SONY'S AMAZINGLY SEXIST INDIAN PS2 ADVERTS
A bunch of boring old feminists have been getting all angry about these Indian PlayStation2 adverts, what with their disrespectful attitude toward women.
If there’s one thing we really hate it’s sexism, particularly when combined with a family activity such as, say, video games.
This MUST be a joke, though? Even the currently LUNATIC Sony surely wouldn’t stoop this low? Although the site hosting the ads seems legitimate and serious and not like the sort of site fooled by fakes.
Some proper web site ought to send these PS2 adverts to Sony and ask for a comment on their authenticity. If they are real, that’s the massive Sony scandal taken care of for this week.
filed in Uncategorized on Jun.26, 2007
June 26th, 2007 on 1:06 pm
I’m sorry, but they’re awesome.
June 26th, 2007 on 1:17 pm
I must concur; that is the best tagline possible for the PS2.
As for the mediadrama, feminists bore me shitless too, so it doesn’t really matter what they think.
It’s all good!
June 26th, 2007 on 1:24 pm
Isn’t the ‘Because Your Girlfriend Bores You Shitless’ campaign quite old? I swear I saw this years ago… Maybe I can see into the future?
June 26th, 2007 on 1:42 pm
Agreed, these ads are awesome
But if you really want a Sony blunder this week, how about the fact that they put up english language adverts in a country where only 10% of people speak the language (and only 60% are literate)
June 26th, 2007 on 1:45 pm
Girlfriends: Because PS3 bores you shitless.
June 26th, 2007 on 1:57 pm
Cue the Wii: Because the PS3 Bores you shitless adverts in 3…2….1….
June 26th, 2007 on 1:58 pm
Ive wrote:Girlfriends: Because PS3 bores you shitless.
Girlfriends cost less than PS3 too.
June 26th, 2007 on 2:01 pm
Girlfriends: Because your PS2 doesn’t have a bumhole.
June 26th, 2007 on 2:30 pm
Sorry, but they’re the best ads I’ve seen in years. All of a sudden I’m remembering why Sony made such as success of the PlayStation.
Bloody marketing gurus. It never mattered that the console was shit.
And the typography is fucking great on those ads too. And you know that deep down they’re probably true – and the shitstorm that will follow will only garner Sony more publicity.
Bastards!
June 26th, 2007 on 2:31 pm
they’re good AND disasterous. My favorite combination after chips and mayonaise.
June 26th, 2007 on 2:41 pm
Actually, this is exactly what mistresses and prostitutes are for.
June 26th, 2007 on 3:26 pm
Well done Sony !
Now thanks to you, I’m happy to have no girlfriend and a ps2 !
June 26th, 2007 on 3:34 pm
I don’t see this as being sexist.. as much as I wouldn’t consider it offensive to guys if the subject was a boy talking to his girlfriend about football and cars and videogames and stuff..
I think it’s quite a good campaign.. and there are a few girls that are really like that..
June 26th, 2007 on 4:46 pm
That feminist blog is quite scary, their ultimate aim seems to be to actively remove any gender distinction AT ALL!
In other words, to completely deny the truth because it doesn’t fit their wacky idealistic viewpoint.
Nutty bitches.
dxgtryez – Microsoft’s new DirectX for people who try really hard but fail.
June 26th, 2007 on 5:16 pm
Ok, Sony bashing when it is warranted is fair enough… but these adverts are amazingly awesome.
If they had done this instead of the whole ‘This is living’ then Sony might have a better image in my eyes at the moment
June 26th, 2007 on 5:56 pm
Not exaclty “Smell the Glove” is it..
June 26th, 2007 on 7:54 pm
I think they’re gay.
June 26th, 2007 on 9:58 pm
But if it’s from India, why is it in English? Surely if it was real it would read ‘Shilpa Poppadom Bhindi Bhaji Okra Hindu Bindi Tikka Massala Drinkswalla Bombay Sapphire Call Centre Yogi’?
I like how the feminist says she’s ‘switched loyalties from Playstation to Nintendo’, as if ‘Playstation’ is also the name of the fucking company. I mean, yes, the Playstation does make practically all of Sony’s money these days, but still…
June 26th, 2007 on 11:16 pm
Good adverts? It says absolutely fuck all about the PS2.
DON’T BE SUPPORTING SONY NOW!
June 26th, 2007 on 11:31 pm
Quite right, let’s not be positive about sony just now. Despite the fact that I find those ads to be something of an axiom and extremely funny, I must point out that I hope Sony die soon for being such total cunts in oh so many ways.
Amen.
June 27th, 2007 on 12:09 am
Nah, I can’t hate those ads since that’s something Sega used to do and still would if it had maintained that kind of advertising and success it had during those 16-bit days. That’s a great couple of ads. Thank you, feminists, for sharing the funny to those who can appreciate it. :^)
June 27th, 2007 on 4:02 am
This would all be well and good if they has a MALE equivalent (ie SP3: Because Your Boyfriend Bores You Shitless), however like this it’s just annoying.
I don’t know just how biased this site is, so I don’t know if the campaign DID in fact have two sides. But if it didn’t, I find it odd that they ignore all the female gamers out there.
And it doesn’t really tell you anything about PS3. You could buy it (spending a ridiculous amount of money) and feel ripped off. I still don’t know any more about it than I did before reading this add.
The only thing you can say is that it’s achieved its goal: People are talking about it. It’s getting attention. This is what they wanted. So in that respect, it is a successful campaign.
June 27th, 2007 on 4:42 am
I find it odd that they ignore all the female gamers out there.
I’m one of those female wackos (albeit a nerdybrand one), and I still find this advertising campaign totally great. Especially considering I had to put up with conversations like that through school and college and such– where I lived at least, these ads just summed up 80% of the female population in one long sentence.
