Frog Off, Sony

Another Fake Flog. Another Mea Culpa. This time even more sickening that not fessing up:

"Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our
speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn’t a real hip-hop
maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were
trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will
just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you
nothing but the facts on the PSP.

Sony Computer Entertainment America"

The frog in question was created by Zipatoni for Sony and begs the questions:

• Why did this need to be a blog...and a fake one at that?
• Surely, there were other approaches that would have done the job equally well, if not better?
• And if not, why couldn't you go about this in a considered and authentic way?

It boggles my mind how many mainstream marketers/agencies look at new marketing from the same one-dimensional, traditional, advertising based- and biased lens. When you think about it, it's no wonder that the inevitable outcome every time is fakeness instead of authenticity.

I agree with the folks over at Beyond Madison Avenue...this apology, albeit quick on the draw ('er that's only because you were found out!) is way too snide and snarky (note to marketers and their agencies: you don't do snarky well) and comes across only as arrogant and patronizing.