Post by n0b0dy on Dec 18, 2006 23:44:34 GMT 7
Description
Sony has admitted that a blog, supposedly created by teens in order to help people get a PSP as a gift, is in fact, a Sony marketing ploy.
The website recently surfaced offering readers the views of some teenagers who wrote in an odd way and were united by the desire to acquire a PSP for Christmas. Visitors to alliwantforxmasisapsp.com soon realized that no real teenager could manage to write in such a confused and tragically hip way and questions were soon asked about the origins of the blog. The fact that the list of banned words in the forums included the terms viral and marketing also did little to help Sony's attempts at stealth. The blog writers attempted to convince visitors to use T-shirts in an attempt to convince others to buy them a PSP for Christmas.
Visitors to the website forums quickly revealed that it was the creation of marketing firm Zipatoni, while by strange coincidence the same firm employed one of the people appearing on the website. What seemed to disappoint Sony fans the most was the aggressive way in which the company, at first, attempted to protect its secret; deleted forum entries, banned words and phrases and fake comments were just some of the tactics which alienated visitors. The website had the surreal appeal of grandma trying to be hip at the Christmas dinner table but it failed terribly as a marketing ploy.
Sony has since apologized about the effort although the site appears to be offline now. The official Sony statement claims, 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.
When asked if the website could be considered an insult by Sony fans a company spokesperson said, Sony just released the most advanced console ever developed, so I doubt seriously that anyone would think we are underestimating our consumers. We will leave the comments to that response to you... Oh and because the site was such an absolute gem, the kind people at UK:Resistance have created a mirror which you can reach by following the download tab above.
@www.megagames.com/news/html/console/sonyfakepspblogbusted.shtml
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