I guess these companies, and consequently their ad shops, all work within a vacuum. A few short months after Wal-Mart gets called out (and their PR agency Edelman) for putting out an allegedly fake blog consisting of fake messages, Sony gets outed by potential consumers for trying the same tactics.
The result - Sony's new Palystation 3 getting mocked, berated and lampooned by the very prospective consumers it hoped to turn into PS3 owners. These potential purchasers of the new video game console have even started their web sites replicating and mocking the original that Sony released. Check these links to view the mocks,
Mock 1
Mock 2
I think the old saying "any publicity is good publicity" is about to become as misguided as the recommendation that was made for this marketing initiative.
In the words of my partners in digital communications, Ryan Hupfer and Mitch Maxson, would say, when going online to create relationships - go transparent or go home. In other words be who you are, don't fake it, don't put out your corporate face, don't get dolled up - figuratively speaking - and if you want to start a conversation with your audience let them talk with you, not with some phony, see-through copywriters hired to try and be them.
Oh yeah, who are Hup and Mitch? Check out their new book,
MySpace for Dummies
2 comments:
This is great Jacob - I can't believe that 'creative agencies' actually think for one second that these fake blogs (flogs?) would fly with the fickle crowd they were aimed at.
More than ever, people can smell a fake...nice try, big guys. :)
It is interesting to see how many smaller organizations and businesses are "getting it" while some of the big boys continue to "fake the funk."
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