PSP: Cheaper than a girlfriend
Sony’s running a new PlayStation Portable ad to remind you women are commodities. (Tip of the hat to Gaming San).
I suppose we should applaud Sony for not actually making “more bang for your buck” jokes, or outright calling women whores, but once again they show how much contempt they have for 50% of their potential game-buying market.
It’s time to round up all of these ads and place them in context: Sony isn’t making a series of one-off mistakes–they are operating to promote a very consistent, misogynist view, and to reinforce that view as a means of selling their product.
May 8th, 2007 at 9:11 am
*sigh* I liked the guys on the airplane PSP ad they’re running on TV right now.
Yeah, I know that ‘dude’ and ‘guys’ are used to refer to females too, but that’s also just the latest version of ‘the default human is male’ thing in our language. It’s not just diminutive, it makes us disappear entirely.
Wheefun. Yet another reason to look at the DS if I’m ever in the market for a portable*.
*A portable, that is, that isn’t a notebook.
May 8th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Wow; Sony doesn’t mess around with that whole silly concept of political correctness, do they? Just right out there with the “Get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich!” material, huh?
May 8th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Damn. Just. Damn.
May 8th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
You really have to wonder why they’re going to all this trouble to be deliberately offensive. Is it the bad publicity theory? Do they think the majority of their target audience think this way?
Obviously someone thinks they’re being clever, but it seems more like laziness to me. This way, they get their name out quickly, their product is remembered, and they don’t have to do anything like get unique, decent content for their portable. They don’t have to update it to keep it competitive. They just rely on word-of-mouth.
Or maybe they think the only people who will buy the PSP are lonely geek boys who don’t have a chance of getting a girl… the sour grapes campaign.
Either way, this ad is probably appealing to a much, much smaller percentage of the target demographic than they think. Anyone who thinks PSPs are better than sex is, well, retarded and doesn’t have a chance of getting laid.
May 8th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Perhaps they are once more subscribing to the “any publicity is good publicity” theory; they make something outlandishly offensive and get all the media outlets and bloggers talking about their product. They feel the audience is actually so stupid; that all the negative talk and what not will sail over their heads and the only thing remembered will be “PSP”.
May 9th, 2007 at 8:14 am
I actually want to have an ad-critiquing blog associated with Iris, but I need some one (or ones) to go in with, because I have way too many projects on my hands as it is. If either you or Moira are interested, please let me know.
May 19th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
I’d rather have a girlfriend — and I’m citing Sony’s blatanly offensive ad as one reason.
May 31st, 2008 at 7:29 am
[...] navel or the “because your girlfriend bores you shitless” ad. Also left out were the Cheaper than a girlfriend ad, the creepy bathroom ‘can I play with it’ ad, and the other creepy bathroom ad [...]