Sony's new ad campaign for the PSP

[SmokingTarpan]

Laughable, deplorabe, and just plain rediculous.

Trying to overcome struggling sales, Sony enlists the help of Zipatoni. Zip gets out there and puts a video on YouTube to make it look as if it's just some normal person on YouTube making a crazy/stupid video instead of being an actual ad for the PSP. Here's the video, safe for work (but it might make you bleed out your orafices):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJxIWUKM0hQ

It's so sad, looks worse than a tired hooker at 7am on the Vegas strip. Apparently The Guardian got ahold of it and ripped it to shreds. Fun thing is that yesterday the FTC made a move to hamper just this kind of effort. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...rss_technology

Oh, Sony, how sad are you now? I can't wait to see the PS3 ad.

[Trooper]

he was just white trash version of K-fed...wait whiter trashier version.....And you know what is sad, i'm going to be singing that damn song for the rest of the day, need to find my wife's Celine dion CDS quick!


-rep for you....atleast label it NSFW....jk

[SmokingTarpan]

Hey now, I put the bleeding warning in. I did my job. :P

[Acid]

Owww, my orafices. How could they possibly spend money and pay someone to do that?

[en4rcment]

OMG...that was really really bad...

The PSP is a great product with alot of cool features and more uses than just gameplaying (watching movies, listening to music, browsing the internet, etc).

I'm not sure "who" they were trying to attract with that horrible ad...


-

[Apophis]

The amount of Sony haters out there is just surprising to me. I know every product has its "fanboys", but there seem to be a lot of Sony "hateboys" out there as well. It's just a company, and they make some good products and some lousy products. The belief that if a product made isn't #1 then it might as well be made out of dirt seems to be held quite strongly by these "hateboys".

Also keep in mind that Sony does not live on the PS3 alone. You can prefer the XBox360 or the Wii, but that doesn't mean the PS3 and all of Sony is a crap company.

Companies have been engaging in this form of advertising for decades. Word-of-Mouth / Viral marketing are HIGHLY effective and reach an audience that traditional advertising often doesn't. One thing many people (especially those predisposed to dislike a company) don't realize is that it doesn't matter what is being said about a company or product, only that the name is getting out there and increasing brand recognition.

This very thread is helping Sony achieve its goals, and it is quite likely the effect they were looking for when they put that video clip up on YouTube.

It's funny how it becomes "deplorable" that a company actual engage in extremely common marketing techniques to increase sales. The only thing different between this scenario and countless others is that the media picked up on it. It's shocking really. What's next? Advertisements on TV? Run for the hills!

[RandomGuy]

Originally Posted by Apophis

The amount of Sony haters out there is just surprising to me. I know every product has its "fanboys", but there seem to be a lot of Sony "hateboys" out there as well.

You mean "h8rboi"s?

As I recall Sony (or rather the marketing firm they hired) are following what their competitors have done (...remember "I love bees"?). It's best to just ignore this stuff.

[Polska]

Ah poop the video is gone. Iv'e been thinking about buying a psp!

[SmokingTarpan]

Originally Posted by Apophis

This very thread is helping Sony achieve its goals, and it is quite likely the effect they were looking for when they put that video clip up on YouTube.

The goal of Sony is to increase sales. Unless I'm completely mistaken, this thread does not help. I don't believe anyone is going to buy a PSP based off of anything in this thread.

It's funny how it becomes "deplorable" that a company actual engage in extremely common marketing techniques to increase sales. The only thing different between this scenario and countless others is that the media picked up on it. It's shocking really. What's next? Advertisements on TV? Run for the hills!

The difference between the techniques. If I watch an ad on TV, I know that the company is trying to push a product on me. However, if my friend Bob gets paid $500 under the table to tell me how much he likes a product and how I need to get it, all I know is that my friend Bob (whom I trust) is telling me that this product is cool. Nevermind the fact that he could be completely lying when he talks it up to me, because that's what he's paid to do. Throw false advertisement into the equation. A company can't make an ad saying their product does something when it doesn't, else they're liable. However, if Bob does the same thing, am I going to sue the company? Nope, because it's just Bob's opinion, as far as I know.

People inherently put up their defenses when they see an ad. However, when they're just being talked to by "normal Joes", they're more likely to listen, and more susceptible to lies.

The amount of Sony haters out there is just surprising to me. I know every product has its "fanboys", but there seem to be a lot of Sony "hateboys" out there as well. It's just a company, and they make some good products and some lousy products. The belief that if a product made isn't #1 then it might as well be made out of dirt seems to be held quite strongly by these "hateboys".

I think you may be confusing "hateboys" with a general loss of trust in the company. Speaking personally, I don't inherently hate Sony. However, I am increasingly wary of every single product that Sony releases now. For months, Sony has been making bad management decisions, has been riddled with production and technical problems, and now apparently thinks that their new advertisement is going to lure in lots of new buyers. When I heard about the PS3, I initially wanted to buy one despite the cost (pretty big step, considering the last system I owned was SNES). Then the release got delayed by a year. Then production problems hit. Then more technical problems. Hell, the PS3 wouldn't even work with certain TVs. Now the chances of me ever buying a PS3, or any other Sony product, are very, very slim.

