Sony took a beating today for their fake blog, “All I Want for Xmas is a PSP“. Allegedly written by “Charlie” with YouTube appearances by “Cousin Pete”, the blog attempts to reach a male demographic by speaking like Ali G on IM and featuring low-resolution rap videos (“holiday hitz!”). The worst part is, the PSP blog keeps up the act, even long after commenters publicly flog the ad agency behind it. About 550 hate-comments later, the president of Zipatoni (the ad agency) replies,
“Please know that we approached the client initially with this scenario and they said ‘who cares if people find out? As long as it is funny, we do this stuff all of the time.’…when was the last time people were blogging about Zip ato ni? I’m confident Dawn will turn this into one helluva a case study in the months to come.”
I’d launch into a rant about why this site is neither funny nor a case study in viral marketing, but I’ll let the 600+ comments speak for me…
“If you want a PSP badly enough you should get together with an ad agency. Then try to sell the product through a lame website while attempting to speak down to what you consider your target audience.”
Comment By Jim At 12/11/2006 3:35 PM“I am totally insulted. But, by spreading the word, just like zi-p-pa-t-o-n-i, I am doing my best to make sure this does not work.”
Comment By iam At 12/11/2006 1:44 PM“How many consumers has this website activated so far?”
Comment By john At 12/11/2006 3:39 PM“I doubt this message will reach whoever it needs to, but Sony desperately needs to stop hiring these bozos to do their marketing. This website is as bad as the PS 3 baby ads, which are as bad as the PSP dust ball ads, which are worse than the most annoying Old Navy ad you could possibly think of.”
Comment By D-stab At 12/11/2006 1:59 PM“All i want for Christmas is a Nintendo DS and a copy of Nintendogs.”
Comment By Jimmy At 12/11/2006 5:00 PM
Here are some of charlie/cousin pete’s “funny” responses…
“You all is haters tymes 4. Dis is lee-git. Don’t know why youse thinks this is a schill. Are site was registered through an external provider. We don’t work for sony. And for all you dissin’ my skillz I’m down for a one on one rap off or settling it street stylez if you feel me playa. Teh.
I own a Nintendo DS and I love it. I would still like a PSP for shizzle. But the DS is just as solid.”
Comment By cousinpete At 12/11/2006 7:21 PM“Why you h8ers h8ing on our site so much?
We juz 2 d00dz that wantz a Sony™ PSP™ (PlayStation Portable™) real bad yo. We dun noe no dam ad agency yo.”
Comment By Charlie At 12/11/2006 10:20 PM
Best.
Post.
Ever.
Sony rules…
Now
It rocks!!
This is bad. I really don’t expect something like this from the SONY. They have there PSP game console on top yet they do this blunder. i dont understand it.