The iPhone is fragile.
Oh, I don't mean in the marketplace. Necessarily. No, it seems that if a stripper sits on it, Apple's fine machine might break.
I say this not from personal experience, but from the evidence apparently presented by Kenny Powers on Twitter.
In what seemed like a nifty piece of ribald marketing, Powers -- star of HBO's "Eastbound and Down" -- used Twitter to declare his iPhone only marginally operable after being crumpled by a stripper's behind.
Oddly, he used that very opportunity to beg HTC and AT&T to offer him a new HTC One.
He tweeted: "A stripper sat on my iPhone and it's on its last leg - can someone at @HTCUSA or @ATT help me get a @HTC ONE before I'm phoneless?"
This cannot have been a random request. It's not as if the man who styles himself Kenny F***ing Powers couldn't perhaps use more private channels to secure himself a new phone.
Surely this was another attempt by HTC to create "outrageous" humor around its new product. You might remember its Funny Or Die video parody of "The Bachelorette." Or you might have chosen to forget.
HTC insisted, however, that it is not paying Powers anything to talk up the One to his more than 452,000 followers.
The company told Ad Age: "We noticed the Kenny Powers Twitter account was actively talking (about) the HTC One and helped them get their hands on a device. We don't have an endorsement or paid relationship. We merely helped get the device into the hands of a fan."
At this point, you might have imagined that Powers needed a new agent.
Yet here is where the subtleties of Twitter reared their head. Despite the fact that this Twitter account (@KF***INGP) has so many followers, it has nothing to do with either HBO or the real Kenny Powers.
It is actually manned by a mere fan of the show.
Should you not be familiar with Powers' powerful persona, he is essentially crude, rude, lewd, and not the sort of dude you'd necessarily enjoy encountering on a Friday night. Or even at all.
I have therefore contacted HTC to see if the company knew it was sending its new phone to a faux-Powers or whether it, too, was fooled. I will update, should I receive a reply.
Powers himself has been involved in a very popular -- and highly NSFW, if your work doesn't like the f-word -- 2011 ad for K-Swiss.
This case, though, might suggest an interesting trend. What if brands were to collaborate with Twitter impersonators of famous people in order to plug their wares?
It would surely be a cheaper investment.