🧵When Sony Made a Fake Hipster Blog to Sell PSPs
and the internet roasted them for it.
Back in late 2006, Sony landed itself in hot water with one of the most infamous marketing flops of the decade. They launched a fake fan blog called “All I Want for Christmas is a PSP,” pretending it was run by two cool, young fans who were desperate to get their hands on a PlayStation Portable for Christmas. The blog purported to be authored by “Charlie” and his friend “Jeremy,” who wanted to convince Jeremy’s parents to buy him a PSP for Christmas. It featured amateurish videos, printable PSP-themed greeting cards, T-shirt iron-ons, and posts written in exaggerated hip-hop and internet slang.
The best thing about this blog? This video:
The site’s content was intentionally crafted to appear grassroots and authentic, but the over-the-top “cool” language and clumsy attempts at viral humor raised suspicions among visitors.
Discovery and Backlash
It didn’t take internet sleuths long to sniff out the truth. People quickly noticed the domain for “All I Want for Christmas is a PSP” was registered to a marketing agency called Zipatoni—who just so happened to have Sony as a client. Oops.
Once the secret was out (and gleefully posted in the blog’s own comments section), the story exploded across gaming forums and news sites. Gamers and bloggers tore the campaign to shreds, mocking everything from the painfully fake “youth slang” to the clueless way Sony tried to talk to its audience. It was giving How do you do, fellow kids? energy—and not in a good way.
Making things even worse, Sony and Zipatoni tried to put out the fire by blocking words like “marketing” and “advertisement” in the comments. Naturally, this only made people angrier. If there’s one thing the internet loves, it’s dragging a bad cover-up attempt into meme history.
Sony’s Admission
After getting absolutely roasted online, Sony finally owned up—right there on the blog. Their message read:
Basically: Sorry we lied, please still buy the PSP.
Industry and Media Reaction
The internet didn’t just let this one slide—everyone jumped in. Marketing blogs, gaming forums, even mainstream media tore the campaign apart. It became a textbook case of how not to do viral marketing.
The biggest lesson? People actually care about transparency. And when you fake authenticity, the internet will make sure you never live it down.
The blog was taken offline pretty fast, but by then, it was too late—its awkward videos and cringey posts were already being meme-ified across every corner of the web.
Wider Implications
Sony’s little “funky fresh” experiment couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Federal Trade Commission was just starting to crack down on undisclosed ads and fake endorsements, so this stunt ended up being extra embarrassing.
Today, it’s still held up as a cautionary tale about the dangers of “astroturfing”—aka pretending a brand campaign is grassroots. If there’s one thing marketers learned (or should have learned), it’s this: your audience is smarter than you think, and pretending otherwise will always, always backfire.
Ciao,
Marta