All I want for Christmas is a PSP. PSP! PSP! PSP!

[Xizer]

http://forums.somethingawful.com/sho...readid=2219944

I am constantly amazed by Sony's marketing team. It's like they're intentionally trying to suck. Every new advert Sony puts out seems to be shittier and shittier.

First, we had the talking Mexican pubic hairs. Then, we had the racist PSP ads. Then there was the creepy, nonsensical baby commercial. Now...Sony proudly presents:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJxIWUKM0hQ&eurl=

These are the actual lyrics from that video:
Four...three...two...one.
I love the big screen,
So fresh and so clean.
It's all in my dreams.
And make me wanna scream.
PSP! PSP! PSP! PSP! PSP! PSP! PSP! PSP!
Games so crazy,
The totally amaze me.
Gotta ask my mom for one.
For sheezy.
PSP! PSP! PSP! PSP!
All I want for Christmas is my PSP,
When I play it when I'm walking down the street,
All I want for Christmas is my PSP.
Tell my mom and dad, "Get one fo me."
PSP! PSP! PSP! PSP! PSP! PSP!
Four...three...two...one.

What do my fellow DP members think about Sony's new marketing campaign for the PSP?

[PapaStu]

I think this is just a really really really really really really really bad rapper. Sony has made some stupid decisions, but making this one of their commericals is not one of them.

[dbiersdorf]

I think this is just a really really really really really really really bad rapper. Sony has made some stupid decisions, but making this one of their commericals is not one of them.

Really? It's been confirmed that Sony is behind this, and it's absolutely pathetic.

[MrRoboto19XX]

I tell you, this guy's no Johnny Turbo...

[n.ooka]

I don't know about you guys, but I want a PSP for christmas now.

Cause...you know....they are so fresh and so clean.

[nate1749]

I think they're selling plenty of psp's and that's what the marketing depts. job is =)

[kainemaxwell]

The song itself is enough to want to buy a DS.

[jcalder8]

I like big screens.... maybe I need a psp too

[Jorpho]

Come now. Remember the Sega Saturn "Theatre of the Eye" ?

[ubersaurus]

I think they're selling plenty of psp's and that's what the marketing depts. job is =)

I know sony wishes they were selling plenty of psps. But i think at this point the failure of UMD as a movie format coupled with pisspoor game support for the first couple years of it's life have pretty much doomed the system to playing second fiddle to the DS.

[Nature Boy]

Sony is taking a lot of flack from what I've read over it's marketing campaigns, but they still say there's no such thing as bad press so I'd be suprised if it didn't work for them anyway.

The more interesting sidebar to this story is that I've heard they might try to legislate this type of marketing (viral), by forcing the agency performing it to disclose it's client.

[Joker T]

Those mexican dust balls in the TV ads are still worse.

[PapaStu]

Really? It's been confirmed that Sony is behind this, and it's absolutely pathetic.

OH DEAR LORD.....

SCEE really has some big issues when it comes to advertising then. Thats just beyond horrible. I was thinking that it was just some dumbass considering the horrible quality of the video and everything. My bad.

[Cryomancer]

Come now. Remember the Sega Saturn "Theatre of the Eye" ?

Hell yeah, that thing is actually pretty cool.

[Jorpho]

To say nothing of Sega's viral marketing campaign from the early days of the Internet. Remember that thread?
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76891
http://web.archive.org/web/200105012...aweb.com/sega/

[Synergy]

Whoa, that vid was OFF THA HOOK! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!

Ahem.

Haha, it's funny. When I first saw this thread, I thought it was Xizer actually wanting a PSP. Oh well.

[Niku-Sama]

what the "ELF" is this shit!

[Berserker]

Might this just be the byproduct of a downspiral; Could we just be now seeing what death-throes from a ginormous video game division of a ginormous corperation look like? It really seems as if they're just grabbing at straws now, desperately attempting a cling to the greatness they've been so used to, for so long...

This is a really crucial time for Sony. They've managed to work themselves into a very uncomfortable position. With the PS3 being sold at such a loss already, the previously accepted notion of pricing the system down in the future seems highly unlikely. UMD movies are being cleared off of store shelves, and not by people buying them but by store clerks who are just making room for other things that actually sell. They need to start pushing out solid content, solid games, and FAST.

It's do-or-die time.

Something I've thought about a few times lately is what the history might read like a few years down the line. If we might look back and point to Sony as an example of the perils of simply going for bigger, more, flashier, and ignoring all else. How they lost focus, and then ultimately lost it all. Maybe it'll end up going like the phone monopolies of a few decades ago, with one giant entity splintering into several smaller development houses. Who knows.

It might be still too early to call this game, but I'm not going to be buying PSanything for a good while yet.

[Half Japanese]

While I despise marketing and advertising in nearly all of its forms with all of my body (including my pee pee), I have to admit that some marketing is pretty clever. Burger King's "King" character and the video games based on him: clever, borderline genius, especially given the despicable territory within which they were spawned. Sony's marketing for the past few years: absolutely awful. If anything this tells me exactly what the marketing people knew they were faced with: they desperately need to move something that isn't selling. The UMD as a format for anything but PSP games is an utter flop and as hacked as the original Xbox came to be, I'd venture to guess that a much higher percentage of PSP users hack their consoles and use them in ways Sony never intended.

I have no bias an wouldn't consider myself a fanboy for anything (seeing past that fanboy haze and knowing that every game company out there solely to make money and not to hand-feed you a bowl of cherries and tickle your ass with a feather), but anyone that actually thinks this sort of thing is the least bit amusing probably has far more serious mental problems than modern psychiatry and medicine are prepared to deal with.

[Richter Belmount]

Eh this ad defianley is nothing like their demographic or core audience . Instead of making crappy ads , they should try using their money to get some more exclusives or infact more games onto their psp console , the only way I feel like I get most out of the psp If I start actually importing some titles , just the fact they dont localize certain titles. But I guess they are going to continue to pour money into poorly made ads for image alone, instead of satisfying a customer.