Wow. Just wow.

Wow. That's a big fuck-up. Are these the same people who did that gawdawful graffitti marketing campaign?

Sony really needs to clean house with their PR and marketing firms - I mean TOTALLY clean house. Get rid of the top brass internally and wipe the vendor list clean. There's been nothing but mistakes this last year, and it's not for want of good products. It's a complete failure of PR and marketing, and somebody needs to figure that out and do something about it.

Boy I hope Jeremy gets his PSP.

My first clue was that nobody actually wants a PSP.

Jokes aside... this is shameful and awful... like one step above sweatshops.

Forget that it's an attempt at viral marketing and look and look at it. My thoughts were this:

Man, how old is that guy? Late 20's, early 30's and he is asking his mom for a PSP? In the words of The Offspring, "Why don't you get a job?"

Later,
Chrome...

I'm embarrassed for them. (sony)

It's bad enough that Sony hire companies for viral campaigns.

It's even worse that they hire fucking morons.

"My first clue was that nobody actually wants a PSP."

It shouldn't make me laugh but it does, oh so very much.

Are they at least making profits from the sales of PSPs?

I'm embarrassed for them. (sony, that is)

I actually want one of those ladders in the video for my house.

He can have my PSP... I'm selling it

Every time you think the "marketing industry" couldn't get more sleazy, underhanded or deceitful, they surprise us yet again. Congratulations Zipatoni for proving that a group of scumbags can always pull new forms of sliminess out of their bag of tricks.

Actually if you guys read some of the posts on something Awful, seens that the viral ad was discovered due to a comment here on Kotaku or something like that! :O

They didn't even try!

I love the terrible grammar, interspersed with perfect, not to mention pretenscious grammar. I mean, come on, what kid writes "sum" but also knows the proper usage of a hyphen and an m-dash?

Ouch. Burninated.

Wow.

Not only does the character in that video not look like a teenager, but parts of it look like they were shot in a cheap TV studio.

So apparently, "Charlie", your average PSP user, is an unemployed 25 year old guy who still relies on his parents to buy him electronics, but nonetheless has access to a shitty TV studio. So he's that creepy guy that hangs around high school tech classes long after he has graduated.

What an image! I want to be just like him!

The house looks way too good to be a normal house. In fact, it doesn't even look like a house anyone lives in. It looks more like... A studio... That someone half heartedly turned into a "house." Not to mention the video quality and editing is way too high.

Wait, this came from a "professional" marketing team? That's worse than Nintendo commercials from the 90's. Don't they have people who aprove these things before releasing them? Because this obviously wasn't viewed by ANYBODY before it was actually released.

"Actually if you guys read some of the posts on something Awful, seens that the viral ad was discovered due to a comment here on Kotaku or something like that! :O"

Yeh, they call out "mrjohnstamos" for being a Sony stooge:

http://www.kotaku.com/commenter/mrjohnstamos/

Was he humping that ladder?!?!

Yeah Lider that's where I saw it over the weekend. I was full of LOL over the site. "Yo my friend wants a PSP fo' XMAS cuz it's got, lieks, a LARGE SCREEN AAAWWWWW JEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!!@#$!245"

Yeah.... nice try. GB2/Losing Money/

Your parents help you hook it up!

Boy I hope Jeremy gets his PSP.

That would be ultimate justice.

Dancing on a ladder and making love to a faceplate. What is this video trying to sell me on?

I like the choice of youtube comments they decide not to delete.

Pete is dope. I love when he spins his hat around. I bet he could do a thing or two with tassles.

Holy shit I better buy a PSP!

Incredible.

"Wait, this came from a "professional" marketing team? That's worse than Nintendo commercials from the 90's. Don't they have people who aprove these things before releasing them? Because this obviously wasn't viewed by ANYBODY before it was actually released."

I think they were going for that look so it would look more "homemade". Either way this isn't the first time Sony has done something like this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Manning_%28fictitious_w...

Uh, seems like their viral marketing worked. They deliberately made it bad to get your attention. It got you to post it on Kotaku. Did you post videos of their other regular PSP ads in the past? Nope.

Sony:1 Kotaku:0

Wait, wait, wait. This CAN'T be real...is it?

its so sad that burger king is marketing so much better than a megacorporation like sony.

That left a film all over me...

I may never get clean again...

"Uh, seems like their viral marketing worked."

Right, because Kotaku readers have never heard of the PSP before, and we will all go out and buy one, now that we have heard of it.

This isn't NBC Nightly News; getting a link on a site where everyone is already fully aware of your product is not what viral marketing is about.

Now, if AP picked up the story based on it's appearance in multiple blogs (not sure why this would happen), then their campaign would have worked because they would be raising people's awareness of the PSP.

