March 21, 2007
Hollywood's All Ears
Interesting insight from Forbes on how cell phone companies give handsets to celebrities to get "a free boost of buzz and have some the star's luster rub off".
"In Hollywood parlance, this practice is called celebrity seeding... Phones are the perfect item for celebrity endorsement. You may not be able to fit into Mischa Barton's clothes, and you probably can't afford them either. But the pink Motorola RAZR she carries?
Some manufacturers turn to outside marketing firms to get their phones in stars' hands. Palm, or instance, hired Avantgarde, a San Francisco-based marketing company, to outfit stars like Matthew Broderick, Mario Batali and Peter Gabriel, among others, with its line of Treo smartphones. Others go in-house: Motorola runs its own invitation-only showroom in West Hollywood, designed solely for A-listers".
One of The Soprano episodes guest starring Ben Kingsley gave a preview of such a showroom.
Check out Forbes image gallery on celebs and their cell phones.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2007/03/015385.htm