Sony Behind Fake YouTube Viral Campaign 284
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.
It's called Marketing (Score:2, Insightful)
the beer commercial shows you that when you open up one of their beers you get 20 naked women to show up at your party, but the "other" beer brings balding middle aged men.
This is no different from any other commercial on any other form of media.
Hell, Some drug ads never say what they do (so they don't have to give side effects) similar to Sony not saying this is an ad.
Re:It's called Marketing (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm also a little confused as to how the comment on Kokatu was linked directly to this marketing company. The commenter is mrjohnstamos who has no linking information whatsoever and only one comment. Suspicious, but nowhere near the proof that the evil hand of Sony is behind this.
Can we get some real news now?
Re:It's called Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:It's called Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, for about $50,000 you could pay a small army of net nerds to hype your product for a few weeks and get more exposure to clients than spending that money on a national TV spot. You think marketing companies don't know this? They've been astroturfing internet forums for years, and they've gotten really good at not looking like astroturfing.
Re:It's called Marketing (Score:4, Insightful)
I think that when people distrust everyone on the internet as much as they do "people from London on Craigslist" or "Russian girls on Myspace" or "GNAA on Slashdot" or "Brazilians on Orkut", and realize that you can't really trust who edited that Wikipedia article on self STD diagnosis or posted that blog about using 'sudo \rm -Rf
As soon as we show as much trust to random people on the internet (even our friends on the internet aren't to be trusted!) as we do to people walking down the street in a major metropolitan area, is when we trust them enough.
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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?
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Re:It's called Marketing (Score:4, Insightful)
By the way, this was created by a PR agency - just click here [zipatoni.com].
But then again, it's Sony we're talking about. It's not like they have a track record [wikipedia.org] in this sort of matters...
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Re:It's called Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
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So this is unlike all advertising, how exactly?
Do supermodels really eat at mcdonalds? Does the hot 19 year old who gets picked up by the 55 year old in his bimmer really want to sleep with him when shes not getting paid? This guy was paid to say he likes the psp. If it helps your mind any, for the right amount of money lies can become
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When you see the hot model on TV eating McDonalds (lately it's just been a group of racially diverse trendy-looking idiots smiling while they eat the garbage) you KNOW that it's an ad.
With an astroturfing campaign like this, you don't know whether or not it's a genuine fan site or if it's Sony-sponsored. This site even goes so far as to display an image that says "this is not an ad."
Can you seriously not see the difference? The first ad is clearly a McDonalds ad -- they j
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The same Panadol ad with the Panadol logo at the end? Or the shopping channel infomercials that reminds you every 20 minutes that the "show" you're watching is a paid advertisement? Come on, the line might be thin, but it's still there. The fact that advertising nowadays is pretty fucked up doesn't excuse i
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No, fake grass roots campaigns are deceptive and in every case I'm aware of are done by companies that are so uncool that it makes my face hurt. And it isn't that I'm particularly outraged by this campaign, but it does make the PSP seem kind of lame.
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Cult following... how appropriate. The rest of us are waiting for you all to drink the kool-aid or eat the pudding or whatever.
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Cult following... how appropriate. The rest of us are waiting for you all to drink the kool-aid or eat the pudding or whatever.
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Re:It's called Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh hell no. If Nintendo or Apple did this, I would say "Fuck you, Nintendo" or "Fuck you, Apple".
Show me the Nintendo or Apple advertisement that pretends not to be an advertisement, and you have a point. No, "The Wizard" doesn't count. Until then, this is simple: Sony hired someone to astroturf for them, and thus I say "Fuck you, Sony".
Astroturfing is not new, but it's always despicable. Like the phone makers that paid models to hang out in bars flaunting their technology. If Apple paid people to hang out in bars showing off iPods, then they'd be just as bad. So far as I know they don't. Sony is engaging in the same practice, which is to make it appear as though someone likes their product because they truly like it, when in reality they are paid boku bucks to pretend they like it. That's simply rotten.
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Yeah, all the coverage on the Sony exploding batteries was a marketing coup for them. And why are convicted sex offenders so upset at having to go door to door to announce their presence -- there's no such thing as bad pr!
I'm sure my "Fuck Sony!" comme
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I would have to disagree with you on this because,
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Must read Bill Hicks anti-marketing rant (Score:5, Funny)
http://sennoma.net/main/edits/Hicks.html [sennoma.net]
This is how it starts... "By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself."
It only gets better.
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Re:It's called Marketing (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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Honestly, which party would be better for you, the host? Buying a few 24 packs of coors light for you and your sports friends or stocking up on 4/$9 wine coolers for the ladies? Think about it
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Thanks for making me feel old.