If you try to post Zipotini in the comments section on the blog, you are told:

"Sorry, your comment contains words that are not allowed on this blog."

Add an extra i after the Z, and you are fine, just not at the end.

@Nobullet -

It doesn't matter that it's getting covered if all it accomplishes is makes people hate/pity Sony.

NoBullet has a point. It's got people talking, posting, etc. Even bad publicity is good publicity.

They planted a virus, and we all got sick.

I don't see how a viral marketing ad that results in a company and their product being ridiculed can be considered a winner.

I don't have a PSP and this add doesn't make me want to get one. It makes me want to vomit.

He want's his parents to buy him a PSP? How old is this guy? Get a freak'n job and buy one yourself ya bum!

This is quite possibly the saddest thing ever.

THIS IS NOT AN AD
http://www.alliwantforxmasisapsp.com/uploads/images/print_...

"Yeh, they call out "mrjohnstamos" for being a Sony stooge:

http://www.kotaku.com/commenter/mrjohnstamos/"

Kotaku,
I am very dissapointed. You have allowed this asshat to comment on stories, but yet, I have been trying to comment for a couple months now and nothing. Not even a thanks for trying. I comment maybe once a day waiting and hoping that my comments would show up, but alas, nothing. This really hurts Kotaku.

There is no telling how common this might be, Sony just got caught this time. This time Microsoft is smarter, they use their own employees to blog how great their products are, no need to hire extra staff.

"I don't see how a viral marketing ad that results in a company and their product being ridiculed can be considered a winner."

There's no guarantee that it will end up ridiculing the company or the product. It WILL however, end up being clicked by thousands, if not millions of people surfing through YouTube, the majority of which don't have a clue what viral marketing is.

The amount of people that get infuriated by this ad will much smaller than the amount of people who just don't care. The advertiser's concern is the "other" amount of people who watch the ad and enter "PSP" in their search engine at its conclusion.

Vile tactic? Yes. Effective tactic? You bet.

I have a PSP and crap like this makes me want to take it back.

Wow, what a lame attempt at viral marketing. My DS Lite broke a few weeks ago so I've been on the PSP recently, it's still a pretty good machine but when my replacement Lite arrived last Friday I haven't picked the PSP up since, despite being in the middle of Tomb Raider.

People in suits should stick to the Queen's English. (Yes I'm assuming people in suits are responsible for that travesty of a marketing campaign.)

how desperate sony must be these days...

now that there's metal gear solid portable ops and some other exceptions out, why don't they mention you can also play games on that device by now - or at least put up a less obvious fake-website?

rluzinski: Exactly. All you have from this is a bunch of people not wanting to be associated with that shit. That's a bullet in the foot again...

Ninjaball your attempts at logic amaze me. By your reckoning it is impossible to criticize any marketing campaign as a failure because the criticism itself transforms it into a success.

The mind boggles.

Seriously, between the bizarre hairball ads and this, is there nobody at Sony who can market a PSP?

Look: you have really nice looking games on a really powerful handheld. Don't sell it by being a part of some asinine hide-and-seek game, having two vaguely ethnic scribbles talk about squirrel-humping, or having very bad actors pretend to be TEH HARDCOR GAMERZ.

Seriously, it's a shiny black game system that plays a lot of games, hosts MP3s and pictures, and plays movies. How hard is this thing to sell?

Oh my. I feel dirty. This actually makes me want to destroy my PSP. Violently destroy my PSP.

NinjaBall is the only one that understood my post.

@PaulMorel, you really think I didn't know Kotaku readers knew about the PSP? Right...

Well, they took my comment out already that fingered them as the agency. Looks like they took a few other "pro DS" comments out, too. Looks like they have a busy day of cleaning their comments section. :P

that was a minute of my life wasted

Rajio : What's not to get? We're still talking about it aren't we?

I said its a vile tactic. It sickens me that they think so little of their consumer. I don't admire this choice of tactics in any way, shape, or form. My point is, like it or lump it, this will bring on a fresh wave of Sony talk. Good or ill, its all Sony all the time. You have to wonder if it isn't orchestrated that way.

I also think this is a double-edged sword they're playing with. Major companies all act with the assumption that people are stupid. But you get in real trouble when you assume that your base is stupider than it actually is.

Hope I managed to provide some clarity.

Well this is definitely working if Kotaku is posting it and there is already 44 (45) comments.

Let's run a "best PSP marketing scheme" contest. My entry:

A shot of a priest, an imam and a rabbi, all sitting around debating over who has the one true god. All of a sudden the roof overhead opens, and a PSP comes floating down in a beam of golden light.

All three agree on their new god - PSP.

Ending tagline: "PSP - Play. Watch. Worship."

It helps if they're all awkwardly trying to look like they're having an XTREME time playing the system.