Hello sleazy buzz marketers! We've got your number.
by Vladimir Cole 
{ Oct 31st 2005 at 2:34AM }
Over the weekend, we received a number of tips notifying us that a new demo disc would be
delivered to Wal-Mart's Xbox 360 kiosks that would include a playable Perfect Dark Zero demo. That's cool and
all, but we did a little digging and learned that all of the tips came from the same exact IP address, even though
the names and email addresses used to submit the tips had been disguised.
Here are all of the tips submitted by an individual (or group of individuals) all sharing the same IP address:
Name: PootAmbassador Subject: PDZ! TRY
A sales associate at Wal-mart said they get a playable demo of Perfect dark 0. Has anyone else told you or am i the only one who knows? — PootAmbassador
Name: BoyWonder Subject: new game disc
Wal mart is where my friend works and he said the get another dis that people can play on there 360! You should know! — BoyWonder
Name: ProGhostDan Subject: PDZ demo.
Wal-mart gets the pdz demo this week. That sounds sweet. — ProGhostDan
Name: Monkeymoon55 Subject: new demo
I asked the walmart peeps if new demos are coming. He said that they get one with Perfect Dark, hexsics, and some new movies. — Monkeymoon55
Name: Buttonbasher Subject: NEW 360 DEMO DISK!
Did you hear that Wal-mart gets another demo disc this week? it will have Amped 3, PDZ, and a couple others. Check my blog for the story.
The unfortunate thing about this is that we’ll only be able to bust these guys once, then they’ll learn to spoof their IP addresses prior to spamming sites like Joystiq with buzz marketing campaigns. Companies do this all the time. But is it ethical?
Here’s what Slate’s Seth Stevenson had to say on the subject when Burger King tried to pull the same one over on him: “Well, for one thing, it’s lying. All marketing is built on lies, of course (you won’t sleep with those twins if you drink Coors Light), but this is a more pointed deception than the stock fantasy offered by beer ads. At issue here is some deliberate misrepresentation.”
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
waysa @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
Assuming that this IS a Microsoft insider, it's interesting that he also dropped a hint that the new demo disks will include "hexsics" (http://www.hex168.com/) on them. This is definitely part of the same coordinated launch campaign for the 360, IMHO!
Adam @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
OR, someone could be getting kicks out of getting a story on the front page of Joystiq(then on more sites probably)so they make many subscriptions so it seems legit?
vc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
In cases when someone wants to see his name in lights, he doesn't make up 5 unrelated names to do so. He wants to see HIS NAME (or handle) in lights.
Click the link to the Burger King story at Slate. Same pattern.
vrf @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
Vlad, wouldn't a company that engages in buzz marketing--especially one this big--be smart enough to use a proxy before sending the tips?
vc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
You'd think so, right?
But people screw up. It's a pretty mechanical, low-level task, I can imagine slipping up on a few of the many sites that you must hit with a campaign like this.
By the way, using a proxy is not enough to disguise this trick. You need a visibly different IP address for EACH note you send in. If someone were working behind a proxy server submitting these, the IP address would be the same for all of them... it'd just be the IP address of the proxy server.
2kings @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
fanboy-ism at its best XD
Jamie @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
But hey, guess what? I now know that Wal-Mart has the Perfect Dark Zero demo, and that's all that matters.
OTAM @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
So is there a playable PDZ demo?
I will be a sad boy if there is not. :(
Mike @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
There is not even a wal-mart withing 50KM of me that has a playable 360 demo so I couldent care less. I still havent tried the system. I think my wal-mart will probably get kiosks a couple weeks after the system is released. They usualy do for all their kiosks
GlitchCog @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
Are those messages typical of the tips Joystiq usually gets? They seem really stupid to me, but not so stupid that a kid who failed English class might have written them.
It's got the feel of an undercover cop trying to use street slang and failing.
I would wager that anyone reading all of these messages would have a pretty strong hunch about their source before checking out the IP address.
Josh @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
OR 5 friends from the same University with only one outward IP submitted it!
really though its prolly MS and teh BUZZ train Rollin through.
Sense @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
It sounds like the same kind of stuff you get in the junkmail box. They pay people with a poor grasp of English to write this stuff all the time, except it's usually for generic drugs or lower mortgage rates.
gjd @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
Uh.. "it only works once."??? Maybe if you make a post about it on the front page then it'll only work once! Obviously if they didn't think it through the first time, then if you had just ignored it then they'd probably try it again and you'd be able to ignore it again. Now what? I guess either they'll stop, or people will use different IPs.
funkonaut @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
What's the IP address? Plug it into http://www.arin.net/whois and tell us who owns the IP.
nobody @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
I don't think that those tips come from M$, it would make more sense if these come from Wal-Mart or Wal-Mart AND M$, because all Demodisc interested people will go to _Wal-Mart_ now..
Yeah, a whois on the ip would possibly show who it really is.
darryl @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
Go Microsoft, Go! Unsurprising...
Dave Himself @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
I don't actually see anything wrong with this. They aren't making false claims. The demos WILL be in the store.
They are following are following a set of rules that sites like Joystiq created. They know that a straight up press release will get ignored as "nice try we are not running your Ad for you." They know that we value insider information. Seems to me they aren't fooling our community as much as they are joining it. It's a social hack. A hack that worked. And a hack that like many wont work again without modifications. Let's not get hipocritical on these guys, we do everything in our power to undermine their attempts at secrecy. I think they have the right to release information in whatever fashion they like.
ZeroCorpse @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
Uhh... My town's Wal*Mart still refuses to turn on their 360, the stupid jerks.
Actually, it's three middle-aged ladies who don't like dealing with the people playing in their department, so they shut it off.
The idiots don't seem to understand the concept of a store display like this is to build excitement and bring in the sale- If people see a non-working console, they'll go elsewhere, and Wal*Mart loses sales. The people who play Xbox 360 at Wal*Mart end up buying OTHER things before they leave. No 360 = No other sales because people don't stick around.
But then, Wal*Mart employees are the lowest rung on the retail ladder. They don't seem to get any actual retail or marketing training, from the way they behave.
vc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
Dave Himself: have you read the slate article top to bottom? Just curious if you'd modify your response after reading that, as your argument doesn't seem cognizant of the Slate column's stance.
james @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
I work at walmart in houston,tx..and over the weekend on sunday..a individual w/ a fedex package was allowed to place a new disc into our xbox360...i was told by the electronics associate that he was replacing the demo disk w/ a new one...
after he left...i tried out the 360 to see if it was indeed a new demos disc...to my surprise nothing really changed..the only change was the HD setting which was changed to 720p...now that i see this post about microsoft sending new demo disc 2 walmart..i'm going to check my walmart's 360 again for any other changes..
Dave Himself @ Dec 18th 2005 9:05PM
Well now I have read the Slate: Burger King article and I have to say I feel pretty much the same. Advertising and Marketing are almost never about honesty. The bigger problem is that people can't decide things for themselves. If Engadget says "our mole at nintendo tells us bags of warm nintendogshit secretly go on sale next week." Do we run out and buy them?
Engadget is both a gatherer of stories as well as a filterer of stories. They do a great job of telling us whats worth it and whats not (they even tell us when they are suspicious of "foul play"). And anything they miss I feel confident I will spot.
It would be nice if corporations came at us with complete honesty (while still providing a huge avenue for artists of all kinds to earn a living.) But it is an ART to sell things in such a oversaturated market as America and they are gonna try every trick in the book.
I'll be up in arms when we find out that "the Ginormous Breakfast Sandwich is people." Till then buyer beware.