And it doesn’t really tell you anything about PS3. You could buy it (spending a ridiculous amount of money) and feel ripped off.
That’s because if it were telling you about the PS3, the ad would read something along the lines of “It’s crap and expensive, but at least it cures cancer!”
That, and it’s about the PS2.
Plus, the most important part– if it really described the PS2, it would bore me shitless.
June 27th, 2007 on 5:15 am
But if it didn’t, I find it odd that they ignore all the female gamers out there.
Yeah, all five of them. With all due respect, the data you get from blogs about gender balance in gaming is obscenely granular; it paints entirely the wrong picture for you. The vast bulk of female gamers are on the Wii or the PC, with a strong and growing block on the DS.
There is a pretty good chance that the entire female PS3 constituency has already commented on this article.
Why are they aiming at English in India? Because the locals don’t buy game systems which don’t have games in their language.
Why are they aiming at men for the PS3? Because women have more sense than to spend enough money for a beater car on a system with crap for games.
Make all the commentary on sexism you want, until you’re blue in the face; it’s not true, and until you take a marketing class, you’ll never understand what’s going on here. There’s a reason demographics lead straight to money, like a dowsing stick to water. Learn to speak directly to your paying constituency, and you can sell crap to crap farmers.
June 27th, 2007 on 5:55 am
Likewise, anyone harping “why isn’t there a “boyfriend” version is missing the point. It’s designed to be an entertaining ad and not social commentary. Last we need is a male heterosexual/female heterosexual/male homosexual/female homosexual/transgendered hetereosexual/and so on versions of every single bit of media that presents itself to appeal to and/or equally “offend” every interest group, sex, race, nationality, and age out there.
June 27th, 2007 on 6:05 am
Look at it this way: A boy with a girlfriend who bores him shitless really OUGHT to get a PS2. She’ll rant like the ads, he’ll ignore her for the PS2, she’ll dump his ass for ignoring her, and they’ll both be better off.
But seriously.
1) The target demographic for this ad is boys WITHOUT girlfriends who want to feel better about not having girlfriends. The ad really says, “If you have no girlfriend, she’d probably bore you shit less anyway. Get a PS2 and stop hating your single self.”
2) There are girls who talk like those ads. They exist. I have met them. It’s not sexist in the LEAST to portray them accurately. It’s a serious portrayal of a dislikable personality type. There are men who would be bored shitless by that sort of interaction.
Take 1 and 2 together, and I don’t even remotely understand why the ads are sexist or even distasteful.
June 27th, 2007 on 6:06 am
I have seen ads that target both the male and female demographic.
It was for a satellite naviation system. One said “Because she can’t read maps”, the other siad “Because he won’t ask for directions”
I found it amusing that they used both stereotypes. I thought it clever that they would advertise to both sexes.
I’m not particularly offended by this ad campaign because I know that real life doesn’t work that way. And like I said, it’s achieved its goal. So in that sense, it IS a good ad campaign. People are talking about it. It gets the brand name out there. It has worked. I was merely making observations.
June 27th, 2007 on 6:17 am
Fucking bitch needs to get back in the kitchen and wash those fucking pots and pans and make me my tea while I get to the next level on Super Mario, lazy fat whore. And then maybe I’ll let her suck my fat cock, the dirty bitch.
ads are funneez. Sony is still gay.
June 27th, 2007 on 9:42 am
Thanks for that Richard – the conversation was starting to get a little bit intelectual but you brought it back down to the low standards we expect from UK:R
June 27th, 2007 on 10:56 am
Surely the version aimed at women would just be a picture of the pink PS2, because as we know most women are thick enough to buy anything, so long as it’s pink.
Rather like the girl in my work who got a DS Lite more because it was pink than because she wanted a DS Lite. It matched her pink mobile, see…
June 27th, 2007 on 11:26 am
Feminists are great! I love it when they kiss each other and do that whole oily wrestling thing with their heads between each others legs.
June 27th, 2007 on 2:00 pm
Last we need is a male heterosexual/female heterosexual/male homosexual/female homosexual/transgendered hetereosexual/and so on versions of every single bit of media that presents itself to appeal to and/or equally “offend” every interest group, sex, race, nationality, and age out there.
OR MAYBE WE DO.
June 27th, 2007 on 3:02 pm
Smell the glove bitch!
June 28th, 2007 on 3:31 pm
> I mean, yes, the Playstation does make practically all of Sony’s money these days, but still…
I think you mean the Playstation is *spending* practically all of Sony’s money these days.
mbywqn – navaho indian for ‘wife’
July 3rd, 2007 on 12:19 pm
The cheeky cunts stole my tagline, I originally submitted a picture for a B3ta.com challenge (Truth In Advertising) a few years ago with the tagline – “Because your girlfriend bores you” beneath the Playstation logo.
There was a chain email that did the rounds, shortly afterwards, with all best entries which may be why some of you think you have seen it before.
October 19th, 2008 on 10:41 pm
I’m a female gamer and I find this advert really sexist. However as I work in advertising I do not find it surprising that Playstation would employ such a dim witted sales tactic for the target audience.
The target market for PS1, PS2, and PS3 is made up of teenage boys – lads in the mid 20’s age bracket. People in this age bracket are called Generation Y (also know as Generation-Y-should-I-care?) Many kids from generation Y would not doubt find this advert funny and appealing. Especially boys in this age bracket. This is because boys at this age generally lack intelligence, social awareness and respect. I work in advertising and the easiest market to sell to is this gender and age bracket (male teens to 25). All you have to do is make something insulting, sexually orientated or flashy you have records sales. Boys are total suckers.
This advert hardly encourages respect to the fairer sex, but the audience here would lack the intelligence or social awareness for a more sophisticated ad campaign. Lap it up boys!