To Protest the New Playstation 3 Slim Commercial—Or Not?
Posted September 4, 2009 · Charles O
The commercial for the new Sony Playstation 3 Slim contains a reference to the transnational advanced fee fraud, and (this part being the motivator for this entry) besmirches Nigeria and Nigerians in one singular, odious remark:
You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet; otherwise I’d be a Nigerian millionaire by now.
As would be expected, there is now an online petition against the ad (“NIGERIANS AGAINST SONY’S PS3 AD”): http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/nigeriansagainstsonyad/index.html.
While I am convinced that Sony’s global marketing capability is incredibly daft and, perhaps, outright racist (I wrote a blog entry on another Sony gaffe in 2007: http://ibenaija.wordpress.com/2007/02/25/why-i-will-not-buy-the-sony-playstation-portable/), I will not be protesting this matter too vigorously.
In some sense, we’re getting what we (Nigerians) deserve. While I quite appreciate the argument that not all Nigerians are 419ers… the issue though is that “Nigeria” has become synonymous with transnational fraud. And Sony, in its astonishing tactlessness chose to capitalize on that “common knowledge”. It is up to us, as individual Nigerians, associations of Nigerians, and other formations of Nigerians—governments (at all tiers), non-governmental agencies, corporations, not-for-profits, etc. to begin to take concerted steps to erase the unfortunate blemish that has marred the Nigerian for so long. (Not to politicize the discussion, but we can start by electing a sensible government in 2010/2011.)
I signed the petition—as a matter of national pride (or indignation) and patriotism. I acknowledge (as I said earlier) that Sony is incredibly stupid/racist in its choice of marketing messages. However, I will not be taking up additional arms on this matter.
Postscript:
A thought that crosses one’s mind if one were to look at this dispassionately: does Sony deliberately choose these offensive messages in order to sensationalize the matter and get people talking about its products? I mean, this isn’t the first time this sort of furor is generated by that company’s product advertising… (again, I refer you to the “White is coming…” debacle where a white woman grabs a black woman by the chin, in a condescending manner). Does Sony believe that any publicity—including negative publicity—is good publicity (to the degree that it gets people talking about the product), and so justifies a stupid, racist, and offensive campaign?
Post-postscript:
Update (09.05.09): I just saw a version of the ad (on BET) that replaces the reference to “Nigerian Millionaire”:
You can’t believe everything you hear on the Internet; that’s how World War I got started.
It appears that one can still hope…
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