Intern Stakes Career on Apple Tablet Giveaway

Elliot Hales, an intern at Avantar, who made the revamped Yellow Pages iPhone app (now with GPS-enabled local search) thought a contest might get people’s fingers doing the walking on their iPhones.

But what do people want? Well, sure, iPods are a sexy giveaway. But what if you gave away the new Apple tablet computer?

Awesome! Except that it hasn’t launched yet.

Still, with that unflagging internistic enthusiasm, Hales convinced his boss to set up and pay for a website for the contest — with the tablet, along with some iPod Touches, prizes for participating. The site redirects to a Facebook page he set up a to convince his elders that social media works.

Now, on the eve of the Apple event, it seems even the hale Hales may have cold feet:

“I really hope this product lives up to its hype. I even convinced my boss to launch a host site for an iPad giveaway. I hope it generates some interest otherwise he may have spent $800-1000 bucks for nothing and I could be out on the street looking for a new job! ” he commented on WSJ blog digits.

Hales, whose FB profile quote announces, “I got married a while back and am very happy with life,” may not stay that happy if the iPad turns out, well, not to turn up or not meet expectations despite an avalanche of advance hype.

At this writing, only 87 people have signed up for the iPad giveaway.

Which means that you have a decent chance of winning the iSlablet — should it materialize in all its Jesus Computer glory — but also that Elliot needs to stump at little harder — at least his 400 Facebook friends should sign up.

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