Celebrities aplenty at Apple's latest store opening
The grand opening of Apple Computer's stunning retail location on Fifth Avenue in New York City this weekend drew more than the usual assortment of computer nerds and technophiles.
Attendees also included droves of famed actors, actresses, television personalities and musicians.
Some of the celebrities who made an appearance at the store included Dave Chappelle, Kevin Spacey, Spike Lee, Drew Barrymore, Kevin Bacon, Martha Plimpton, James Woods, Elizabeth Berkley, Liev Schreiber and Rachel Dratch.
Jay Z and his girlfriend Beyoncé also put in an appearance alongside Mos Def, Kanye West, Harry Connick Jr., Julianne Moore, and John Legend.
The star-studded event is rumored to have been orchestrated by Apple's public relations division, which reportedly sent out personal invites to a number of the familiar faces.
Current and former cast members of NBC's Saturday Night Live also made their presence known. Kenan Thompson arrived disguised as the late Notorious B.I.G along with Weekend Update babes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
Also spotted in the crowd were SNL regulars Chris Parnell, Fred Armisen, Andy Samburg, Seth Myers, Horatio Sanz, Finesse Mitchell, and Late Night's Triumph the Comic Insult Dog.
Several of the celebrities reportedly walked away from the store with party favors such as Apple's iPod Hi-Fi and the new MacBook. They also got to skip the line of some 3000 eager Mac addicts.
One Mac user's photo gallery of the event includes photos of several of the celebs.
Attendees also included droves of famed actors, actresses, television personalities and musicians.
Some of the celebrities who made an appearance at the store included Dave Chappelle, Kevin Spacey, Spike Lee, Drew Barrymore, Kevin Bacon, Martha Plimpton, James Woods, Elizabeth Berkley, Liev Schreiber and Rachel Dratch.
Jay Z and his girlfriend Beyoncé also put in an appearance alongside Mos Def, Kanye West, Harry Connick Jr., Julianne Moore, and John Legend.
The star-studded event is rumored to have been orchestrated by Apple's public relations division, which reportedly sent out personal invites to a number of the familiar faces.
Current and former cast members of NBC's Saturday Night Live also made their presence known. Kenan Thompson arrived disguised as the late Notorious B.I.G along with Weekend Update babes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
Also spotted in the crowd were SNL regulars Chris Parnell, Fred Armisen, Andy Samburg, Seth Myers, Horatio Sanz, Finesse Mitchell, and Late Night's Triumph the Comic Insult Dog.
Several of the celebrities reportedly walked away from the store with party favors such as Apple's iPod Hi-Fi and the new MacBook. They also got to skip the line of some 3000 eager Mac addicts.
One Mac user's photo gallery of the event includes photos of several of the celebs.
Comments
FWIW, Jay Z and Beyonce are not married and it's Horatio Sanz, not Sands. Which I shouldn't care about since he's a Cubs fan.
Originally posted by ronn
I only saw about 1/3 of the celebs mentioned.
FWIW, Jay Z and Beyonce are not married and it's Horatio Sanz, not Sands. Which I shouldn't care about since he's a Cubs fan.
Corrected. Thanks.
In attendance: Erkle, gary collman and Vanilla Ice.
Correction: That should read Working at the store Erkle, Gary Collman and Vanilla Ice.
The lights were said to flicker and burn out prematurely.
Steve Ballmer did the monkey dance and everyone left with a virus.
(a la Peggy Hill)
Also spotted in the crowd were SNL regulars Chris Parnell, Fred Armisen, Andy Samburg, Seth Myers, Horatio Sanz, Finesse Mitchell, and Triumph the Comic Insult Dog.
