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I’m not much of a news person, but I’d have to have been living under a rock to avoid hearing about the iPhone. What interested me most about it though were the effects of the hype and marketing on people. It seemed like people were going crazy. My husband played a little video that I found especially disturbing: Apple employees clapping and cheering as the iPhone went on sale for the first time. You can hear the hysteria in the voices. Then there are these quotes from The Arizona Republic:

“It was a little better than my first kiss,” Travis Thomas, a 20-something from Tempe, said as he left the Fiesta Mall AT&T store Friday, iPhone in hand.

and

“I haven’t seen or touched one. I’m just going on the hype,” said Charles Darling, 27, while waiting in Scottsdale.

Better than a kiss? Something you’ve never seen or touched, but you want badly enough to wait in line and plunk down $500 or $600 for?

And finally, this quote from The Virginian-Pilot: “I feel great,” said Sarkar, 57, a retired physician who lives in Norfolk. “I got it.”

How many of our purchases are based on feeling cool or good when we think about a product or service? And is it worth it in the end? I suspect we’re really trying to buy those brief feel-good moments. This really shows how successful the marketing and hype was in selling the phone. And after all, it’s just a phone.

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