world's safest,richest city
[info]jabrwock
2006-01-06 09:09 pm UTC (link)
Because it's a quick fix. No investigation needed, no cops have to chase anyone. They just send a "cease and desist" letter to the stores & Sony, and problem gets solved.

I suppose they could argue that it encourages copy-cat tagging... Look at the vandalism that happened to the Sony ads...

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(Anonymous)
2006-01-06 10:39 pm UTC (link)
Amazing. Not only do they ruin a clever ad campaign, they further the idea that graff is not "art". Idiots.

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[info]jchaos
2006-01-07 02:40 am UTC (link)
Which ad campaign is clever? I'm certainly not seeing anything clever outta Sony advertising of late.

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[info]goldelite
2006-01-07 01:55 pm UTC (link)
Nice icon jchaos

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(Anonymous)
2006-01-07 05:07 pm UTC (link)
Well, if you have any knowledge of advertising, you would see that the ad campaign worked. People talked about it, and it even got the city to send a cease to Sony.

In that aspect, it worked.

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[info]jchaos
2006-01-07 09:20 pm UTC (link)
The problem is that the minute advertising makes people actively want to AVOID a product, the advertising has failed. I can't speak for the majority of the population, but I know that I feel insulted by the entirety of the PSP's marketting campaign.

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[info]infinityzero
2006-01-07 11:34 pm UTC (link)
Hmm, I gotta put my two cents in... are there any statistics showing sales of PSP's before and after the campaign?

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[info]jchaos
2006-01-08 02:23 am UTC (link)
I'm sure that Sony has them, but I wouldn't know where to begin going about getting my hands on them.

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(Anonymous)
2006-01-17 02:40 am UTC (link)
I completely agree.

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Douche and a Turd
[info]mrfalcon
2006-01-06 10:50 pm UTC (link)
Wow. A fight between one group that wants to deprive inner-city youths of one of the few means of public expression they have left and and a corporation that wants to co-opt it for commercial gain. Its like Bush vs. Kerry all over again.

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Re: Douche and a Turd
[info]longtimelurker
2006-01-08 07:28 am UTC (link)
How is something a vaild public expression when it matches the scrawlings one finds in bathrooms? Please graffiti is nothing but garbage and if they were artists then they wouldn't have to put their doodles on walls and surfaces belonging to other people and the city or state.

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Re: Douche and a Turd
[info]markusdragon
2006-01-08 12:36 pm UTC (link)
Under that basis....

NOT ART
http://www.graffiti.org/phil/images/phl_00010.jpg

ART
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/gallery/image/0,8543,-21104774275,00.html

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Re: Douche and a Turd
(Anonymous)
2006-01-08 10:35 pm UTC (link)
I have no problem with graffiti, so long as it is not vandalism. The urge to express yourself does not justify defacing someone else's property.

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Circumnavigate?!
(Anonymous)
2006-01-09 03:28 pm UTC (link)
Circumnavigate \Cir`cum*nav"i*gate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p.
Circumnavigated; p. pr. & vb. n. Circumnavigating.] [L.
circumnavigatus, p. p. of circumnavigare to sail round;
circum + navigare to navigate.]
To sail completely round.

dork \dork\ (d[^o]rk), n.
1. a person who is stupid, socially inept, or ridiculous; --
always used disparagingly. [slang.]

Syn: nerd; jerk. [PJC]

2. the penis. [vulgar slang]
[PJC]

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Re: Circumnavigate?!
(Anonymous)
2006-01-13 07:46 pm UTC (link)
Huh?

(Reply to this) (Parent)

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