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Sony Behind Fake YouTube Viral Campaign
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Dec 12, 2006 09:16 AM
from the you-are-not-'street'-sony dept.
from the you-are-not-'street'-sony dept.
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.
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Sony Paid for Fake PSP Graffiti? 129 comments
Eli Gottlieb writes "It would appear that the Sony Corporation (known for their world-class rootkits) paid graffitists to paint pictures of children using their new PSPs on city walls. Sony "artists" (corporate operatives?) have even been caught in the act of painting advertising campaigns on public walls. Note that these are not paid-for billboards or advertising media, but illegal graffiti in the first place. Beyond that, Sony is attempting to co-opt the subculture and possibly even artistic integrity of real graffists to sell more PSPs! Luckily, people have started to paint back and show that corporate vandals are not welcome." Though it does appear the vandal depicted is copying the image off of a sheet of paper, there's no real proof of Sony's complicity. Take with a grain of salt.
[+]
Sony Graffiti Ads Draw More Anger 69 comments
Philly.com is running the confirmation that Sony paid a vendor to lease wallspace for their PSP graffiti ads. Philadelphia groups are slamming the ads as affronts to clean urban spaces, and the Licenses and Inspections Department in the city is planning to cite the business owner. From the article: "Jake Dobkin, copublisher of the Gothamist Web site, considers himself a street-art aficionado. He said the Sony campaign hit his SoHo neighborhood in Manhattan a few weeks ago with not only 'dozens' of spray-painted murals but 'hundreds' of posters of the same cutesy youths. He took aim at Sony for trying to dupe people like him. 'It's clearly a large campaign, and deserves a thoughtful, measured response,' he wrote on his blog. 'Here's mine: corporate graffiti sucks.'"
[+]
'Best' Fake Blog of 2006 Awarded 74 comments
schwaang writes "Advertising is an integral part of the Web, and its revenues make the likes of Google possible for all of us. But when PR firms promote products by pretending to be real bloggers, some think it crosses the line into unethical 'astroturf'. The Consumerist held a contest for best 'Flog' of 2006. And the winner is... Sony for it's fake all-I-want-for-Xmas PSP blog (which Slashdot readers will no doubt remember). Runners up included
Walmart and McDonald's. And the award itself? Well, it's something you might find on on a fake lawn."
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Sony Behind Fake YouTube Viral Campaign
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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)
(http://www.digitalplight.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday September 27, @10:26AM)
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)
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.
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...
Re:It's called Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's called Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
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 (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.
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.
Re:It's called Marketing (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://kill-9.hobbiton.org/)
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 (Score:4, Funny)
(http://gumbercules.net/)
Trying to make it 'cool' (Score:5, Informative)
What is going on? (Score:1, Interesting)
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? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/~eldavojohn/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 16, @03:26PM)
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? (Score:5, Insightful)
The best part... (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Thursday November 08, @06:00PM)
Some poor lawyer had to pretend to be a subliterate 14-year-old while adding a disclaimer to that mess!
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)
(Last Journal: Saturday February 25 2006, @11:02PM)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.basilisk-digital.ch/)
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 (Score:1)
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!! (Score:1)
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. (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://designelement.us/)
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 (Score:1)
Did Sony release the symbols to public domain? (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://stuckinthecube.blogspot.com/)
Critique (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://matoushin.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday May 24 2005, @09:28AM)
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)
When you report on a viral marketing scheme... (Score:2)
(http://www.mypalmike.com/)
It's called Pathetic (Score:3, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Thursday December 01 2005, @10:39AM)
Snakes on a plane (Score:1)
viral marketing (Score:1)
Anyway, anyone ever had Bachelor Chow (c)? Great stuff!
Viral marketing and comments (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Monday February 13 2006, @07:11PM)
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 (Score:1)
(http://www.zacwittedesign.com/)
Non-issue (Score:2)
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... (Score:1)
(http://www.tolvans-sf.se/)