The iPhone 3G hits
20 more countries tomorrow, and while we doubt the hype will match the
craziness of
launch day, that's not stopping Orange from trying to re-create the madness in Poland -- it's hiring "dozens" of actors to line up at 20 stores around the country to "drum up interest." Yeah, that's just sad -- especially since there aren't any real customers in line at Polish T-Mobile stores, which is also carrying the phone. Good luck selling phones to your own actors, fools -- when will these companies ever learn?
PS.- That's a pic from launch day in Chicago -- any Polish readers have a shot of the actors for us? Send 'em in!
Update: Yep, there they are, from
appleblog.pl -- and check a video after the break from
Gazeta.
[Thanks to GreenToad and Yorick_Rise]
posted Aug 21st 2008 5:46PM
lol! Sad. Really.
Now if someone asks me what's sadder than standing in line for a stinkin' phone, I can say with confidence: paying actors to stand in line for a stinkin' phone.
Did you hear the one about the Polish actor?
They can borrow some of our US fanboys that would wait over a week for a phone.
Lol they have to hire actors and here we have to hire security to stop people from fighting.
just wrong
what pointless waste of money
That is really, really, really sad.
How many Polish does it take to buy an iPhone?
1 to grab the door handle and 100 actors to move the building.
Probably the same number of Poles it takes to buy an iPhone.
Whoever the idiot in marketing that came up with this idea needs to get fired. Must be an utterly amateurish and inexperienced suit that came up with this.
E
I'm sure the real customers will be absolutely thrilled that the line is way longer then it should be and how much time they've wasted waiting for them to get out of the way...if anything, any polish people wanting a phone would bypass the hastle, stay home and eat some sauseege and wait till all the actors leave, thats what I would do. mmm sauseege.
What is a sauseege again? Sounds pretty delicious.
there are polish actors? Orange Actors at an Apple Store... kinda ironic
ha. orange. apple. i get it.
weird that i don't even associate the word "apple" with fruit anymore. Stupid internet.
There are quite a few orange actors and actresses, most characterized by major addictions to self tanning lotion. I heard that George Hamilton has been freebasing his spray tan solution for the past 10 years.
No man, many orange actors also happen to be midgets, thus they make the perfect actors for oomp-loompas
In Solidarity, they generate hype.
I wouldn't be surprised if actors were paid to do the same thing here in the U.S...
This has been done in most European countries. People get paid to stay in line. Students get free Apple products and they show it asif 80% of all students use Apple.
Apple does a lot of Hollywoord in-TV and in-Movie advertisement, newspaper advertorials and so on!
Its called...... Marketing and apple is very good at it!
I guess their superior advertising skills explain my incredible hate for the company and their products.
i just cant wait to see how apple haters will turn this around on them :)
Well, you can't compare Apple to Orange, so...
They could make fun of it the way that you and the rest of the Microsoft haters have made fun of the advertisements for Mojave, Seinfeld, Surface, Zune, etc.
But really, they shouldn't make fun of this. A pure act of desperation such as this reveals some deep-seeded issues with self confidence. And it is just not right to make fun of those with mental problems. Which is why I don't make fun of you.
see, I just knew someone would do it :)
Sometimes I wish that Engadget would introduce a script to temp ban, then perm ban people who rack up a certain number of low rankings within a certain amount of time. After the first 20 or so low rankings, it's no longer just a "difference of opinion" and becomes trolling...or complete douchebagery.
Now you have to pay people to hype a product... well, that's Apple for you.
Um...I think you should read the article again...
he only needs to read the TITLE
you mean part of the title?
iPhone article must... post...
I can't blame Ignatius for his Apple comment. I'm sure if this was Dell pimping Vista someone would said "well, that's M$ for you."
No T-Mobile in Poland, epic phail!
T-Mobile does not exist in Poland as a mobile carrier, there are no T-Mobile stores there. Which makes this article a fail. Now you get it? xD
http://www.era.pl/pl/strona_korporacyjna/o_ptc/udzialowcy
Still, it's just an owner of majority of shares. Not a carrier.
I live in Poland, HELLO!
Here you can see info note (in Polish) and embarrassing movie. Orange admits its part of their "strategy". How stupid.
http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/Wiadomosci/1,80273,5611649,_ZW___Orange_robi_sztuczne_kolejki_po_iPhone_y.html
Wow, I saw this on a polish news site this morning but didn't know it would make it all the way here. One guy in line told a reported he's willing to sell his spot in line for ~$2,500 dollars so these guys are really playing their parts pretty well.
