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Starting Monday (today), Sony is going to kick off a new year long ad campaign that includes many of its portfolio stars, starting off with Taylor Swift, showing off the Cyber-shot DSC-TX7. This will be a series of star-studded spots that Sony ( SNE – news – people ) plans to roll out this year, as a part of a $100-million-plus TV, print and digital ad campaign. Each ad will feature a Sony-affiliated celebrity to pitch its electronic products, such as its 3-D television and its e-reader. The idea of this new campaign is that instead of focusing in on the many products that Sony makes, it will aim for a particular market and let them know of the product. For example, in 2008 Sony spent nearly $5 billion on their global ad campaigns that ranged from laptops to DVD players.

First, I have to say that I’m floored by this. I’m wondering if of that $5 billion, $4.9 billion was spent outside of the states. Ask any Playstation owner and they will tell you that Sony has had no air presence whatsoever; Microsoft has dominated the airwaves with its Xbox ads. No matter what show or channel you watch, when they produced a big game (i.e. Halo or Gears of War), they had endless commercials running. Most of all, the sheer number of commercials and TV shows that the 360 is in as product placement is insane. This of course has been something that has hurt the PS3 and the PSP and thus, their software sales. I will give it to Sony though for their efforts with Kevin Butler in the past year. Those ads are fantastic and hilarious. My issue in this case is: where were they the other 3 years? I also mention this because the PlayStation brand is one important aspect of their business but Sony is fighting off too many players in too many markets. In the TV market you see Samsung commercials left and right. Computers and cell phones and it’s either iPhone/Droid or MacBook/HP. And for cameras, Canon and Nikon. Yet, we never see any form of Sony add showing us off their products.