Special thanks to Guillaume for shooting me links regarding a Splog (fake Blog) for Sony. The Blog in question is called, All I Want For Xmas Is A PSP. The domain is registered to a marketing agency called, Zipatoni.
So, instead of doing the whole Firestarter thing, I went a different route and sent the following email to Meredith Goette who is the main contact person off of the Zipatoni website:
“Hi Meredith,
I run a Blog out of Montreal called Twist Image. It’s all about marketing, etc… I have read many postings today on how you guys created a fake Blog for Sony – www.alliwantforxmasisapsp.com/blog. I did go and check the registrar on this domain and it was purchased by:
the ZIPATONI co.
Gregory Meyerkord
555 Washington Ave. 3rd Floor
St. Louis, MO 63101
US
Email: [email protected]
Domain Name: alliwantforxmasisapsp.com
Created on…………..: Tue, Nov 14, 2006
Now, before I go and Blog about this, I would like to know if you would be open to an interview. I am doing my best to Blog with more professionalism and I’d rather not post hearsay, etc…
Are you available for a chat?”
I am curious about a couple of things:
1. Will they grant me an interview?
2. Are they listening and paying attention to Blog postings like this?
3. What their position is and how they plan on defending themselves – both if it is true and, even more importantly, if the accusations are false?
4. What their current code of ethics is in terms of transparency?
Before I pass judgment, let’s see how long (and if) Zipatoni or Sony takes to respond.
** Update – within three minutes I got an email back from Meredith saying, “let me get back to you.”
In the meantime, here is what the marketing world is saying:
– AdFreak – Sony Gets Ripped For A Bogus PSP Blog.
– Adrants – Sony Takes It Up the Ass For Fake Blog.
– UK Resistance – Sony’s Latest Internet Lie Blog Goes Wrong.
– Joystiq – Sony Marketers Are Horrible Liars, Pretend To Run Fansite.
I’m not a PSP customer, but I love my Sony Vaio laptop and I have a soft spot in my heart for the company that brought the Walkman and the wood-paneled Betamax into my life.
Sony PlayStation Goes Fake Blog For PSP – How Does This Happen?
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Never another podcast episode or article 
I’ve been following this “issue” with the flog from Sony and Zipatoni since yesterday. Working in video games and doing PR at that, I can’t believe that Zipatoni did this.
On their website they make it seem that they are cool, hip and get what it takes to target my demographic online. However, this example shows that they don’t get it, let alone how much damage this could do for our industry’s image . The flog was one thing, but those awful videos on the site take the cake. Not only do the people not look under 30, but they are trying way to hard to be hip.
I don’t know what Sony will do, but someone should take the heat for this. It goes against what everyone in marketing/PR is trying to do and create a degree of transparency in the online world. I look forward to reading what Zipatoni says in your interview Mitch, if they decide to give you one at all.
Mitch, if you could ask them a question for me, I would appreciate it. What were/are their goals and objectives for this project? Thanks.
Some guy went to a conference, heard about this new social media phenom, and said, “hear ye boys, we’ve got ourselves a genuine viral marketing campaign on ours here ye hands.”
That said, the PSP is cool. Said exec isn’t.
Still, there would have been so many ways they could have gotten the same result without being deceitful – can’t wait to hear what the agency and Sony have to say about this in response.