Triumph is from Late Night with Conan O'Brien, not SNL as you imply in this sentence.
reminds me of the recent and quite brilliant episode of the sopranos, guest starring sir ben kingsley.
i guess rich folks are not immune from greed.
wouldn't it be news-grabbing if apple just chose random joe-shmos from the throngs of mac geeks in one of the flagship openings and let them leave with party favors? that would put a smile on my face. and it seems rather zen, don't you think?
sorry for the random thoughts,
kyle
Originally posted by kddpop
am i the only one who is a little sickened by celebs leaving events like this one with "party favors?"
reminds me of the recent and quite brilliant episode of the sopranos, guest starring sir ben kingsley.
i guess rich folks are not immune from greed.
wouldn't it be news-grabbing if apple just chose random joe-shmos from the throngs of mac geeks in one of the flagship openings and let them leave with party favors? that would put a smile on my face. and it seems rather zen, don't you think?
sorry for the random thoughts,
kyle
Why be sickened? It's just advertising and would come from the advertising budget. How much more likely would someone be to go to the store just to see Joe Blow Average? Not at all. How likely does name dropping bring in folks that might turn into customers - pretty likely. And swag is all but scientifically proven to generate good will, future sales, positive word of mouth and increased revenues for a store when given to those type of "Stars".
So it's time to stop whining that you aren't personally rating appearance fees/swag and do something that will rate you appearance fees/swag.
Originally posted by kddpop
am i the only one who is a little sickened by celebs leaving events like this one with "party favors?"
No. I'm pretty disgusted too. As much at the celebs for taking the swag as Apple for giving it to them.
And saying "That's the world we live in" doesn't make it better, even though it's correct. Just makes me more disgusted at that world.
Originally posted by kddpop
sorry for the random thoughts,
kyle
Never apologize for random thoughts.
Originally posted by Hiro
Why be sickened? It's just advertising and would come from the advertising budget. How much more likely would someone be to go to the store just to see Joe Blow Average? Not at all. How likely does name dropping bring in folks that might turn into customers - pretty likely. And swag is all but scientifically proven to generate good will, future sales, positive word of mouth and increased revenues for a store when given to those type of "Stars".
So it's time to stop whining that you aren't personally rating appearance fees/swag and do something that will rate you appearance fees/swag.
im not saying that swag doesn't work. im just expressing my own reaction to it...swag does not work on me. i am not swayed to buy a product because "stars" have been given a free sample.
i agree that the majority of folks are swayed by swag. my question still stands, "am i the only one" who is not swayed by swag?
and, it's good to hear that shmoes got some swag. that's pretty cool.
i'd love to visit the store. looks amazing.
-kyle
And those average Joes will actually pay dearly for their swag when they get hit with added promotional charges at the end of the year. Happened to me when I received a free iPod Shuffle.
hell, a few macbooks to musicians and celebs ? what is wrong with that. hook in a very well known and rich crowd and you may get free publicity for life.
now what the hell is wrong with that?
Originally posted by Elixir
if you consider that most of the time these celebs charge thousands upon thousands of dollars to make an appearance i guess a few party favors aren't a big deal. NOT to mention if you're giving ipods to musicians, popular musicians, that isn't a bad idea at all.
hell, a few macbooks to musicians and celebs ? what is wrong with that. hook in a very well known and rich crowd and you may get free publicity for life.
now what the hell is wrong with that?
i understand the bottom line here...swag means more money for apple.
i suppose im just bemoaning the fact that it works this way. and im bemoaning that fact that apple plays the game too. i assumed that apple was different enough not to play that game. oh well.
-kyle
I only saw about 1/3 of the celebs mentioned.
FWIW, Jay Z and Beyonce are not married and it's Horatio Sanz, not Sands. Which I shouldn't care about since he's a Cubs fan.
Go White Sox, I bet they felt bad for the Cubs, so they gave them the game on Sunday
Originally posted by kddpop
i understand the bottom line here...swag means more money for apple.
i suppose im just bemoaning the fact that it works this way. and im bemoaning that fact that apple plays the game too. i assumed that apple was different enough not to play that game. oh well.
-kyle
how did you figure that? hasn't apple targeted that crowd since the beginning? do you not see apple computers in every damn commercial, movie, music video?
hasn't the backbone of their core audience been musicians, photo editors, graphic designers, the style conscious?
shame on you.
Originally posted by xflare
Celebrities get far too much free stuff.
Isn't that half the incentive to be a celebrity in the first place?