Sony pays PR firm to lie about wanting a PSP for Christmas (terrible rapsong video included)

12 December 2006

Posted by:Ferry

I hate that it’s popular in the media nowadays to bash the black sheep PS3. It’s true that Sony made almost every mistake they could make in the release of the PS3, but I don’t think any one game company deserved to be put down by the press in the way the PS3 did, especially since they are trying to earn their keep by providing you with entertainment like they did with the PS2. That being said…

… Sony just sank to the lowest of the lowest level. Sony hired marketing company Zipatoni to set up a viral marketing scheme, that company did this by registering the domain alliwantforxmasisapsp.com [link to the whois registration, not the real website]. This website is set up as a PSP fansite where the marketers with Sony’s approval pretend to be kids that want a PSP and posted a rap video titled “All I Want for X-mas Is A PSP” to go along with the following LIES:

“here’s the deal::: i (charlie) have a psp. my friend jeremy does not. but he wants one this year for xmas.

so we started clowning with sum not-so-subtle hints to j’s parents that a psp would be teh perfect gift. we created this site to spread the luv to those like j who want a psp!

consider us your own personal psp hype machine, here to help you wage a holiday assault on ur parents, girl, granny, boss — whoever — so they know what you really want.

we’ll let you know how it works for us. pls return the favor. more to come, c&j.”

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: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJxIWUKM0hQ – LOLZ”

At Youtube the lies continue: “Our boy Cousin Pete — yes, the same Cousin Pete featured on the $249 bill — just finished his video! Check his fresh (and mad clowny) rhymes and old-school beats. True LOL stuff!” [TRUE = FAKE!]

Don’t forget to ask greg.meyerkord@zipatoni.com if the money he earned by lying for Sony was enough to get him that PSP for Xmas, blergh disgusting.

Updated: Youtube user/gamer babylonian made a video response to Sony to tell them gamers are not that stupid:

Via Somethingawful, from Joystiq

Categories: News, Videos

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steph*

This ad is terrible.
Now my eyes bleed.
Jeff

I think the Viral Marketing is working — this story was on SlashDot, and all of us are watching it, right? So, SUCCESS!!!

Bastards.
ShockedInSTL

First of all, I know Craig M., he no longer works at said “agency”. So don’t blame him.

Second, I wasn’t as offended at the “lying” of a viral site, companies do it all the time, I was offended by the horrible idea and creative turned out by a once decent agency. EXCREMENT.
blinkingblythe

I think Sony should do the same thing that Super Grover did with the “broken” Commodore 64 on Sesame
Street back in the day. It’s much cheaper then their latest ad campaigns and just as effective.
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http://PSPFAKEAD BERT

I HEARD ON ANOTHER SITE THE BAND IS NOT A FAKE BAND. I HEARD THAT THEY ARE ACTUALLY GOOD AND THIS WAS JUST SOMETHING SILLY THEY AGREED TO DO. THE BANDS NAME IS AVEX I WENT TO THEIR SITE ITS NOT BAD AVEXBAND.COM. I DON’T AGREE WITH SONY BUT HELL GOTTA LOVE GOOD ARTIST WHO HAVE A FUN AND SILLY SIDE TO THEM
collars

If Avex did do it, shame on them. I wonder if the coins were worth the embarrasment of being caught in a sham, a very poor one at that.
http://michaelocc.com Michael O’Connor Clarke

It gets worse. Earlier today, Sony posted a note to the top of that terrible fake blog, confessing that the whole thing was a thinly-veiled marketing ploy. At the same time, they disabled commenting on the site AND (perhaps the worst part) pulled down and buried all the old comments. Can we say “transparency” people?

Right after I blogged some thoughts on this, I went and checked the site again – it now appears to be offline. Deliberate, or accidental? Who can tell.

One tiny point of correction, if you don’t mind: your headline here states that Sony paid a “PR firm” to do this. Zipatoni appears to be many things, but they’re certainly not a PR firm. As a full-time PR guy, I would like to think that people in my business would know better than to do something as clueless as this. Alas, as the recent Wal-Mart fake blog issues, and countless other examples have shown – PR people can be at least as wrong-headed as these buzz marketers at Zipatoni were.
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