Slashdot Mirror
Sony Behind Fake YouTube Viral Campaign
Wowzer writes "Sony is up to the same old tricks again. Following in the footsteps of their fake PSP Graffiti campaign, Sony has hired marketing company Zipatoni to set up a YouTube-based viral marketing scheme for the Sony PSP. The company did this by registering the domain alliwantforxmasisapsp. There are no disclaimers to show it isn't 'real', but the website's whois points out it's setup by Zipatoni." From the C&VG article: "The lies don't end there, fake comments have been posted at Kotaku only linking to the Youtube video to increase its pageviews: 'Good call on DJ max. Regarding music: if changes were to be made for westerners, this guy should be considered - LOLZ'" Update: 12/13 02:37 GMT by Z : The Washington Post has an article stating that the FTC will look into situations like this, if they perchance to come up.
This here's a must-read if you haven't read it yet... Bill Hicks's rant on marketing.
http://sennoma.net/main/edits/Hicks.html
This is how it starts... "By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself."
It only gets better.
In the same vein, this does appear to be a blog by someone whose friend wants a PSP. But reading just a little into the site shows how lame this site is. It says the same thing constantly: Here's how to bug the people in your family that have money until they buy you a PSP. Nowhere at all does it show the fanboyism that would be necessary to create a site like this.
Add to that the fact that the site is VERY well designed, the graphics are all professional, and there's a really cute chick. Any 1 of those 3 could be chance, but the change that a 13-yo professional-level web and graphic designer ALSO has a cute chick for a friend is absolutely absurd.
The only people going to fall for this are the same 13 year olds that ALREADY want a PSP for xmas. Nobody else will care.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Some poor lawyer had to pretend to be a subliterate 14-year-old while adding a disclaimer to that mess!
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Marketroids are duplicitous, unscuplulous, charlatans
Not to mention you're fucked without the ice beam.
This story on Slashdot has that strange "lying" spin on it. Everywhere else I read this story, everyone just seems to be laughing hysterically at how pathetic Sony is. Watch the video and you'll understand.
If the point of this campaign was to make it look like the PSP had a big underground following for being cool, it has totally backfired. Who wants to own a PSP now if it means being associated with the character in this video?
FiGZ.COM - A waste of perfectly good web space
I hope you don't smoke at the bar, or sit around people who do smoke. Have you seen what a smoker's lungs look like? I suggest you stop hanging out at bars, stop smoking, and have some Chewlie's gum.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
He was moaning that it was *too* obvious, not that it wasn't obvious enough. Perversely, he seems to want to be taken in when people lie to him...
It's official. Most of you are morons.
If 9 is the kool-aid, then 7 is a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun in your mouth spraying your brains across the ceiling.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
When information is presented, it should be cited when there are profit-based slants involved. I don't want to say there should be a law about it, but in some cases, there are already laws about it. But basically, I believe that if companies have a right to sue and use legal intimidation to slap down critics and even genuine fan-based media, then the public should also have a right to be informed when they are being fed a load of crap generated by marketers and advertisers. I would only consider that to be fair and balanced.
But that would mean the end of Fox News.
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