Sony Gets Burned Again; This Time it’s Guerilla Marketing
After all of the flack for allegedly being behind the shut down of Lik-Sang, pushing the release date of the PS3 in Europe back to Spring 2007 and creating the debacle surrounding the release of the PS3 in the US, I'm sure Sony wasn't looking for more bad publicity, but then again, maybe they should give up on the whole idea of trying to trick consumers.
Their latest faux-pas? Hiring guerrilla marketing company Zipatoni to create alliwantforxmasisapsp.com, a blog/video site made to look like it was created by PlayStation lovers who just wanted PSPs of their own and not, in fact, a shill for a brand. The Guardian has more details on the exposure and some interesting commentary on how Sony hasn't really grasped the current generation of viral marketing concepts. The site now features an apology from Sony America and presumably will no longer be updated.
What's really interesting about all of this anger over Sony's betrayal of trust is that the US government may get involved; the FTC is looking to require companies to give full disclosure of any word-of-mouth marketing techniques, including creating phony websites.
Via Penny Arcade
