Getting Played?

This billboard, touting the new white Sony PSP (Playstation Player), was recently launched in Amsterdam.

Other sites that have profiled this ad (example 1, 2) ask the question: Is it racist?

Perhaps the real question, though, is:  Are we being set up?

Isn’t “buzz marketing” supposed to be provocative enough to shake things up, but not past the point where the ad/message/image loses all ambiguity?  To the extent the ad attracts the attention of sites like this — whatever our determination about the image — isn’t that “a win” for the corporation, and the campaign?

More shots from the series here, here and here.



(hat tip: acm. images via joystiq.com)