Culture Jam assignment

Christie Ong

Original advertisement

Sony released an advertisement promoting the white PlayStation Portable. This ad leaves a strong impression on viewers, depicting a message associated with racism, also implying white supremacy. In this PlayStation advertisement, a white woman, represented as powerful and strong, is threateningly grasping a black woman, who appears to be in fear and submissive. The white woman stands out clearly from the black background, while the black woman disappears, blending into the darkness. The most striking caption on this advertisement states “White is coming”, portraying a message that can be perceived as white domination. These observed details can be related to the issue of racism that is prevalent in our society today. The message this ad conveys encourages its audiences to perceive that “white is better”, and that it should be feared and seen as superior. This message is a dangerous message to send, as it can encourage the already existing racist mentality.

Along with portraying a racist message, the aggressive grabbing combined with the advertisement statement can also promote violent behaviour towards black women. The white women, dressed in an outfit baring her midriff, while exhibiting her rough nature together with the black woman’s submissive reaction, sexualizes the white woman’s forceful actions. This may promote to the public that not only are they displaying this domination as powerful, but also as sexy. Conveying such messages are harmful to the public mind, as exhibiting violence between two women as sexual can lead to increase rates of sexual assault.

Jammed advertisement

In my jammed advertisement, my goal was to bring attention to the racism being promoted in this ad. Although this ad’s purpose was to promote the new PlayStation, there are little characteristics related to any type of technology entertainment, therefore I decided to cover the faces of the women with the PlayStation logo, but keeping their bodies as I believe it is the main focus of who appears to be more powerful. I decided to keep the “White is coming” statement, as I felt that it has a significant contribution towards the racist tone within the ad. With the background color, I decided to put a statement saying “step aside, black”, indicating that black is less worthy, and should fear the arrival of the white. The second additional statement, “get the white, and be powerful and sexy”, displays the superiority of the white, holding the power over the black. These two statements are to emphasize the displays of the white and black and the ad’s efforts to display that the new white PlayStation Portable is more powerful and sexy, also indicating that the black one is less so, and should therefore “move aside” for its superior. I wanted to include “sexy” in the advertisement, as I also wanted to pay attention to the sexualisation that is put upon the white female. Not only does she stand out from the white background, but she is also in a revealing outfit that some may perceive as “sexy”. This sexualizes the idea of one female dominating another, as well as the idea of racism. Therefore, it is advertising that if you choose white, you can dominate by being powerful and sexy.

Picture taken from:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GOqAjdA_76U/UR0b5gQ4bsI/AAAAAAAAACM/u4R9UscljeA/s1600/psp-white-stupid-ad.jpg