I agree that Apple is great at marketing, mainly sticking their computers into every Hollywood flick out there, but I doubt that Apple actually had their hand in this. Orange just wanted to duplicate the hype and got called on it. The article goes to say that there are more than enough iPhones available for everyone with no phone shortage in any of the stores. I love my people.
Apple wouldn't go anywhere near this sort of thing. Man, they were working really hard to get rid of the lines in the US stores.
Wouldn't shock if Apple was doing that in the USA. With the fake leaks and paying people to stand in line to hype their products. Jobs is the king of hype. Too bad the quality of products is crap. 3G, MobileMe, 2.0 etc and that was only the 1st half of 2008.
Yeah , thanks for reminding me that apple has only ever made 4 products.(rolls eyes)
Most live TV show audiences are at least partly (and in some cases all of them) hired actors too,.
And I don't just mean the 'infomercials'.
But I think this kind of thing is pretty old, they did it way back in the 20's and earlier already, that kind of fakeness, long before there was an orange/apple, although now the world perfected it and NOTHING is real anymore, I would not be surprised if I found out I was some AI script :/
A line up at a Chicago store might as well be shot in Poland - Chicago has the second largest Polish population after Warsaw.
Remember when communist countries had the general rule that if you saw a line, you got in it in hopes there might be something good to buy at the end, like bread or vegetables?
It would be appropriate if A) they were paid by getting a free iPhone, and B) everyone in line claimed to be an actor when the doors opened.
What does an actor paid to look like a Mac person talk about all day when stuck next to another actor pretending to be a Mac person?
First and foremost, no one in Poland uses Macs. It is common knowledge that they are useless. Then, Poles are quite hype-resistant and it is really hard to market new product there. If it is not Nokia, they will not buy it ;-)
"What does an actor paid to look like a Mac person talk about all day when stuck next to another actor pretending to be a Mac person?"
What a horrible thought. Judging by those mac commercials, it shouldnt be to hard to mimic the unnecessary amount of hand motion used when talking. Put some glow sticks in there hands and set it at night and it would be a nice rave.
I'm not a real iPhone customer, but I play one on TV.
good one :-)
I was paid to stand in line for someone on opening day, so someone could pee. lol thats as close as i got to being an iphone 3g actor, got paid to stand in line and had no intention of buying one, too bad im not polish, if so... what a coincidence
@Nightmare
Now, if you were REALLY clever you would have asked the person behind you for the same amount to leave the line before peeing-apple-fan came back.
things like this make me feel sorry for my country...
DON'T
Feel sorry for coutries that don't have to hire actors to stand in line for hours and days on end...
Out here in Kolkata, India... Vodafone and AirTel (the two providing iPhone) stores are as deserted as... umm... I can't thinks of something funnier than the fact that it costs INR 31000 for 8GB iPhone in India! And with skyrocketting price for data charges... I doubt that iPhone will become popular this way in India.
In czek iphone starting today but without language support. I dont know if it is good decision if you will write message in czek and you getting english suggestion...It is not nice expericence. I try iphone in England and keyboard simple dosnt work without suggest.
Also it was pretty damm start selling something like that on 40th unniversary of Soviet occupation of czek rep.
Marty k. :
Do you know what are you talking about, or just saying sth you heard? I feel like you use stereotypes that we are narrow-minded, poor and we dont know how to use computers. And I'm going to surprise you that some people uses Mac. Anyway converting US prices by 1$=1Euro its not fair.
I am Polish and when I was living there I was actually marketing products (video games, mobile content, consumer electronics etc.) for almost 7 years. I know what I am talking about.
This makes polish people look bad, but it's company marketing doing the move not the polish people. I can confirm that NOONE (read as 0.00001%) in Poland buys Apple products. First, it's too expensive for 80+% of the population. Second, Nokia pretty much owns the cellphone market. Sure, people on were looking on the streets and asking "what phone is that?", but they do not recognize the Apple brand. On the other hand, you can get it (just like pretty much any other polish cellphone) for 1zl (50 cents) (if you spend 250 zloty or $125 a month). Mind you when the average polish income is 2700zl ($1450) a MONTH, 250 zloty is not something spend off so easily on a phone bill (mind that polish cell phone services are structured differently than American Cellphone Companies)
It's too expensive for 80% of the US population as well. We just don't care over here. Not enough money for an IPhone? Get a loan! Mortgage your house!
