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.

It's called Marketing

... it is not lying... it is, and has been for many years called marketing.
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

If Nintendo or Apple did this, it would be called genius. Instead, it's a total marketing scam because it was done by Sony, who most likely just paid the company to market it and said you guys are the smart ones, you figure out the campaign. This article smacks of teenage journalism, completely down to the Liar, Liar DVD cover. Are these guys just realizing now that marketing companies play dirty to get you to buy their product? Welcome to reality, children.

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

The problem isn't that Sony paid for cheap-tactics marketing, it's that the attempt is so thinly veiled. Have you even looked at the site yet? It is so obviously created by a marketing firm that is pretending to be an authentic teenager. I don't know about anyone else but if I'm going to have someone lying to my face I'd rather they actually make it believable.

Re:It's called Marketing

I've always wondered how many of those "fanboys" are 22 year old peons at a marketing firm designed to start "internet hype."

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

There are no such things as astroturfers. Hell, *you* are probably paid by anti-marketing firms to spew nonsense about marketing firms! [Made tounge in cheek!]

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 /' to fix your Nvidia drivers, then the internet will become a better place. There are going to be people eeking out an existence by modifying the information and posting on message boards to market consumer products and post Amazon referral links. Its a shady business and some people just don't get why.

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.

Re:It's called Marketing

No, bullshit. Sorry. This is NOT marketing, and in fact it's borderline deceiveing. I don't give two shits if they call it viral marketing, or astroturfing, or whatever. It is a scam simply because it intends to mislead the consumer by making him beleive that what he's seeing was created by someone who really would like a PSP for Christmas. The fact that this one is so poorly made that it begs to be laughed at is irrelevant. I don't know what saddens me most, the fact that a lot of people just can't grasp the difference or (even worse) that they're so used to this kind of promotion that think it's normal.

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...

Re:It's called Marketing

You are right. Those other people are wrong. What if Sony just made up fake movie reviews, or music reviews. They have actually done this and gotten in big trouble for it. They invented a fictional movie reviewer and plastered fake quotations (ie "The best film I've seen all year!!!") on their movie posters. TOTALLY 100% WRONG. This is no different. The consumer has a right to know what is an ad and what is not.

Re:It's called Marketing

If Nintendo or Apple did this, it would be called genius.

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.

Must read Bill Hicks anti-marketing rant

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 [sennoma.net]

This is how it starts... "By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself."

It only gets better.

Re:It's called Marketing

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.

Re:It's called Marketing

I think every form of advertising needs to express that it is an ad. There has been much discussion about fake or otherwise paid 'news stories' during normal news broadcasts. This falls within that classification in my opinion. If it purports to be genuinely fan-based and is not, it's a lie -- just as when news media purports to be presenting a product endorsement as a genuine "unbiased news item."

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.

sony has too much money to deceive you

What sony is doing is not called marketing, its called deception.

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.

Re:It's called Marketing

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.

Trying to make it 'cool'

Is it my imagination or is Sony's strategy for their playstation line to attempt to make their product 'cool' rather than to make it a good product for gamers. Over the life of the PSP it has been outsold by both the GBA and Nintendo DS and has failed to make a larger impact largely because it is not a particularly good portable videogame machine. Had Sony put the effort into it the PSP would have a larger library of good games, and in particular a library of unique 'portable gaming' content for the PSP, which would make the system sell far better.

What is going on?

Sorry, I am not quite clear on what Sony has done wrong? They paid someone to help them advertise the PSP. The advertises did this by attempting to create a viral campaign. Ok, so beside the fact that this is clearly not aimed at slashdotters or the other people who seem to be getting upset about it, why is this a problem?

Don't get me wrong, I will never by a PSP or another sony product again (the cameras were ok), for the many attrocties they have done on the buying product (and I don't count the price of the PS3 amoung them), but lets stop knocking them for every little thing they do.

Re:What is going on?

What is going on?

Well, there's nothing wrong on the surface. It's just that the consumer doesn't 'know' that it's Sony's marketing blitz. Sony is probably doing it out of pure motive of trying to gather interest and make the news (mission accomplished--see article). But there are some people that don't like being lied to regardless of the conditions.

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.

Re:What is going on?

Just because someone is bad at lying to you doesn't mean you should excuse their attempts to lie.

The best part...

My favorite part is:

you can always try to use this $249 bill to buy a psp entertainment pack for yourself. don't rlly try to use, though - if you do, you'll be playing it the next 5-10 years in cell block H!

Some poor lawyer had to pretend to be a subliterate 14-year-old while adding a disclaimer to that mess!

The Apple way

I know I'll get tagged flamebait, troll and whatnot, but this is pretty much the way Apple's products are being marketed. The items are made "trendy", they are sold via the way of being "hip" and "cool", and that everyone wants one because they're hip and cool. How many ads do you know that talk about the features and unique things the iPod can do? How many of the accessoires that you can buy for it do really have additional value to it?

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 /.er, I've had my share of problems and (needless) lawsuits with them. But what they do here is exactly what marketing is about today. Creating a hype. Making the product cool and thus making people want it. Not because it is technically superior or offers more utility than the competition, but simply because "so many say it's cool, so it's gotta be cool".