Re:It's called Marketing (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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you must be working for sony... (Score:2)
The difference between a beer ad with 20 naked women and the youtube thing is that the beer ad doesnt try to make you think its real.
What sony is doing is not called marketing, its called deception.
sony has too much money to deceive you (Score:5, Insightful)
i think you have your terms confused.
when a prominent media figure uses lawyers and journalists to avoid telling the truth, that's called spin .
when a government official enlists the help of others to not tell the truth, that's called a national security .
when a huge multi-national corporation doesn't tell the truth, that's called marketing .
when a regular person, doesn't tell the truth and has no money, politcal affiliation or legal representation that's lying .
lying is bad. spinning, marketing, and national security are what keeps us safe at night.
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However, this doesn't stop me from seeing how utterly pathetic it is to pay a m
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Now, a pharmaceutical company can choose to not tell you what it does, although that is rare (there are some out there that do it on a regular basis though...never quite understood that)
Re:It's called Marketing (Score:4, Funny)
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If I was in a bar and some guy walked in, announced he was from Beer Company X, then handed over a case for the bartender to distribute for free with his blessing, I'd thank him kindly and certainly try his product. I might even become a customer.
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Such a thin line separates a brilliant marketing strategy from a shitty one
If I was in a bar and some guy walked in, announced he was from Beer Company X, then handed over a case for the bartender to distribute for free with his blessing, I'd thank him kindly and certainly try his product. I might even become a customer.
I believe that thin line is called "honesty". In the first guy's example, he would feel like he had been deceived. In your example, you wouldn't feel deceived and also you'd be glad to have a free beer. Now, the bar owner might not be so happy that people are handing out free beer in his bar (i.e. no one is buying beer and he isn't making money).
Trying to make it 'cool' (Score:5, Informative)
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You repeat yourself. A 'good product for gamers' is intrinsically 'cool' , is it not? So yes I think they are aiming for that.
When Nintendo comes in 3rd place (
aahhh, but you forget (Score:2)
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It wouldn't be cool to hate them if their products were more worthwhile.
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Sadly, you are right. And I did forget. I wonder what the half-life for that phenomenon is. (Probably the length of time between the rootkit and the first breakout hit for the PS3. Or Spiderman 3, whichever comes first.)
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Uh, no. That's not how it works. A "cool" product has hype. It's been spun. People are convinced they need one. It's not because it's the best product! Although the best product can be cool. It's like, say, the difference between a logitech optical wheel mouse and a microsoft intellimouse optical. Sure, the microsoft mouse looks a little sexier. Sure, the in-store display is pret
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Hmm, I guess it depends on your personal definition. Personally, I separate 'cool' from 'hyped' but perhaps you have a point as far as the general public goes.
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Not over 90, sure. But your comparison is one-sided. Here is the data from metacritic:
PSP Top 10 With Scores
1. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops - 89%
2 Lumines- 89%
3 Wi
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Actually, if you noticed I was pretty balanced and looked at both game sales and game ratings; the fact is that game reviews are largely subjective and represent how well a game apeals to the core-gamer demographic, game sales represent how a game apeals to to the masses. I also have been trying not to directly compare the PSP to the Nintendo DS, mainly because the Nintendo DS is one of the fastest selling consoles in the
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Sony isn't exactly a powerhouse developer and their hardware is more expensive. Sony platforms live or die by third party support and for whatever reason, the software sales never came and 3rd party support is drying up. Calling the PSP a dead platform is
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#1. Everyone in gaming wants you to think their stuff if cool. Everyone. It's nice if the reason you think it's cool has something to do with quality, but in the end, that's not an absolute necessity. Question, which one was it, the GBA, or the DS that Nintendo purposely set out to look uncool? Neither? Well, t
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The best part... (Score:5, Funny)
Some poor lawyer had to pretend to be a subliterate 14-year-old while adding a disclaimer to that mess!
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The Apple way (Score:3, Insightful)
Aside from the ITMS, which a good deal of iPod users never touched, what's the advantage over other MP3 players on the market? I mean, technically, not from being "cool".
Now, I hate Sony maybe even MORE than the average
If you have an iPod, ask yourself why. Because you compared it and you actually found it REALLY superior to the other products in that market sector, or because someone told you it's cool and that you should have it? You needn't answer. Just ask yourself and try to be honest with yourself.
Re:The Apple way (Score:4, Insightful)
Sony isn't being criticized for trying to make their product hip & cool, but for being sneaky about it.
IMO, there are enough people out there that dislike advertising & marketing, to the point that most corporate sponsored "viral" campaigns will get their covers blown off fairly early.
Some people take satisfaction in unmasking 'dishonest' campaigns, others just don't like being manipulated.
