Hop-On Flop

摘要

Think E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial had a tough time phoning home? Try being one of the 1000 seemingly lucky consumers who won a disposable cell phone with the DVD purchase of another Steve Spielberg production, "Jurassic Park III." The much-advertised "Survival Phone Promo" was a joint venture between Universal Studios and Hop-On.com, a Garden Grove, Calif.-based developer of disposable mobile phones. The company already was the subject of considerable media hype: Time Magazine named the phong one of 2001's "Inventions of the Year." Hollywood bought into the buzz (let us now take a moment to savor the sweet irony of Tinseltown getting suckered by someone else's hype machine), and when the so-called "JP3" made its way to DVD, an estimated 1000 copies in-eluded coupons awarding a free Hop-On phone.