The paper contains a detailed analysis of the application of the passification approach to the problem of rendering the hyperbolic upright equilibrium of the simplified model of the Furuta pendulum globally attractive. It is shown that any smooth feedback control passifying the system with the naturally defined storage functions does not provide the desired property. Based on the idea of the VSS-like modification of the speed-gradient method, stabilizing regulator is suggested and studied both theoretically and by simulations.