NYC Official Demands Sony Get Rid of Ads and Pay $20k (GameIndustry)
Sony
Computer Entertainment America is facing criticism from a New York City
official over a guerrilla marketing campaign which uses graffiti to
promote the PlayStation Portable.Last November, spray-painted
images depicting cartoon characters with PSPs began appearing in seven
cities across the US, including San Francisco, Philadelphia and New
York.
Following
speculation that the graffiti was not the work of underground artists
but part of an advertising campaign, Sony admitted responsibility but
said that all the wall space on which the images appeared had been
legally licensed.
This was not enough to appease many local
residents, however, who claimed that the advertisements were eyesores
regardless of whether or not Sony had obtained permission, and many of
the images were defaced with words such as "Fony".
Now Peter
Vallone Jr., a councillor for the borough of Queens, has demanded that
the company get rid of the ads and contribute USD 20,000 to the city's
anti-graffiti program.
Speaking to the New York Post, Vallone
said: "Children are impressionable, and if they see a wall with
graffiti on it and they don't know that it's done with permission, it
could very well lead to them believing that it's okay for them to do
it."
Sony defended the ads by arguing that the simply represented a "different" way of using advertising.
[via, Gamesindustry]