Sony’s alliwantforxmasisapsp.com is the most pathetic attempt at viral marketing I have ever seen. It’s so blatantly fake that you just feel sorry for these guys. Some say there is no bad press, but this isn’t true if you’re trying to create a cool and hip image for your product. The deal is, if your astroturfers suck big time, your brand image will suffer too.
Why is it that everybody loves hating Sony? There has to be some sinister-twisted-evil-conspiracy behind all of this that we’ve yet to figure out, otherwise it just doesn’t make any sense.
Update: Sony now admits that their campaign sucked:
“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.”
I sent Sony some feedback a very long time ago. Yesterday I received sort of a reply from them (in Finnish, with spelling mistakes):
Hyvä asiakas, Tehdessämme rutiini tarkastusta ohjelmaan joka käsittelee sähköpostimme, huomasimme teknisen vian joka valitettavasti on tuhonnut viestinne sisällön. Onglenma on nyt korjattu ja pyytäisimmekin teitä lähettämään viestinne uudelleen, jos vielä tarvitsette apua Sonyn asiakaspalvelusta. Pahoittelemme tapahtunutta ja siitä koitunutta vaivaa. Ystävällisesti Sony Support support@sony.fi
My loose translation:
Dear customer, While running a routine check on our e-mail software, we found a technical error which had unfortunately destroyed the contents of your message. The problem is now solved and we ask that you send your message again if you still need help from our customer service. We apologize for the inconvenience.
No need to apologize, I’ll take the quality of your customer service into account next time I’m considering to buy a product from Sony. Just wondering, perhaps it was a Sony rootkit that deleted my message? Mybe somebody had popped a DRM infested Sony CD in their mail server. Just a thought.
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