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December 6, 2005
More....
Here's some additional perspectives on the Sony stuff. But first a few comments from us:1. Do we think that Sony "wins" with the campaign simply because we're talking extensively about it on the Wooster site? Absolutely fucking not. Our coverage is about the subject of advertising and graf colliding, not so much about Sony specifically. This type of coverage does not sell PSPs. And if it does, all the power to them. Then yes, their campaign was effective. We have no reason to want Sony to sell less PSPs. That's not our argument. But again, does this add to the eyeballs that will see the campaign? Yes. Does it sell units? No fucking way.
One way to solve this - If you've bought a PSP, or intend to buy one, because of the discussion of the campaign on this site, please raise your hand and send us an email with a proof of purchase. :)
2. We agree with Bucky (see below). For us, he's exactly right and if Sony was smart they should have hired him then, and they should still hire him now. Again, the problem here, for us anyway, is not the ads themselves. It's the fact that Sony made it appear that the ads were mimic graffiti as if they were done illegally. They weren't. This smacks, to us, of not knowing your audience well enough. If you are a fraud, eventually you'll be ratted out. That's what happened here. If they had stuck to wheat pastes on construction sites, party stamps, and a few Tats Cru commissions, things would have been fine. But instead they made it seem, at first, that these ads were organic. They weren't. Again, this is the mistake that we find they made. Not the ads themselves. We actually like the ads. It's where and how they were placed that's the problem.
3. For those of you who think that we're spending too much time on this subject, we also don't agree. This site is about these issues as much as it is about the art itself. If you don't debate the issues, what's the point?
Okay, so here are some more responses:
From Nomad:
HERE?s Another proposal for you guys, concerning the SON-Y PSP2 Discussion :
You all are doing exactly what SON - Y expects you, to do. You discuss this shit-campaign , and name the product + the company a hundred times on your page. The more that you spread this bullshit, the more items they are going to sell. Got it ?
Fuck Sony + anybody who wastes his time with computergames. If you catch those kids - break their fuckin?Hands..
Peace (haha...)
From Bucky (on the Gothamist messageboards):
Gosh... so many of you commenters are just so blind and dumb. You completely miss the point and then go off on your own tangents. There appear to be two problems that bother both the folks at Wooster and Gothamist. It has to do with the fact that the ads were designed to look like and mimic graffiti and street art and that these ads are not going up on just spots usually reserved for wild postings or what is commonly referred to as wheat pastings. They are going up in spots that usually don't sell or rent advertising space so that the ads appear to be unsanctioned and/or illegal. The fact that Sony is trying to post these ads up as if they were graffiti is the problem. If you don't think there is a thin line between getting it right and wrong well then you never worked on a pitch and certainly never executed one. Advertising and marketing is a funny business and a lot of common folk don't really understand the small details and dynamics it takes to actually make ideas and concepts that are cool, effective, and don't piss off the creative community they are trying to reach in the first place. When dealing with youth culture (and graffiti especially) make sure you know what the fuck you are doing. For example you can always hire ANIMAL as a consultant (that for e.g. was a blatant plug) to review the "urban marketing" campaign that has been created for your brand by some "urban marketing" company in some ivory tower. But what bothers me on a bigger scale is that many brands see graffiti as the only medium to reach kids in the city. It's their golden fleece of urban (not meaning black) communication and they often misuse it and get it wrong. And for all that bullshit about ad blockers and stuff, again you missed the point. Take it from someone who publishes an art and lifestyle magazine with the tagline "cashing in on culture" that this is by no means a wholesale refutation of advertising, sponsorship of art or culture, or the usual predictable banter. It's just about doing it right, period.
From Fono:
Having watched the Sony/PSP thing develop over the last few days, I thought I'd mention a couple of things that have come to mind:
I have to admit I find the way Sony has approached this to be rather baffling. At first, it seemed like they were using street artists to undertake something illegal for them - seemingly because they didn't want to take the risk of putting the ads up using their own people. Now, with the knowledge that the walls were actually RENTED, it brings a whole new question to mind: why not just send out the ad agency's teaboy out with a bucket of paste? Why use street artists as hired decorators? Ok, granted, some were sprayed, and that requires a particular set of skills that are hard to fake - but even so they could have stuck to stencils and posters... why involve street artists at all?
loving wooster for a long time now, but have to give a short note on that PSP thing:
did you realize that sony totally won with this campain?
your whole page is a huge sony billboard now
you present their adverts
you present the company's name
and the company's product
and your traffic might not be that bad your visitors are the perfect PSP consumers as well...
should be enough to give a short story about it and link to a forum or something and keep posting real streetart with no business aim on wooster...
or just ignore the whole thing...
just because a poster is pasted somewhere "illegal" doesn't make it art or street art...if i was sony i would love to see what you are doing with my campain - even the defaced posters are more reaction then a usual advert gets.
well, that's it hope to see that advert shit breaking down in ignorance.
props from germany
What bugs me the most however, is that they've fostered a debate, and here
we are, talking and considering them and their product. If you subscribe to
the 'There is no such thing as bad press' school of thought, then Sony's
advertising agency have done their job. Bugger.
From Goods:
When you said "...it smacks of corporate invasion of a space that they shouldn't be in." meaning that the corporations have no right being there, don't they have the same rights as the street artists themselves? The "legit" street artists have no right being there either, but that is the appeal to them? I don't think the big wigs at Sony are checking your site everyday, the people doing that are working in the ad agencies. Some of whom I'm sure are even street artists themselves. Isn't street art about advertising to the masses anyway? Sure you may not be selling a product at first, but many of the "legit" street artists that "make it" end up selling their work. Whether it be in galleries or in an ad for a Vodka company. You are getting your work and or name out there for other people to see and hopefully appreciate. Otherwise a "true artist" would only make art for themselves and show it to no one like Henry Darger. Sure this is not even close to the scale of a company like Sony, but I really don't see a difference here. The streets are everyone's, not just artists. I am not for or against it, and this campaign is not going to get me to buy a psp or make me love or hate Sony any more for it. I just don't understand all of the complaints from artists. Surely a street artist can identify an ad when they see one. I don't even own a psp and I recognized them in the campaign immediately when I saw them appearing here in NYC(which was long after their initial campaign), and I'm
extremely surprised that the posters are not plastered with logo's, product shots, release dates, legal, etc. like most ads are. I'd say their campaign is a huge success because a lot of people seem to be talking about it.
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