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Sony pulls `racist' posters

Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc has removed billboards for the new white version of its PlayStation Portable video game player in the Netherlands after complaints that the image of black and white models in the advertisement was racist, the company said yesterday. The company also apologized.

The billboards, which went up in the first week of June only in the Netherlands, showed a Caucasian woman dressed in white grabbing the face of a frightened-looking black girl, with an attached catch copy saying, "PlayStation Portable White is coming."

The provocative image was one of several versions of the advertisement showing the two women in different poses and used exclusively in Amsterdam and several other major cities in that country, company spokesman Nanako Kato said.

Sony apologized for the ads, saying they were only intended to emphasize the color contrast between the existing black PSP and the new ceramic white PSP, and not to send any kind of racist message.

"We only intended to make a sharp contrast between black and white, but never meant to discriminate against anyone," she said. "Even though the ad was perceived in an unexpected way, we'd like to apologize to the people who were offended by the ads."

She said that the specific version of the ads seemed to have triggered controversy among citizens and game magazines mainly from countries outside the Netherlands.

The PSP, a portable version of the PlayStation, is a hot-seller for Sony. It went on sale in Japan in December 2004, and the US earlier this year.
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