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Why are Apple launch events so cheesy?

E

ehaugan81

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 26, 2007
13
0
Hello from a fairly new Apple convert. I've had an ipod for about 4 years now but have recently (June) switch to a MBP 15". I absolutely love it! Kudos to Apple for how nice their products are.

Anyways, I have to comment on my recent experiences at Apple launch events. These are definitely something new to me and the first one I attended was for the iphone. Ok yeah I was excited to see everyone lining up for a cell phone of all things and I myself was excited to see it and try it out, so the cheering when the doors opened was obivoulsy expected.

Fast forward 5 months to last night. I decided on my way home from work to stop by the Apple store to get a copy of Leopard. Well, low and behold, yet another line to wait in! Not really taking issue with that, what can you do about it? But what really bothers me is how Apple does these events.

6pm and the doors open. Im about 100 people back and can see the employees in the store cheering and going absoultely crazy! As I get closer, I notice they keep cheering and clapping! Free t-shirt! Score! Ok I loved getting a free t-shirt but then I notice the chick handing it to me is wearing leapoard print pants and has her friggin face painted! WTH? I look around and every employee in that place has some sort of leaopard printed accessory on!!! Hats, ears, shirts, ties, pants! You have got to be kidding me! Wait, whats that song playing on REPEAT on the ipod over the speakers that is cranked up? WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE! WOW! Can this get ANY cornier?

Seriously Apple, get it together. All that money you pour into advertisements on television to make your product look hip and cool is compeltely negated by what I saw at the Leopard launch event. I felt like I needed a shower once I left that store! /rant.

So can someone please explaing to me what posesses Apple to make their events so absolutely corny?
 
nothing like that at my store. sure there was clapping and a few cheers, but that went after about 2/3 minutes... music was on, but chart tunes.. was nice in there.. no tack anywhere...

must be american to go 'all out' as usual

sorry, not having a dig, but, it is usually the case lol
 
It may be corny but it's also just a bit of fun to add a bit of hype to the occasion... I think it's also a good bit of psychology for those that have been queuing for a long time, gives some form of emotional payoff after hanging around for hours or even days.

Creates a bit of media buzz, gives good photography for any coverage, boosts the feel-good factor... better than opening the doors to a bunch of tills with po-faced people standing behind them acting as though the day is like any other.

Can be a break from the routine for the staff and also furthers the impression of a community that's different from any other computer manufacturer, as contrived and as calculated as it may appear to some. Happy people are people more likely to pick up that extra accessory or Shuffle that they may have not bothered with before...
 
ehaugan81 said:
...So can someone please explaing to me what posesses Apple to make their events so absolutely corny?
Click to expand...

Its part hype, part just all-out nuttiness. Ya gotta admit that a good hunk of Apple's business is the hype that surrounds everything - be it a new phone, operating system, or whatever. And then who doesn't want to let loose and have a full-scale party and be corny every once in a while? We even have entire holidays centered around being crazy and corny - ever heard of Halloween? So why shouldn't Apple do the same thing for new operating systems?
 
didn't happen at my store. there was cheering, but mostly died down after a couple of minutes. it was packed for the first 30 minutes, but things settled down after that. the people who run your store are just cheesy i think.
 
The Leopard launch here wasn't like that. Sure there was cheering (just like for the grand opening and iPhone launch) but there were no Leopard costumes or unusual music, and really everybody just seemed to be having a good time. May be corny, but still fun.
 
At least no one was jumping around yelling "COME ON! COME ON! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I LOVE THIS COMPANY!" and requiring surgery because of it. And as far as I know, no one started a way-too-intense chant of "Developers, developers, developers, (etc. ad nauseum)".
If either of those happen THEN Apple's launch events will have become too cheesy.
 
I didn't have a chance to go to the Leopard launch because i had to work but I did go to the Tiger launch and didn't find it cheesy at all. I remember everyone just being happy and enjoying the excitement in the air, no grandiose flair or anything.
 
ehaugan81 said:
Im about 100 people back and can see the employees in the store cheering and going absoultely crazy! As I get closer, I notice they keep cheering and clapping! Free t-shirt! Score!?
Click to expand...

The launch parties for Mac OS X 10.0 were very, very different I can assure you.

I remember queuing outside Micro Anvika on the Tottenham Court Road at midnight waiting for them to open and officially release OS X on the populace of London. :D

There weren't that many there, there's were no high-fives... but we still made it into a full double page spread of The Guardian. :p
 
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