Miller+final+installation

The Work(s)


An ad for PSP in white. The add was only used in Europe for a short time before being pulled from all locations.


 * just for fun - a parody ad

Materiality and Production
This is a photo (and since it's an advertisement - most definitely photoshopped) of a white woman with white clothing and white hair clutching the face of a black woman with black clothing and black hair.

Clearly the white woman has the dominant position and there is an implication of white as superior - Sony needs to sell all those White PSP's which are exactly the same except for color and the easiest way to do it is to put in the viewer's mind that the White PSP is superior, subliminally if not factually.

In the grand scheme of the advertising world, this ad is pretty simple, and looking at it I'm pretty confident it was cheap to make. It doesn't seem outside the realm of anyone with a decent camera, Photoshop, and enough money to put up a billboard ad. It's an edgy ad, just like most edgy ads it's not about how much it cost to make or how much skill it required, it just gets people's attention, and then can do further advertising through word of mouth, or in this case - the internet.

Presentation and Market Value
As an advertisement, it functions differently from traditional art. Value is not placed on the advertisement itself but rather the advertisement's ability to sell a certain product. Sony has PSPs various colors available, but usually only for a limited time. Overall the ad definitely got Sony more negative reaction than positive sales (White PSPs aren't still available as is the case with almost all non-black PSPs) The ad is usually viewed as shock value gone wrong.

Visual Grammar
1. Color Saturation is ideally none. In actuality this is not just black and white because the fairest white skin isn't white and the darkest black skin isn't black. 2. Contextualization is pretty much non-existent. The background is all black (making the white woman more central and the black woman seem less important) 3. Illumination and Brightness are crucial. There is shading on the face of the black woman and the stomach of the white woman but otherwise it appears this was being avoided. The brightness of the white woman contrasts greatly with her black counterpart and their surroundings.

Theory / Meaning
Could this be a work of 'Art' if it were not an advertisement? Take away the logos, statement of PSP white's coming arrival, and the other miscellaneous text. It seems that if not presented as an advertisement this could be presented as Art. It certainly makes a statement, provokes thought, stimulates visually, and everything else we expect 'Art' to do.