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

Sure, but IIRC, most companies do their advertising in an open and obvious fashion.

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.

Re:The Apple way

You seem to be missing the point. What's wrong isn't that Sony is trying to be cool. There's nothing wrong with that (even though it seems to have backfired horribly).

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.

Viral

It isn't fake, It IS a viral market campaign mixed with youtube fake phenomenoum(like lovelygirl15). It wouldn't be as effective if a company made a real ad and posted in youtube.
By getting all this exposure they must alredy have succeded in spiking PSP sales.

That and MGS Portable Ops(this game is awesome).

It's notable because it's so BAD!!

There is nothing wrong with marketing but I think a lot of people have problems with paid corporate influence of things like user reviews. Perfectly legal for them to do but it is kind of slimy from the customers prospective (since they expect non biased reviews from 3rd parties). Paying someone to "pose" as an unbiased 3rd party to peddle your product will definatly seem dishonest to the customer.

That said, what is disturbing about this particular marketing site is how BAD it is. The horrible rap video and fake user comments with 'l337' speak does not help them with thier target audience. Some might say that there is no such thing as bad press. Well that is definatly not true. It is especially not true when you are pushing 'hip' and "trendiness' of your product. That's a dangerous road, one mistep or one improper association and you undue all of your positive marketing work. In this case I can easily see someone pulling out a PSP to play and thier friends imediatly start ragging them by mockingly rapping to "all I want for christmas is a PSP" video. Does Sony really want to associate themselves with beyond horrible rap songs and piss poor attempts at l337 speak???

Ves

Blame the advertising company.

This to me just demonstrates the quality of the advertising and marketing industry. They produce this sort of garbage more for their own reputation and portfolio than they do for the good of the client.

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.

I thought this was about the G4 spoof

I thougt this was about this video about the Wii and PS3 [google.com] And I thought: why would sony expect this to be positive marketing. Then I realized it was about something else. But I guess its all viral marketing, just some is better than others.

Did Sony release the symbols to public domain?

In the "blog" Sony paid for (and condoned) is the following:

don't just wear it - pwn it!!1!

<pictures snipped>

step 1: download [alliwantfo...isapsp.com] the iron-on patterns sheet
step 2: print
step 3: cut out pieces you want on your t
step 3: iron on
step 4: wear it like u mean it

No terms. No requirements. No restrictions. No demands. No disclaimers. Anyone who understands "pwn it!!1!" can easily claim that Sony paid a company to expressly promote and authorise the free use of any and all trademarked symbols, none of which display a trademark symbol in the PDFs, for their own purposes regardless of what they might be. That is pwnage.

Critique

You don't need to have spent years on the internet to know that when someone makes common mistakes/shortcuts like luv and ur, they don't do it halfway. You'll never see the following sentence on the internet by someone doing it unintentionally.

Hello everyone, I was just thinking that ur all going to luv my latest blog entry.

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.

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

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.

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!

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!"

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.

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"?

we'll let you know how it works for us. pls return the favor.

more to come,
c&j.

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...

In fact, I am pretty sure more than a few "reviews" on Slashdot are just paid advertising.

Bad faith for youtube

This is the sort of stuff that I have issues with on community oriented sites now that businesses have infiltrated them. YouTube should threaten to take this crap down since Sony is essentially offloading the filehosting capabilities onto YouTube for this stuff. I feel the same way when I see a movie or album advert on tv now with a URL directing to its MySpace page. These are supposed to be sites to build communities around, not a freaking marketing section of the web.

Sony posting fake reviews... again!

Quick, look and see if there are any comments posted by EarlDittman!

When you report on a viral marketing scheme...

... you become part of that viral marketing scheme. Good work, Slashdot editors.

It's called Pathetic

After looking at the site I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Do middle school kids really talk and act like that today or is this just some marketing dweebs wet dream. No other middle school generation could've ever been this dorky as what I saw on Sony's web site.

Snakes on a plane

Other things have been advertised via viral marketing... just 'cause its Sony it gets headlines? You say theyre 'up to their old tricks again'... well congratulations, you're the reason this type of marketing is successful.

viral marketing

This happens all the time these days. People are paid to put fake youtube.com videos and post ads in public forums all the time.
Anyway, anyone ever had Bachelor Chow (c)? Great stuff!

Viral marketing and comments

Is this new method really worth the bad PR that follows once it's uncovered?
Hmm, but I guess that's the market analysts job to confirm before putting such plans into action...

I don't like it though; videos are alright if they wish to hide who made them, but posting such comments feels like crossing a line to me.

all part of the plan

You realize that slashdot has now become part of their viral marketing engine? This is all going exactly as planned. Now they just need an article in the NYT ranting about how sony put up fake advertising, which would of course provide links to that very advertising as slashdot has done. Bingo bango, here's an extra 50,000 PSPs sold.

Non-issue

It amazes me how this can go on the front page of Slashdot. It's no different from Microsoft paying bloggers and editors to post negative stories about their competitors or positive stories about their own products. "Paying" can be in the form of different incentives, such as advertising dollars, pre-written articles, special information, or just plain cash.

To link to another non-issue regarding the "graffiti" just shows how biased this story is.

Let's talk about more Microsoft innovation, shall we?

The only crime committed...

...is that awful rap! Bleurch!