If you read our recent Ad Watch on Sony's latest PSP ad campaign in the Netherlands, you already got a sense of the kind of uproar and public outcry that Sony has been dealing with since it launched the marketing initiative for its ceramic white version of the PSP. The billboard portrays a white woman grabbing the face of a black woman in a somewhat menacing manner. It's easy to see how one could view the ad as racist, and now it appears that Sony has caved in to the pressure and has decided to pull the ad.

"We... recognize that people have a wide variety of perceptions about such imagery and we wish to apologize to those who perceived the advert differently to that intended. In future, we will apply greater sensitivity in our selection of campaign imagery, and will take due account of the increasingly global reach of such local adverts, and their potential impact in other countries," said Nick Sharples, Sony's Director of Corporate Communications in Europe, according to GamePolitics.com.

California Assemblyman and anti-violent video games activist Leland Yee, who immediately condemned the controversial PSP ad, also issued a new statement applauding Sony for making amends.

"I am pleased to see Sony taking responsibility for their racially-charged ad and appropriately pulling it from the marketplace," he commented. "Sony did the right thing by recognizing their insensitive mistake and apologizing for offending many of their customers."

Rick Callender, president of the San Jose/Silicon Valley chapter of the NAACP, who stood alongside Yee in criticizing the ad initially, seemed pleased with the final outcome.

"Sony has done the honorable thing by owning up to the fact that communication and ads in today's global market have a much further reach than in the past," he said. "Their attempt to contrast colors clearly created controversy and sparked painful feelings in the global community. Hopefully in the future, Sony will employ a better litmus test to their ad campaigns to determine if they will be sour to the taste of worldwide consumers. I commend them for their actions."

While Sony's ad may not have caused much fuss even 5 years ago, in this Internet dominated era, it only takes a few minutes for a snippet of media to be circulated around the globe. While this ultimately will make the video game marketer's job that much harder, in the end it could be beneficial to the company's brand. Marketing doesn't have to be tailored to local tastes, necessarily. After all, if you can create a campaign that sparks interest on a global basis, why not go for it?