The term “astroturf” is used to designate fake “grass-roots” word-of mouth, graffitti, and blog efforts supposedly coming from actual users when in fact they really came from a paid marketing effort. Once upon a time Sony’s stuff was so cool they didn’t need to fake user enthusiasm. It’s sad to see them scramble and lie instead of making something worth creating a buzz over.
This one–the latest in a string of stealth marketing efforts–involves a “flog,” or fake blog, created by viral marketing firm Zipatoni to promote the Sony PSP. The blog, alliwantforxmasisapsp.com, was supposedly authored by an amateur hip-hop artist “Charlie”–whose cousin, “Pete,” craved a PSP under the tree.
Written in faux hip-hop and Internet lingo, the phony blog, which went live at the end of last month, quickly raised suspicions. Last week, some readers conducted a WHOIS search, which unmasked the site’s registrars as Zipatoni.
Sony Wednesday released a statement acknowledging that the blog was phony. “Sony Computer Entertainment America developed alliwantforxmasisapsp.com as a humorous site targeting those interested in getting a PSP system this holiday season,” it read. “We’ve now added a posting that provides this clarification to consumers visiting the site.” The company did not comment further.
Doesn’t Sony realize that their target market is too saavy for this kind of crap to work? All this does is hurt them in the long run.
