GamaSutra have the lowdown on the Advertising Authorities stance on the Sony PSP adverts that were withdrawn from various train stations and public places a while back.

It appears the ASA have deemed that the adverts are not inappropriate, after receiving 45 complaints about their content from concerned members of the public who thought the adverts were :

“offensive, irresponsible and unsuitable to be seen by children.”
and
“were likely to encourage or condone violent or anti-social behaviour, particularly among young people.”

The ASA did id admit that some of the advertisements could be seen as inappropriate for some, the organization nonetheless dismissed the complaints and indicated that the poster campaign was “unlikely to encourage or condone violent or anti-social behaviour.”

So Sony have escaped having their knuckles wrapped over the adverts, and have got the extra publicity from it that they were no doubt looking for. Like they say, ‘theres no such thing as bad publicity’.