(I'm in smug-mode because I paid off my house a few months ago, and paid off my last credit card today. Debit free baby!)
And me, in NYC , I can't find it but on Apple store. Everywhere I go, I have to order and wait for the freaking phone like 3 to 5 days. I still didn't get it, and a big line on apple store I'm just not in the mood.
Tomasz:
Yes, not too many people use Apple products, and they are expensive, we cant resist. How Polish people can recognize Apple, if there is no promotion for such products? iPhone is the first thing that have been really showed to people, dont you think? And there is Mac OS, where 99% use Windows. You cant expect that in one day everyone will say "win is bad, mac is cool" and become apple fanatic ;)
@marty k.
How many years ago? http://www.myapple.pl/index.php - so on this forum are only users of PC :) In Poland many people use Macs, especially graphics designer. Of course, PC is most common computer, like other Europen countrys...
I am from Poland too and I do not have Nokia, I have Samsung...
I know what you are trying to prove here. I have been using mostly (Sony)Ericsson and BlackBerry so it is not like every single Pole got his Nokia + Win PC. The point is that sales of Macs are so marginal that you can easily say Apple does not exist on Polish market.
It is damn hard to introduce new product there because of market's specifics. Most often people bring up the average income argument but it is not only that. I am not saying here that it is not easier to market a product at affordable price than in premium sector. The major factor, in my opinion, is the mind-set which was "sculpted" during last, let's say, 50 or 60 years. People do not trust new brands and promotional campaigns as much as people in the UK or US. Unless the product is proven and widely accepted, it is hard to get a sale.
For who ever said they're not even B-List actors, in reality they are just normal people trying to make an extra buck or actors desperately looking for a job, so they are just actors who aren't even celebrities by any means.
what's with the horribly over-sharpened image?
...i ask because the actual article is boring and tedious.
Pics of those "actors" in that blog, txt in polish,
http://appleblog.pl/nietypowe-formy-reklamy-iphone-3g-wpolsce
That form of marketing is truly pathetic.
BTW: There IS T-Mobile in Poland, and among the reasons apple is not popular in Poland: no iTunes store, localization issues, and prices are UNBELIEVABLE, not sure but i suspect there is only one importer that dictates prices ( MacBook Black is 4999zl = $2231 !!!, on store.apple.com it's only $1499, and shipping something to poland doesn't cos $700).
The fact that T-Mobile owns the majority of shares of PTC (owner of Era brand) does not make it a Polish carrier.
Sure but in Canada, Rogers bribed people with breakfast to show up early only to find most stores had less than 80 units... And the punch line? The "breakfast" was a granola bar.
Ok, now that is funny :))))) granola bar .... hahahha
Orange, formerly Wanadoo, formerly France Telecom is agressively in need of income 'cos the Orange "TV" football channel is a BIG fail in France and Europe despite a overpromised and sometimes false enormous net+foot+tv+phone ad european campaign. the license for the football première league season in France is a 200 milions euros fun loss fot the company but the products and quality of services of Orange are still expensive and no good at all to be clear my friends ! In fact Orange do the max, even the worst like this news, to gain sympathy from thousands of deceived french and european customers. the company will always stay the "historic operator" for me, with a bad, bad, bad image.
so why are they fools? people who want iphones or are curious about iphones will see the lines and start talking about iphones. do you idiots actually think they'll make paying customers wait behind a few actors in a fake line?
it's called advertising and marketing. there's no difference between this and an iphone commercial except these actors are performing a live commercial. it's only pathetic if they don't sell any phones after a stunt like this but they will. it's an apple product and that's the reason most people will believe the lines are real.
apple is all hype. Even their dumb commercials. This is just proof that they prey on people who want to look cool :)
Hey Frank! Look, a line..lets go stand on it. Whatever it is, must be really cool..hence, we'll also be cool because we're lining up for it!
You know why buying an iPhone 3g in Poland sucks?
(ooohhh... I just can't guess.... why?)
Because... everyone in line... is behind a Pole! LOLOLOL!!!!!!!
I kill me!
Real iPhone fans in Poland got their hacked iPhones ages ago. No need to stand in line.
My question is this: Is it dozens of actors at each of the 20 stores or just a dozen actors divided between 20 stores? Either way it seems like a lame number of people to have in a line.
My local Frys had perhaps 50 people in line when they had 4 gig thumb drives for $15.
In soviet russia, actor pays you!
Hope you have ur iPhone when the Russian tanks roll on in.
