Smart Marketing or Desperate?

I stumbled upon this article (see below) and it had me thinking RIM desperately wants to stay #1 and to do that they need the consumer (averaged joe) user. And its not all that easy 2010 Q1 has RIM with 35%, iPhone 28%, WinMo 19%, and Android 9%... It appears that RIM is losing ground. So would it be surprising that RIM is using hot women to gain more consumer users? Danger did it with the sidekick putting it in the hands of celebs... I guess putting the latest BB in the hands of celebs just wasn't enough for RIM. I don't know what this says, can the BB stand on its own without marketing like this? That's debatable, think about it this way put the 3 hottest phones on a table iPhone 4, HTC EVO, and BB 9800. Then tell a random non-fanboy consumer to choose a phone and he/she can keep it. Not being bias which one do you honestly think he/she will choose? Like it or not we all know what the choice will probably be.

Royter is being paid to flirt. She's part of a covert ad campaign for BlackBerry that attempts to drum up interest in smart phones by putting them in the hands of attractive, gregarious young women who push the product without the public's knowledge.

"I was with a bunch of hot girls and we would just walk into bars, whip out our BlackBerries and try to get guys to look at them by flirting," says Royter. "We'd say, �Put your number in my phone and I'll totally call you. We'll go out on a date!' But we just wanted them to try the BlackBerry. I definitely didn't call anyone."

Read more: Stealth marketing: When you're being pitched and you don't even know it!

From my reading of the Article is seems Julia Royter is in the movie "The Joneses" which is a Movie about Stealth Marketing.

and not that RIM is actually practising Stealth Marketing.