If you surveyed people and asked them what Sony makes, I would make an educated guess that the majority of responses will be Playstation; you see far more advertisements for Sony Playstations/games than anything else they make. This is why I believe that the fate of the PS3 will decide the fate of Sony as a company- this is the product that they are known for, and it is on the bubble at the moment, aimed downward.

[SmokingTarpan]

Heh, Sony owns up to their bad move, and even removes the video from YouTube. http://www.alliwantforxmasisapsp.com/blog/

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

[Apophis]

Originally Posted by SmokingTarpan

The difference between the techniques. If I watch an ad on TV, I know that the company is trying to push a product on me. However, if my friend Bob gets paid $500 under the table to tell me how much he likes a product and how I need to get it, all I know is that my friend Bob (whom I trust) is telling me that this product is cool. Nevermind the fact that he could be completely lying when he talks it up to me, because that's what he's paid to do. Throw false advertisement into the equation. A company can't make an ad saying their product does something when it doesn't, else they're liable. However, if Bob does the same thing, am I going to sue the company? Nope, because it's just Bob's opinion, as far as I know.

I would wager you don't pay too much attention to TV commercials. There are TONS of commercials that advertise products that don't really work. Yet the commercials keep coming and coming.

If you disagree with this method of advertising, you need to look at the FCC or FTC. It's not Sony's fault that it's not illegal, and they're not the first ones to participate in this type of marketing campaign.

I think you may be confusing "hateboys" with a general loss of trust in the company. Speaking personally, I don't inherently hate Sony. However, I am increasingly wary of every single product that Sony releases now. For months, Sony has been making bad management decisions, has been riddled with production and technical problems, and now apparently thinks that their new advertisement is going to lure in lots of new buyers. When I heard about the PS3, I initially wanted to buy one despite the cost (pretty big step, considering the last system I owned was SNES). Then the release got delayed by a year. Then production problems hit. Then more technical problems. Hell, the PS3 wouldn't even work with certain TVs. Now the chances of me ever buying a PS3, or any other Sony product, are very, very slim.

Are you planning on buying, or do you have an XBox 360? Do you run Windows XP? Microsoft has the very same problems you're citing with Sony. The 360 had numerous issues upon release and many people got quite pissed off that their 360's kept locking up due to hardware issues.

I'm surprised you own ANY piece of technology or software based on your above statements.

Microsoft was(is) facing a class action lawsuit (filed in Chicago) over the defective design of the 360. Is it better for a company to just push out the product and ignore the fact that there are technical issues than to state the product is delayed because of technical issues so they can repair them? I guess Sony could take Microsoft's route and just put out a broken 1st gen product and pretend the issues don't exist and then charge you to fix them while they fix the issues in the background for their future production runs.

You're faulting Sony because they were more open with the public through their PR folks. Because they communicated what was going on inside the company to consumers and the media.

In this day and age many people want to know what future products will be available and when EXACTLY they will be available. Few people don't want to consider technical hurdles or the development process. They don't care because they don't feel it's important to them. Unfortunately, in the real world these factors ARE important. Some of these same people would bitch and moan if Sony simply said "The PS3 will be out when it's out".

I would prefer a company keep the public up to speed regarding development of products like this. And I would prefer they delay the product as long as it takes to get right. This is far more appealing to me than pushing a shoddy product out the door just so you can say you got it out on time or got it out before the other guy.

If you surveyed people and asked them what Sony makes, I would make an educated guess that the majority of responses will be Playstation; you see far more advertisements for Sony Playstations/games than anything else they make. This is why I believe that the fate of the PS3 will decide the fate of Sony as a company- this is the product that they are known for, and it is on the bubble at the moment, aimed downward.

I don't agree with this. If you asked me, or any home theatre enthusiast, what Sony makes I'm sure they would say a lot more than just "Playstation". That aside, since when does the response to a question posed to a consumer dictate what products a company does and does not manufacture? If you ask a classroom full of 16 year old kids what products Sony makes and they all say "Playstation", that doesn't mean Sony doesn't design, manufacture, and sell numerous other products that sell very well.

[Apophis]

Originally Posted by SmokingTarpan

Heh, Sony owns up to their bad move, and even removes the video from YouTube. http://www.alliwantforxmasisapsp.com/blog/

Is taking responsibility for their actions a black mark against them as well?

[TheFeniX]

Originally Posted by Apophis

The amount of Sony haters out there is just surprising to me.

And the amount of Sony fanboys is just as surprising.

I know every product has its "fanboys", but there seem to be a lot of Sony "hateboys" out there as well. It's just a company, and they make some good products and some lousy products.

