Product Placement: It's Not Just for Movies Anymore

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A "stealth marketing campaign" by Sony in Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York and other large U.S. cities is generating controversy. The "ads" are "black-on-white graffiti" with "wide-eyed cartoon characters riding a PlayStation like a skateboard, licking it like a lollipop or cranking it like a Jack-in-the-Box." A Philadelphia official sent a cease-and-desist letter to Sony, due to its zoning violations. "This really flies in the face of everything we've been trying to do with our anti-blight initiative," he said. "It's all about hip-hop, urban and all that," said a local worker. "They're just trying to get into the teenagers' minds."