Last Thursday we reported on a stunt held at an Apple store in Sydney. Protesters hopped off a bus and stood in front of an Apple store with placards which read, “Wake Up.” Samsung was thought to be behind the stunt as the date the Wake Up site was counting down to aligned with an upcoming Samsung Galaxy S3. Turns out, the date differed and actually aligned with the launch of a new OS for Blackberry.
In a statement, RIM said, “We can confirm that the Australian ‘Wake Up’ campaign, which involves a series of experiential activities taking place across Sydney and Melbourne, was created by RIM Australia.”
Last week Samsung denied any involvement with the stunt issuing a statement which read, “As a market leader in smartphones we think Australians have already woken up to the multitude of choices available, but kudos to whoever is behind the campaign.”
In response to charges the blogger who filmed the stunt, Nate “Blunty” Burr, was paid to report the stunt, a RIM statment said, “Bloggers were not paid for this campaign or told what to say. Neither RIM, nor any agencies on RIM’s behalf, have ever paid Blunty.”
The hilarious an sad part of this whole mess is that no one could imagine the troubled RIM could possibly be behind anything like this. The rise in popularity of the iPhone and Android phones has all but rendered the Blackberry a paper weight.