There's the clinch: Sony used to be a top-notch electronics company. I still have an old Sony 35" "Big Screen" TV my family has had since I was 5 years old. It still works fine and is in use. The old Sony Stereo System we had since the same time is still in use at my brothers. The only thing that went bad was the CD player (which back then it was the size of a DVD player). I still have my 10+ year-old Sony Boombox. It's been outside for months (if not years), has been rained on for days at a time, and has bugs building nests in it. Even the CD player still works (I have to clean the lens off though).

THAT was when Sony was THE electronics to buy. Now they've expanded to cover every facete of electronics. They did it poorly. Their electronics have piss-poor track records now. You're lucky if they last the year.

I could list pages of grievances with Sony. It's one after the other with no redeeming qualities in years:
1. Their determination to push DRM on the consumer.
2. The faked Killzone Demo.
3. Claiming MS ripped off their controller design.
4. Turning Star Wars Galaxies into a joke.
5. Installing spyware onto users PCs without their knowledge.
6. Releasing broken uninstallation software that can trash your PC with #5 only AFTER they've been "called" on it.
7. Suing Lik-Sang into oblivion, hence stopping countries that get screwed by their release practices from owning their product (more power to them).

That's just off the top of my head. The list is much longer, but it actually pisses me off the more I type.

Are you planning on buying, or do you have an XBox 360? Do you run Windows XP? Microsoft has the very same problems you're citing with Sony. The 360 had numerous issues upon release and many people got quite pissed off that their 360's kept locking up due to hardware issues.

The PS2 was riddled with hardware issues as well. All Gen 1 consoles (mainly those with CD players) are almost always crap. That's why I wait for later Gen releases and buy the extended warranty from Best Buy. Yes, it's a black eye against the market, but the market as a whole.

But at least something was done about it.

Also keep in mind that Sony does not live on the PS3 alone. You can prefer the XBox360 or the Wii, but that doesn't mean the PS3 and all of Sony is a crap company.

Their computers are crap. Their memory sticks are proprietary and cost (on average) double per meg than SD. Their Home and Car Audio products are considered over-priced and of low quality (especially the "XPlode" series).

Sony is only a remnant of the company they used to be. And since their gaming division hasn't turned a profit in years, it's not shaping up to get any better.

Sony is the only company I'm actively boycotting right now. And unless something miraculous happens, that's not changing anytime soon.

[SmokingTarpan]

Originally Posted by Apophis

Are you planning on buying, or do you have an XBox 360? Do you run Windows XP? Microsoft has the very same problems you're citing with Sony.

The last console system that I bought was an SNES. I do not have, nor will I ever buy, any version of XBox. The only reason I run WinXp is because I'm forced to in order to play games. Give me an OS that reliably runs every computer game I want to play, and I'll switch to it in a heartbeat. I do my best to give Microsoft the absolute least amount of money required; considering the last OS I actually spent money on (other OS's I haven't paid for, but were obtained legally) was Win 3.1, I'm doing a pretty good job.

It's true, Sony and Microsoft share many of the same issues. However, I've been distrustful of Microsoft for a decade now; whenever they release something, I expect it to be complete crap for at least 6-8 months. Previously, I trusted Sony to put out products free of any major problems. Due to their activity in recent months, I no longer expect anything quality from them. I've essentially lumped Sony and Microsoft into the same "Trash at release, might get better by next year" bin.

You're faulting Sony because they were more open with the public through their PR folks. Because they communicated what was going on inside the company to consumers and the media.

Except that they're not as open to the public as they seem to be. Sony said that 400k PS3's would be shipped to the US for release; market estimates put the actual number between 200-250k. Then they stated that by the end of the year they expect 1 million units in the US, but production analysts capped the number at a generous 800k. Tech reports on the firmware upgrades released say that the patches don't actually do anything that's in the patch notes. Sony isn't the only company that has these kinds of problems, but my point is that they have only just recently started having such big issues, thus my trust in them has dropped dramatically. (info on numbers and problems here)

I would prefer a company keep the public up to speed regarding development of products like this. And I would prefer they delay the product as long as it takes to get right. This is far more appealing to me than pushing a shoddy product out the door just so you can say you got it out on time or got it out before the other guy.

I agree with you here. Being a tech guy and all, I'd rather see a complete product next year than have a broken product tomorrow.

That aside, since when does the response to a question posed to a consumer dictate what products a company does and does not manufacture?

I think you may have misinterpreted. I'm not saying that Sony should make product X, Y or Z based on a questionaire. It's a matter of reputation. If a huge product like the PS3 goes belly-up due to poor quality, does that not hurt Sony's image as a whole? Even though it's just one division of the company, suddenly they have a stigma of making bad products. Kinda like EA has a stigma of only caring about pushing out new products instead of trying to fix current ones.

[RandomGuy]

Originally Posted by Apophis

If you disagree with this method of advertising, you need to look at the FCC or FTC. It's not Sony's fault that it's not illegal, and they're not the first ones to participate in this type of marketing campaign.

Ask and you shall receive extra-governmental involvement.