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Actually it's two reasons: First of all, more and more people know that ads tell them bollocks and turn to their peers (or, in the days of the net, other people using the product) for information about the product. They don't trust the ads, the trust their peers' opinion.
And second, they don't trust the Sony ads twice as much as they already loathe being plastered by marketing. Apple has a good rep amongst its users. It has that intrinsic "coo
Re:The Apple way (Score:5, Insightful)
The difference is that Apple designates their adverts as such. When you watch/see an Apple ad, it's still clear that this is the company presenting itself to you. Sony wants you to believe it's not them presenting themselves to you but somebody else praising them to high heaven.
A company can go "Hello, we're Apple and we're really hip, just compare this personified PC with this personified mac!" all it wants. But it can't go "We're just a couple of random teenagers with no connection to Sony - but let's all buy PSPs!"
There still is a thin line between marketing and lying. A very thin line, yes, but it's nonetheless there.
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Can I ask: Have you tried windows media player 11? I agree anything before that was a complete joke, but I find WMP11 to be far superior to them, including iTunes (in fact, many have said that iTunes 7 has taken some ideas from WMP11). And it plays well with MP3 players too. Before I had to use a crappy custom software to put songs in my Sony Ericsson Walkman phone, but now WMP11 detects it as an MP3 player when I plug it in and lets me sync playlists/add music to it all I like.
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I have personally never purchased an iPod because it was "hip" or "cool". Before I owned an iPod, my primary MP3 player was a Diamond Rio 500. I recall also having looked at things like the Creative Nomad Jukebox, which appealed to me because of their capacity, but I didn't like the size or the navigation. I remember trying out the Nomad Jukebox, and finding it to be kind of a pain to navigate around, etc.
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Frankly, I was very surprise
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The difference is, when Apple advertises to you, it's through a television in a situation where being advertised to is accepted, obvious and transparent. Sony hiring some douchebag to PRETEND to be a fifteen-year-old boy to generate buzz for the PSP is deceptive, crude, egomaniacal, dishonest and vulgar. I work in marketing and I say this: if my company ever tried to pull off some shit like this, the backlash from the staff would be extreme.
There really is such a thing as GOOD marketing, ev
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It is true that what Apple does with the iPod, making it cool, is what Sony is trying to do with the PSP. I don't think we can argue that point. However, their methods and the success thereof are quite different.
There's a very different feel to the approaches to both companies. Apple isn't exploiting subcultures and trends to advertise the iPod. They don't use 1337 h4x or urban themes to sell their product. They make their own ads, and make them cool. The
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Yeah... except the whole affair is not about creating hype. Creating hype is fair game. Creating a fake fan site and fake fan videos is not. There is a line between a 15-year old actor saying he "luvs psp" in an ad on tv (in most civilized countries ads must be clearly flagged as such in newspapers and TV) and a 30+ marketeer pretending he is an actual 15-year old who crea
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1- A wider selection of accessories to choose from. The installed user base for iPods is so dominant that the selection of accessories dwarf all other players *combined*.
2- An intuitive, well-thought-out user interface that nearly anyone can use.
3- Syncing software that doesn't require the user to understand the ins-and-outs of software configuration to use. Just plug it in and it syncs right up. I know non-geeks that refuse to buy an iPod because they don't ow
Honest answer (Score:2)
It's not my fault that Creative couldn't come out with a competitor (The Zen) until 2004, three years later.
The hype and the cool and the hip came years later. Without a c
Blame the advertising company. (Score:3, Insightful)
They want to demonstrate that they're capable of doing extreme, creative work but the end result is lame and far from being creative. It's like they produce the first crappy idea someone comes up with. And it seems they're obsessed with Adult Swim and Youtube.
I'm curious is Sony openly embraced these campaigns or if they were forced into it by the marketing company. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the latter. From personal experience, I've found the people at many of these advertising companies to be very arrogant. I also get the distinct impression from their surveys that they seem to have a habit of fabricating market research which somehow always demonstrates that their way of doing things is the most effective.
I realize everyone seems to enjoy bashing Sony and I can't say I disagree with much of what is said. That said, I can't say this is unique to Sony. I'd say most consumer goods companies use this sort of advertising. To single out Sony for this over anyone else is a bit foolish to me. What I do hate is this sort of advertising, to me it's an insult to my intelligence. But then, I hate advertising in general.
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Uh, Sony is an 800lb gorilla. The Ad Agency doesn't tell Sony what to do. It's the other way around.
Sony has immense industry cred because they are successful.
Did Sony release the symbols to public domain? (Score:5, Interesting)
Critique (Score:5, Insightful)
This sentence of my creation highlights something everyone who's ever used IRC, read Barrens chat, or hacked the e-mail of a 14 year old knows. People who use ur and luv and similar shortcuts and mispellings will not be using proper punctuation, spelling and grammar. It doesn't happen.
