This is a more reasonable argument, thank you.

To be honest, however, I don't think this is a problem that will go away. If you keep making advertisements like this -- and those that came before it, which were also directed towards the same demographic -- then the purpose of the device becomes solidified in people's minds. To be more specific, Sony can't spend 2-3 years marketing the device as a hardcore gamer's machine for 18 year old males, then suddenly turn and say: "Now it's for girls too!" That won't gain traction any more than Nintendo's attempts to turn the purple cube in to an adult toy by making games like Eternal Darkness or getting Resident Evil 4 to be exclusive. 

It's possible to change the image of your product with advertisements, but it becomes harder and harder the longer it's available. I already have a pretty solid sense of what the PS3 is in my mind, for example. So my point is this: if we follow your advice and market to no one but enthusiast gamers for the next year, then I think Sony will doom the console to "enthusiast gamer's device" status for the rest of its lifespan. 

@Bodhesatva - I agree completely.

While this ad is great, for core gamers, marketing to that group exclusively could be a major mistake. For once you've branded your product, it's hard to re-image it later.

Nor is this just a 'women' issue either. I'm only in my thirties and that ad turns me off. It comes across as a kiddie system. That's right, a kiddie system, trying to be all badass and tough and 'I'm bigger and badder than you' and crap. Yawn. Don't get me wrong, it will work great for it's target 16-25 market. But if it turns off 30-50's who generally all have the funds to buy a cheap $399 blu-ray player, then they'll buy the Wii or 360 instead.

A more generic, Apple-like approach would probably be a better way to go. It's great deal for a blu-ray player / game system. And Blu-ray is close to winning the format war (but not this year...) so don't spoil future sales but giving it a 'young' imaging.

The PS1 & 2 succeed not on the backs of core gamers, they succeeded by gaining the mainsteam crowd, a crowd this ad compaign may push away. Hey, I want Sony to succeed as much as anyone, but I question if this is the way to go.

Gamerace, I'm in my 30's as well and I really liked the commercial. I'm sure that ONE commercial isn't going to brand a console like this. I see this more as a new focus to get back to great commercials that highlight the strengths of the system with some great gameplay included in the commercial. Sure, Saliva isn't for everyone. Maybe they should use a Timberlake song instead or for other commercials to target the "casuals".

And honestly, why would someone want to target a "non-gamer". There are many of them out there and most will have no desire to pick up a video game system no matter what a commercial will do. So, go after gamers of all kinds.

This is a big step forward for Sony and a good campaign that will help sales and get people's attention.

Your are right, this is only one commercial, and currently, with the line-up currently available, it's a damn good one.  I just hope they don't do pursue that one demographic too aggressively.  I don't mean to sound too critical of it.  I do like the commercial for what it is.

I agree, the music is loud and protruding.  I can see it getting annoying after the 5 or 6 time. It is however a big step up from those creepy baby campaigns.

Finally some interesting PS3 commercials.

The hardware has always been triple A, but Sony's marketing has been "sucky" at times, almost to a degree it seemed Sony didn't want to mass market the product yet.

I love it, and I think that it truly highlights what the PS3 can do (rather than those awful this is living adverts) showing off the best games as well as looking great and having a great soundtrack

It's a lot better then the previous ones. Still room for improvement though.

It shows the games but very little room to actually give you an idea about gameplay, seperate adds that focus on 1 or 2 games/movies would work better and give the adds more focus in my opinion.

I don't see the game selection as much of a problem though... just the way it's presented. I mean if you look at Xbox or Nintendo ads, they tend to focus on one game at a time, they draw you into the game and make it look awesome... because it's the games that are going to sell the console, not CG graphics making the console look like nyarlathotep and heavy metal music.

Showing too many games like that runs the risk of not giving enough of a meal to people on one game they'd like, and instead giving them a number of games, in which they only would like 1 or 2 but don't know enough about it. Overall the "Multi-game" approach seems to work beter as a "reminder" add rather then a bring in new consumers who don't play on buying a PS3 add.

Which anyone who's taken marketing can tell you work a lot better when you the Market Leader. (see Coke for example.)

Also they'll hopefully throw in the games names on the sides somewhere (unless they did and I missed it?) Otherwise you are kinda selling only to the base that already knows what those games are.

So overall, a good commercial, but i think it's the wrong type of commercial considering the PS3's current marketing position.

I think the Sony execs are still working under the assumption of "More people overall want a PS3 then any other console, our sales are just slower to start. So we need to remind people to buy a PS3 instead of a 360." Instead of a "We want to get people who want a 360 or Wii to get the PS3 instead"  mindset or just a "we want people to buy this console who plan to stick with PS2 or just didn't get a console last time".

WOW

Finally I see the OLD SONY of Ps1 days coming up again.....

I love the ads, I think it's great they got rid of the white room with the crying baby, or the rubiks cube (however you spell it). It's nice to actually see what games I am going to buy on the console... Kudos to Sony.