There is a certain kind of publicity stunt that cagey PR people sometimes employ for movie premieres and other openings, wherein extras are hired to stand in line for a product/movie/what-have-you and wait for the buzz to generate. The thought being: If you build anticipation, they will come. Nothing technically illegal about the operation, just some good old-fashioned wayward promotion advertising. Sometimes products just need a push.

Not everyone agrees. Orange, the Euro cell phone company, has been in the middle of a media/blogger frenzy of late because it supposedly fluffed the lines for the new 3G iPhones released in Poland with hired help. Naturally ,Orange denies paying anyone to stand in line. And the blogs are calling bullshit. The industry? They've mustered a collective shoulder shrug.

The real story, then? The unnecessary outrage from the American digerati (spurred by Reuters, who broke this maybe true story) and its feelings toward Orange, and in a broader sense, Poland in general, for not being so super-enthused by the glorious Apple products they would take off work to stand in zombie lines waiting for their phonestuffs.