Reputation II - the Sony battle continues

It seems that the Minister for Communications firm letter to Sony after their Playstation advert highlighted Nigeria as a hotbed of Internet fraud has had the desired effect. Sony have made a public apology and removed the offending advert. You can view and read about it in my blog on reputation earlier this month.

"It has come to our attention that a recent TV advertisement for PlayStation may have offended some members of the Nigerian community.... We never intended to create a situation that would upset anyone, and we have taken action to immediately remove the advertisement from the air. We apologise to anyone this may have offended."

The turnaround by Sony must be a welcome boost for the Minister, but the battle to 're-brand' Nigeria is far from over. The movie District 9 was on general release at the cinemas here over the last couple of weeks only to be pulled, once again due to references to Nigeria as being a country of Gangsters, Cannibals and Prostitutes!

Sony Entertainment is the new target of the Honourable Minister this time and she has asked that all copies of the movie in Nigeria be confiscated...

Though it remains to be seen whether the Minister will have much luck battling Hollywood as well as the Gaming Industry...the Ministry seems to be heading for the style of the 3 wise monkeys rather than addressing the real issues at hand.