Credit to Reuters for the original article. It appears as though one of Europe’s leading mobile phone networks Orange paid for people to stand in queues outside twenty Apple stores in Poland to increase interest in the product.

While the first thought that comes to mind is “why do they even need to?” there are other issues involved. It’s not illegal in anyway and we have had fake announcements using viral marketing before so it’s kind of a shock that it hasn’t taken place earlier.

Considering the way the real people actually waited outside stores when the product was released long ago in the United States having to pay dozens of actors to wait outside and do the same thing is a bit of an injustice to those who didn’t get paid in the US. Perhaps it could be justified for compensation for having to wait? Just like when Sony gave away big screen televisions to anyone who queued for the midnight launch of the PS3 in London.