Chinese computer maker Lenovo got creative, and maybe a little too creative, with the marketing campaign around its Yoga 3 Pro. Or did it? In a move to promote its new ultra slim convertible PC, the new 13-inch Yoga 3 Pro, Lenovo played a prank on some mall shoppers in the U.S.

Lenovo hired the Upright Citizens Brigade, a comic troupe, to help drum up visibility for its new device, which has a hinge design that makes it truly flexible. Shoppers at the Plymouth Meeting Mall in Pennsylvania were the latest victims of Lenovo's "prankvertising," according to the Tech Times.

Faux Lenovo "employees" turned the Yoga computer into a tablet, then tried to do the same thing with a MacBook, breaking it in front of customers and arguing about who was at fault, according to a report in the Triangle Business Journal in Raleigh, North Carolina -- just one such media report from various parts of the country.

People Got Really Mad

The fake employee then handed the broken computer to a shopper and ran away. Then the real Lenovo employee showed up, according to the Business Journal. But not everybody thought it was so funny.

In the comments on the YouTube Video, David Traver Adolphus said, “Wow. If you were trying to make some random people hate Lenovo, then job done!” Kalpesh Patel responded to Adolphus with this quip: “They're anyways trying to hard. Lenovo makes sh---y laptops anyways.” And A. Lawrence is sure that, “All the customers pranked should get a free laptop.”

Lenovo digital Relevant Products/Services marketing manager Bob Cordell told Marketing Daily that the company is always looking for new and different ways to get its brand out there. But was this a major fail?

"We definitely recognize people will [view] this in different ways, just as we recognize there are passionate supporters of other people's products," Cordell told Marketing Daily. “But we hope to do this in a way that we’re upfront about it. We’re not trying to pull a fast one.”

But it Worked

We caught up with Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, to get his thoughts on what appeared to be a Lenovo fail. He told us something Lenovo should have known.

“Whenever you attack Relevant Products/Services Apple the Mac faithful will rise up in inflamed protest but they'd never buy your product anyway,” Enderle said. “But they will help dive your campaign viral because their non-Mac friends love to rub their faces in stuff like this and the madder they get, the more the ad propagates. So this actually seems to be working rather well.”

The YOGA 3 Pro comes with Harmony, Lenovo’s software Relevant Products/Services that adapts to users’ personal preferences as they use the device in its different modes. It’s 12.8 mmm think. That’s actually thinner than a pencil when opened. The PC also comes in lighter at 1.19kg -- 14 percent lighter than previous versions and lighter than a bottle of water.

Internally, the device has an Intel Core M processor, solid state drive storage up to 512 GB SSD and Intel integrated graphics. It promises up to 7.2 hours of battery life and connected via high-speed 802.11 a/c WiFi2. Prices start at $1,299.