Sony has officially pulled its Ceramic white PSP ads from the Netherlands following criticism from politicians, the media, and the Internet community last week regarding the campaign's potentially racist message. 

"We recognize that the subject matter of one specific image may have caused concern in some countries not directly affected by the advertising. As a result, we have now withdrawn the campaign," said the company in a statement today. 

The billboard ads, which debuted last week in Holland, depicted a white woman forcefully grabbing the face of a black woman in a "racially charged" manner according the ad campaigns critics. Sony asserted that the ads were designed to show the contrast in colors between the original black PSP and the new Ceramic white PSP with "no other message or purpose."

California Assemblyman Leland Yee and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) denounced the ad campaign, speaking out against the message the ads conveyed whether intentional or not. 

Nick Sharples, Sony's Director of Corporate Communications in Europe, apologized for the potentially racial perception some may have come away with from the campaign.

"We... recognize that people have a wide variety of perceptions about such imagery and we wish to apologize to those who perceived the advert differently to that intended. In future, we will apply greater sensitivity in our selection of campaign imagery, and will take due account of the increasingly global reach of such local adverts, and their potential impact in other countries," said Sharples.

Yee and Rick Callendar, president of the San Jose NAACP Chapter, were pleased by Sony's quick withdrawal of the ads. 

"I am pleased to see Sony taking responsibility for their racially-charged ad and appropriately pulling it from the marketplace," said Yee. "Sony did the right thing by recognizing their insensitive mistake and apologizing for offending many of their customers."

"Sony has done the honorable thing by owning up to the fact that communication and ads in today's global market have a much further reach than in the past," said Callender. "Their attempt to contrast colors clearly created controversy and sparked painful feelings in the global community. Hopefully in the future, Sony will employ a better litmus test to their ad campaigns to determine if they will be sour to the taste of worldwide consumers. I commend them for their actions."