As I write this post, I’m trying to not come off pissed but I can’t help it. We have pointed out on this site over and over again that Sony makes some fantastic products, but has the worst marketing department on the entire planet. This holiday season is a crucial one for Sony. The PlayStation 3 has been enjoying great momentum and is only 3-4 million units away from the Xbox 360. This is a big deal for Sony as the PS3 has always lagged 7-9 million units behind the Xbox 360. With this new steam behind PlayStation 3, Sony has also released the PlayStation Move to offer users both something new and to counter Nintendo. Having a great product is one thing, but having people find out about it something entirely different, and Microsoft knows this. Most of their products are mediocre at best. Look at Windows Vista. Look at the Xbox 360 with claims of 40% failure rate. And yet, that doesn’t matter because Microsoft knows how to advertise. Simply put, Kinect won’t work for most people, but that’s not going to stop Microsoft, nor the $500 million they have set aside to advertise it. Sony has already claimed that it has no plans to match Microsoft when it comes to spending and that’s ok too. I understand it, Sony simply does not have that kind of cash, but that does not mean that they should spend the cash they do have on weird as hell advertising.
Microsoft makes it clear during the 30 second ads that people are having fun playing with the Xbox 360 with a new interface that requires no controller. There it is, a simple pitch, but from the beginning to the end, it’s clear that this is a Xbox commercial for their new product. What does Sony do in their Latin America ad? Have some weird commercial with adult babies (wow, that wasn’t two years ago) who are going about their day, doing “adult” stuff and at the end, you see a PlayStation 3 with a Move controller logo.
What the fuck? First, you show me irrelevant shit, unless we look at the deep underlying message that adults can feel like kids again when they play with the PlayStation Move, but I’m sorry, thats a little too deep for a freaking commercial. Then, when the commercial is done, I’m still not sure what I as the viewer am suppose to do. What is the PlayStation 3? What is the PlayStation Move? What does it do? Why do I need it, or why is it fun? None of these are addressed or offered in the commercial, which is idiotic. Hell, they could have showed old cats watching kittens play and then blasted the PlayStation Move logo at the end and A. It would have been a lot cheaper to make and B. at least it would have had the “aaww” factor and the same underlying message could have been gathered from it. Sony, no matter how good of a product you make, if you continue to have these off-the-wall advertisements for otherwise great products, nobody will buy your shit. Honestly, just look at Apple, Microsoft and Nikon. All simple commercials who use their product in the entire 30 second mark and tell the users why it’s different. Sony continues with the strategy of “random artistic stuff” and then BAM, Sony logo.
This guy should not be the one making your advertisement.
As one PlayStation Forum member said:
Whaaaaaat?? I don’t understand the message behind the videos.
First: What does babies displaying emotions have to do with Latin Americans?
Second: Does this means that USA sees Latin Americans as babies?
Third: The videos are completely Americanized (Latinos aren’t known to have blonde hair with blue eyes and our cities are different from those seen in the videos)
Please Sony, if you are going to sympathize with the Latin people you need to create videos that show the Latin American gaming culture.
I want a Kevin Butler Spanglish campaign!!