Are they planning to murder people in one of their independent provinces and burn their houses? What do you know?
Let's not come with anti-russia or pro-russia propaganda created fakeness on top of all this please, we aren't orange nor a white house nor any of those 'players'
I'm of Polish heritage and have been there many times. Nobody there can afford an iPhone, and those that can have other priorities, like buying out public officials and bribing police! Poland is good for cheap amusements: cigarettes and beer. Also the women are BEAUTIFUL (but every country has it's share). Don't get me wrong, the country kicks ass, but whoever came up with this idea evidently didn't think it through.
There's always capitalist in any country (where they aren't killed, killed constantly,) and they would not open stores and hire actors if they didn't have people to sell it to.
The fact that people agreed just shows how desperate the Poles are to get American money thus rolling the dice against the Russians in the missile defence system. I shouldn't talk too much though cause my kid's half Polish, though... How many Poles does it take to...
Poland's nice
Perhaps next they will be paying people to say that there are no bugs with the 3G iPhone and it has a perfect 3G signal!
iPhone is a big shit!!!! that`s why we had to take the actors, and the Orange isn`t a Polish brand so....it`s a double shit!!!
Prestiżowy poręcz na engadżecie -wowowow ;o
Rzecznik musi być zadowolony.
The same thing was done by Telia in Sweden,
http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.171437
I wonder how much they are getting paid?? Shiet they should at least throw in a free iphone for the trouble.
and here i thought they were getting paid in oranges
http://www.mmtrojmiasto.pl/2912/2008/8/21/kolejki-po-iphone-marketing-czy-zainteresowani-klienci?districtChanged=true
a short movie - interview with 'customers', in Polish
You see... In Poland a lot of ppl recognize apple brand, but macbooks etc. are so overpriced here that no one wants to buy it. You want a mac? Buy it in USA or UK. There is a lot of iPhones in polish hands (mostly first gen). And Nokia is not most common phone producer, becouse sonyericsson is more popular I think (most of my friends owns SE) And don't talk that ppl in Poland can't afford iPhone, it's stupid, a lot of people uses smartphones (HTC, SPV are most popular) wich are more expensive than iPhone. Anyway who want an phone that cracks after few weeks?
AND: Polish girls ARE beautiful :P
It's ok Mattie, obviously this person doesn't watch tv or movies...
You're stupid. Do you know where Poland is? Do you know where Europe is? I bet you dkn't know. Go back to school, learn, and come back in 20 years, after you'll have knowlage to answer my questions.
Damn idiots.
I am from Poland and live here, so sorry for my english. First of all, Apple products are not popular here. Nokia, Sony Ericsson yes, but not Apple. Second - we hate line up, probably because about 20 years ago (during socialism) we have to stand in line to buy ANYTHING, yes... believe me or not, even lavatory paper, food, etc... Now it's far past, but we probably still hate llines :) Now we can buy any product, but making fake lines / crowd is ridicolous even for me :) Personaly I have SE M600i cell phone, and I'm not going to change it to Iphone. That's my choice. Regards! :)
I come from poland, and I don't now what say about this...
yap, it was sad....
Stupid americans waited to buy the device for days with no compensation from the provider,at least Poles,so called actors get paid for it. If you'd given them yanks piece of shit in a lovely box they'd have purchased it.
so the average polish iphone purchaser is just smarter than everyone else. instead of buying into the hype and standing in line to get an iphone they wait until the phone company pays them to do it. i'm just saying that it sounds like a better plan to me.
who cares Kudos to the people who get paid to just stand there. Easy money... the marketing sept. at O2 should hang themselves for this PR disaster.
At least those poles-so called actors,but I'd call them "stands" get paid for staying in the line for an i-phone,us citizens camped outside apple stores for free
damn its really silly. xD
even if in poles earn 10 times less then americans and prices are 5 times higher its still abnormal.
btw - its good idea to wait for example for ~3-4 days for iPhone xD
somebody has mentioned average income. its about ~ 2700,00 PLN = 817,6367 EUR = 1214,0288 USD = 652,3945 GBP = 1324,8282 CHF
but most of pple earn 1200-2000 PLN (even doctors, scientists, engineers)
there are also many ppl which earns ~ 800,00 PLN = 242,2627 EUR = 359,7122 USD = 193,3021 GBP = 392,5417 CHF.
higher average is coused by politics and other #$%^ (their income is higher - 5k+ PLN + usual 1-5k for food, 5-50k for gas etc. etc.)
swamp, not country ;]