SubservientChicken.com vs. AllIWantForXmasIsAPSP.com -- by Nate Winter

SubservientChicken.com vs. AllIWantForXmasIsAPSP.com -- by Nate Winter

In November Sony posted a fake blog promoting its PlayStation Portable (commonly known as the "PSP") on a site called AllIWantForXmasIsAPSP.com and recently got busted by consumers. The drama that ensued was written up in Advertising Age in an article entitled, “What We Should Learn From Sony's Fake Blog Fiasco.” Like many AdAge.com articles, this one prompted reader comments.

While there were several comments posted in response to the article, here is one of interest:

COMMENT POST
What I don't understand is, when CPB [ad agency Crispin Porter Bogusky] execute logoless campaigns like subservient chicken and the mini cooper robots campaigns, which run logoless until revealed to be advertising, its hailed as 'cool'. When sony gets discovered its 'deception'. Is the line between the two merely how well its executed? –Nick Senior, Baltimore, MD

The difference between Sony’s AllIWantForXmasIsAPSP.com and Subservient Chicken are many.

First off, it’s not the execution, it’s the idea. The idea of typing in commands to a chicken on-screen is interesting, whether related to marketing or not. It makes you want to test the boundaries and see what happens. The idea of reading a blog about asking for PlayStation Portable for Christmas is mildly interesting (at best) if it’s honest and not marketing-related. (Only a handful of blogs are truly tolerable, everything else in the blogosphere is drivel.) If it’s a fake blog, not only is the content not interesting, you end up pissing off a lot of people.

If the idea is strong enough consumers won’t care if it is corporate-backed or not. When Subservient Chicken was revealed to be associated with Burger King, people were surprised, but only because it was among BK’s first ventures with ad agency Crispin Porter Bogusky that took the brand in a new direction. I believe people liked the site and idea even better once they saw how Subservient Chicken fit in with Burger King’s “Chicken Your Way” campaign.

The second difference is honesty. SubservientChicken could have had something on the site to the effect of, “We’re just two guys with an idea about making chicken do what you want it to.” But it didn’t, because the idea was good enough that it didn’t have to have specific authors associated with it. Subservient Chicken’s origins were mysterious, but not deceitful. PSP was a flat out lie. There were no two guys, just a team of hired writers. While both sites were marketing-related, the difference between not revealing a corporate relationship and lying about it is night and day in the eyes of a consumer.

Related to the honesty of a campaign like this is the circumstances surrounding the revelation of the idea’s origin and its corporate relationship. In Subservient Chicken’s case, it was Burger King who revealed its association with site as part of “Chicken Your Way.” It was proud to have created buzz around an interesting idea, and took credit for it.

Sony, on the other hand, was “found out” to be involved with the site by consumers who looked up the site’s domain registration information. Only then did Sony take action (which consisted of simply taking down the site). This revelation was highly distasteful to the general public, who suspect Sony would have never admitted that it was behind the site had it not been "outed."

The type of content involved with an unidentified marketing tool is important too. While blog readers understand that anything is possible, blog content is generally expected to be self-produced by real, little people and the content is generally expected to be unaffiliated with major corporate interests. An interactive video site like SubservientChicken.com could be self-produced by some real, little people, but it's less likely because of the content production and site development that go into creating something like Subservient Chicken.

That’s not to say that the presumptions surrounding these content types are hard and fast and that a highly successful, anonymous campaign can’t be carried out on a blog. On the contrary, it’s very possible. But in order to maintain integrity to the consumer, it must be carried out in such a way as to not purport independence at first if it is corporately affiliated. Otherwise the backlash will be severe.

--Nate Winter