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December 12, 2006
Pathetic Marketing Campaign Tries to Boost PSP
Sony is "down" with all us "gamerz", usin' our street "vernacularz" to show off their mad marketing "skillz". This time around the company hired viral marketing firm Zipatoni to put together a website/blog to praise the PlayStation Portable for the holidays. The site is supposed to look like someone's real plea to parents to buy a PSP for a Christmas gift. AllIWantForXmasIsAPSP.com tries to imitate Zipatoni's vision of how video game fans speak (with non-existent punctuation, a lack of capitalization, and a complete disregard for basic rules of grammar).
This sort of thing is horrendously transparent. UK Resistance has compiled the best quotes from real gamers who have descended on the AllIWant comment sections to call out Zipatoni/Sony's condescending behavior.
"As a gamer who is part of Sony's target audience I'm insulted not just by the integrity of this website, but that this reflects how intelligent Sony's marketing department thinks I am."
"Please, while you're removing this comment and the 200 other negative comments above it (again), have the decency to do one honest thing in your life and inform Sony of just how bad they screwed up by ordering this a_d. This is simply so insulting to anyone who truly loves games, the only reaction you will likely get is a decreased willingness to buy anything Sony branded."
Sometimes I just don't know what to say about these pathetic marketing attempts to blend in with a community. I suppose now that you've heard about this viral ad, the campaign could be considered a success, but also keep in mind that this may be how Sony sees their primary audience: illiterate idiots without enough disposable income to afford a PSP.
Posted by MattG on December 12, 2006 at 11:44 AM in Sony | Permalink
Comments
Awesome blog entry. Been reading your site for months now. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Miner2049er | Dec 12, 2006 12:13:13 PM
Low cost and good selection of games is my primary concern. I really don't care whether they're 'down' with gamer ebonics :P
Posted by: Freaky Lynx | Dec 12, 2006 1:33:56 PM
Pretty funny! They don't actually think that anyone will believe it though do they? I mean... how do they get people to visit the blog in the first place?
Posted by: Duncan | Dec 12, 2006 5:39:01 PM
Quite funny indeed. It's nice to see the gamer community speak out against false and demeaning marketing campaigns. I am wondering, however, where all the Sony fans are when it comes to defending the PlayStation franchise. Then again, it doesn't really look like it's the best side of the battlefield to be on.
Posted by: Xat | Dec 12, 2006 7:24:36 PM
lolzorz
Posted by: emmzee | Dec 12, 2006 9:07:37 PM
Oh my God! Call Johnny Turbo, those goons from FEKA are at it again!
Posted by: Tetsuo | Dec 13, 2006 2:50:04 AM
"Pathetic" is exactly the right word to use in this case.
Posted by: BruceC | Dec 13, 2006 12:29:16 PM
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2006/20061213.jpg
Posted by: Freaky Lynx | Dec 13, 2006 1:44:26 PM
"Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn't a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP.
"Sony Computer Entertainment America"
Heh.
Posted by: -Bent- | Dec 13, 2006 6:03:38 PM
It seems they've even disabled commenting, however, comments are still accessible by clicking the name of the post under "Entries 2 Date."
Posted by: Xat | Dec 13, 2006 11:17:14 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
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