I was just reading this article about the hip, new ads for Sony’s hip, new console, and I was getting pretty much the puff piece I expected from the CNNMoney/Fortune/Time/Warner school of tech and/or business journalism. You know, it’s the kind of article where they say things like “the agency had begun an intriguing viral campaign that was resonating with hard-core gamers” with a straight face. But, I kept going regardless, until I got to the ugly core of the sloppy reporting and I decided that I couldn’t go on reading this article, and that I would rather spend my time stabbing myself in the forehead with a pair of scissors. Here’s the part that makes my brain hurt, see if you can figure out why:
TBWA concluded that the target audience for the PlayStation would be put off by a traditional ad campaign. So it decided to play games with them instead. The agency sent trucks to raves and concerts emblazoned with the slogan “ENOS lives!” (”ENOS” spelled backwards is a phonetic spelling of Sony.) There were living rooms in the trailers where people would kick back and try the new machine.
The agency also embedded codes in television spots that fans could use to advance to higher levels in games. But they could be seen only if gamers taped the commercials and went through them frame by frame. The campaign worked: The PlayStation became the No. 1 gaming console in the U.S.
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