A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

A couple of thoughts. I know the camera is capable of accurate colors as I have had a A6000 (now have the A6300), but also have the 50mm f1.8 OSS prime and the Sony/Zeiss 16-70 F4 OSS lens. What lens are you using? I cannot vouch for the kit lenses, although other members might be able to.
Are you making prints or viewing on a screen. Your screen or your printer might not be set up correctly.
I have in front of me a print of a copy of a painting that I have just done and the comparing it with the painting it is remarkably accurate.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right. Shooting for accurate color can be problematic. I don't have that problem, but many people need accurate color renditions. Raw (Sony ARW) and a ColorChecker are the best combo for getting accurate color.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Most all cameras have some color bias and saturation issue as preset.
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/sony-a6000/sony-a6000A5.HTM
This discusses this issue and offers suggestions for you.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

A print's faithfulness to the screen view is not necessarily accurate. It is still possible to closely match the screen, yet have color that is not correct. The only way to get "accurate" color, is to profile the camera to a known, widely acceptable standard. In fact, when you do that, even if your screen is showing blues as reds, and yellows as purples, if you don't try to adjust the on screen colors to make them look "normal" you will still get accurate color, because you are not depending on the display for accurate color, which is why the profile works.

Opusx300

I had a bad problem like this with a Sony a6300 and after trying many of the approaches listed I gave up and got rid of the camera. It was a very frustrating experience. It was my first foray into mirrorless and I became turned off. Back to good ole DSLR's for me.

A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

In my post I did not give the technique used to photograph the painting. I used daylight, auto white balance, (aperture priority), RAW/jpeg, but because the colors were good I used the jpeg, with a few slight color adjustments in Photoshop (As suggested by twowindsbear earlier Gimp would do the trick) the colors were extremely accurate. After making a small test print I made another very slight adjustment to the colors as (although Spyder Monitor Calibration and the printer is set up carefully for the paper I use) it needed a very slight color adjustment to get the print spot on. Personally I have never found it necessary to use anything like Xrite ColorChecker Passport. Of course as twowindsbear says, do not use mixed light sources. If you use artificial light all lamps used must be the same color temperature

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Just a thought are the colors not true on the monitor screen or on the color prints. In short, is your reproduction process corrected for color balance?

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

If I understand correctly, the OP is comparing final "ad" to actual object, not to anything intermediate. Part of the question is how well color is controlled in the advertising process.

RWCRNC Loc: Pennsylvania

I agree I have this camera and I set it to standard or neutral. It is in the menu under the camera icon. Scroll down to creative style. Shoot some pictures and see which style gives you the truest colors.

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Does the A6000 allow you to set a Custom WB? If so, that should really improve things, if not you can adjust it during pp, PS would make easy work of that!

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Your problem is one of the most difficult of all problems - color management. The first problem is the human brain. As we grew up we learned the colors. So when we see a white napkin we perceive it as white no matter if the lighting is rich in some shade of color. Then there is the color fidelity of the camera sensor, the device that displays the image, the ink that prints the image. Then there is the color fidelity of the so-called 'correction' tools. One trick is to place a 'standard' black & white card in the scene to set the camera's color balance tool. There is a black & white eye dropper tools procedure in Photoshop to compensate for color casts. Then there is the 'natural' light thing. Say not far from your scene there is a big yellow building - light reflected from it will mix with the light from other sources and so add a color cast - but that white shirt in the scene 'looks' white nevertheless. Back to the human again - as we age our eyes can begin to becloud with cataracts that distorts colors but our brains compensate without our knowing it.

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

His only problem is he has his camera set on vivid, that is all that is wrong. He has already sent me a PM. Cut out the BS.

daf40 Loc: Mesa, AZ

There are many features on this camera that will have an effect on color. Many of the intelligent auto and superior auto modes will have a significant effect on color. Other possibilities are white balance, DRO, auto HDR, Vivid color settings, contrast settings, creative style, picture effect, color space. This is a great camera, but it is difficult to learn because there are so many options to set. You may want to look for a better manual, as the Sony documentation is pathetically incomplete. I use David Busch's Sony a6000/ILCE-6000 Digital Photography book. It is excellent, but it will take you a long time to slog through the book and learn about the versatility of the camera.

blackest Loc: Ireland

May as well start with the book 'understanding exposure' by Bryan Peterson. You have a lot to learn.

If you need accurate color balance and tone you will need to learn how to do it right.

For a start you need a good exposure, if its underexposed tones will be darker and overexposed they will be lighter. Your camera will try to meter so it exposes so what's in front of it is mid gray. So lets say you want to photograph a white shirt, the camera assumes its a gray shirt and under exposes to make it gray. if its a black shirt then it will over expose it and it will also look gray. Colors will also get messed up that way too.

So for that first step a calibrated gray card is useful the camera will get the brightness of the color right. Lets say your camera figures F8 1/250th of a second at iso 200 for the gray card (the actual values will depend on the light). You should then be able to set those settings in manual mode and as long as the light doesn't change the tones should be right. If you don't keep the settings constant your camera will think the light has changed, where in reality it's the color of what you are photographing.

You also should do a white balance from that gray card too. because white light isn't white it tends to have a dominant color Fluorescent tubes give a greenish tint, tungsten bulbs tend to make peoples faces look red. Sunlight isn't constant either if its cloudy its a different color to a cloudless day.

That's pretty good color control for an amateur, most don't care about that, but you are in a tricky situation, your customer will expect the color of what you are selling to match the pictures you posted.

A pro product photographer will use something like an xrite color checker and create a stage set with balanced controlled lighting so each item gets the same color and temperature of light and a fixed exposure so the tones don't change.

If the manufacturer of what you are selling has product photo's you can use, use them. But good luck if it's cheap chinese clothing most of the time what you get does not look like its photograph.

Anyway getting a white balance from the gray card will remove most of the color cast and should get something reasonably close to what your customers will see on screen (they have uncalibrated screens so it will not be spot on anyway).

If you read the book you should start to understand what i am talking about.