New York – Lady Gaga made an appearance at Best Buy’s Union
Square store here last night as part of a new album and cellphone promotion
with the CE chain.
Customers camped out over the weekend to be among the first 50 to
purchase a mobile phone, for which they received a free copy of Gaga’s
just-released album “Born This Way” and the chance to meet the star.
A nationwide promotion runs through May 28 that provides free
copies of the CD with the purchase of any postpaid mobile phone and a two-year
activation. Best Buy is also offering three free smartphones – Samsung’s Epic
4G on Sprint, HTC’s Inspire 4G on AT&T and Samsung’s Fascinate on Verizon
Wireless – that come with free physical and digital versions of the album.
“Best Buy has a solid history as an entertainment company and
with the great response we’ve received from our customers around our free
smartphone promotions, we felt it was an opportunity to bring these two worlds
together,” said Best Buy Mobile merchandising chief Scott Anderson.
According to The Huffington Post, Gaga signed autographs and
posed for pictures with her “Little Monster” fans replete in ripped fishnet
stockings, leather boots and peroxide blonde hair.
Meanwhile, Best Buy rival Amazon.com staged a Gaga event of its
own yesterday by offering a complete digital version of the album for 99 cents.
The high volume of purchases led to temporary download delays, the e-tailer
said.