Yet, here is what we have from the website. I will be pointlessly dissecting it.
People do not use colons on the internet. That key is the jaded and lost son of the realm of QWERTY. People also make assumptions, assumptions such as their identity being well known. They won't be specifying that they are "charlie", you should already know that. If you don't, you're a noob. Jeremy fails to be derided for not having a PSP. Lastly, no one speaking like this would specify "this year", or type "one" out. Number keys are there 4 a reason.
No one on the internet can spell subtle, let alone know where to use hyphens. A common thing to notice is the use of larger words here were smaller ones would have sufficed. "started" could be "were" or "did". "created" is two syllabels longer than "made". The last sentence would more improperly be "we maed this site 2 giv luv 4 u who want a psp liek j!"
Again with the long words. Very few words over 2 syllabels are in the common lexicon on the internet. "consider", "personal", "holiday", "whoever", all unknown to the internet mind. Again with the hyphens as well. There are no "girl"s on the internet, only "gf"s, and when was the last time we saw "granny"? What kid this supposed age would have a "boss"?
Anyone who uses ur is not going to type out "you". "you" is four characters too many as it is. Also, the kind of comraderie shown in this last sentiment is completely foreign. This is the internet, not a high tea. There are no favors, there are only noobs and 1337 h4x.
if ur goin 2 b 1337 u hav 2 b cool like m3 lol
Happens all the time... (Score:2)
Bad faith for youtube (Score:2)
Sony posting fake reviews... again! (Score:2)
It's called Pathetic (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What is going on? (Score:5, Insightful)
As consumers we feel we have a right to know where our advertisements are coming from. When we don't know who's advertising what, we get annoyed. Some of us even associate it with evil like SPAM marketers.
Essentially what it comes down to is Sony trying to present third party opinions of their products but not only are these opinions biased and untrue--they may be monetarily compensated for saying these things. They essentially lose 'street cred' among gamers. They aren't doing anything illegal, they're just using tricky marketing tactics that make the news. Some people hate it, some people might gobble it right up. Either way, I just spent two minutes talking about it to you.
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You might have noticed that almost every IT rag & business magazine has been talking about the tremendous marketing potential of YouTube in the last few months. This isn't an accident -- YouTube was designed to deliver ads in the form of TV show clips and promotional videos like Sony's.
The user-generated content is a sideshow or trojan horse to hide the real content.
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If you don't like being lied to, then I suggest you never watch TV, never read a newspaper or magazine, or go to an internet site with advertising. Seriously, what is the line between advertising and lying?
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In most countries, the difference is that adverts have to be clearly distinguished as adverts.
Re:What is going on? (Score:5, Insightful)
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What's next? Stop saying that everything Microsoft does is wrong?!?! This is Slashdot, hyperbole rules!
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This sort of thing was even on the national news a few months back - people who got paid to review products and post about it on Forums. But the company behind it was 'reputable' - they wouldn't post fake reviews. On the other hand, if the reviewer didn't like the product - they simply wouldn't post much at all.
It's happening all the time, and all over the plac
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Perfectly legal, I imagine. But do you think Sony would like it?
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Do you get upset everytime someone has an add on tv, where they hire actors to pretend to take out a home loan? Or buy a car? I understand this is taking it to the next level - a little bit - , but is not really that different.
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Not to mention you're fucked without the ice beam.
Re:Once again Sony is Satan... (Score:4, Insightful)
The big difference of course though is that Apple and Nintendo currently don't NEED to do this. They didn't need to create fake blogs to get people to talk about current or upcoming products, because there are plenty of real ones that do this for them. Sony of course doesn't always need to do this either........ if you have a successful or in-demand product like the PS3, you don't need to create a website like alliwantforxmasisaps3.com.
Outside of that though, historically speaking, Apple and Nintendo haven't really had to do this, or even when you could say they had to do, it isn't the kind of thing they normally would do. I mean, remember, the Mac has minuscule marketshare, all things being equal. Nintendo's GameCube came in third place. But Apple and Nintendo haven't used that as an excuse to create some goofy fake site to try and add hipness or something to their product lines.
And really, Sony doesn't have to do that either. The other tact to take with the PSP is to keep releasing high quality titles like MGS: Portable Ops, and get REAL buzz going again for the platform from real people.
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Everyone knows that advertisements stretch the truth a little, but we accept it because we know they're ads, we know they were created with a profit-driven agenda, and so we can compensate. We compensate by researching prod
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I am Batman and you are a green llama in a drag. Prove me wrong!
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Are you seriously asking why a satisfied customer would have an iota more credibility than a Sony paid advertisement?
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