A new commercial from Samsung urges viewers to upgrade their iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy 9 because the Apple phone is slow and frustrating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qhW1sDPHYI
There’s one big problem with this advertisement, and its secret is buried in virtually unreadable fine print.
*MOUSE PRINT:
What Samsung has done is compare a 2014 model of the iPhone — the iPhone 6 — with Samsung’s latest and greatest model. Had it compared the current iPhone models, the 8 and the X, the slowness depicted would have magically disappeared.
Samsung executives made a conscious decision to deceive consumers. Sadly, they are are not alone. Companies pull tricks like this all the time. They all should hang their corporate heads in shame.
I’ve seen this ad and have no problem with it. Here is why: When I had an iPhone 6 I was looking to upgrade and this ad would be targeting me and fair in its content. Since I don’t have a slow and older iPhone, this ad has no draw for me. No harm, no foul.
The “screen images simulated” part is a dead giveaway that they wrote an app to simulate a slow, frustrating phone. That would definitely be misleading.
Well if they did a comparison with an iPhone X the ad would have never been needed to be created in the first place.
Screen images simulated is just stupid and saying they have newer versions of the iPhone is just dumb.
iPhone and Samsung Android phones have about the same processing power.
I admire when advertiser can inform people what’s great about their own product without relying on denigrating competing products.
I like my Samsung phone, but I didn’t buy it because of what I dislike about iPhone, I bought it because of what I like about the Samsung Galaxy. Besides, if I am gonna criticize iPhones, I would much rather complain about the single-button interface and lack of customizable features than I would complain about processing power.
false advertising at best. if thats allowable then i can say how amazing the Samsung rugby is…as compared to the original “brick†i had iwhen cell phones first came out. however if i compare my rugby to any phone made in last 10 plus years mine is a dinosaur.
i love to pause comericials on tv and read the fine print like now with a chevy comericial offering $750 off. yeah 3models ost people don’t buy.
i guess the need to decieve is greater than need to be honest .
look at drug ads. what a wonderful product..cures all your ills..only side effect is it may cause death.
People like to be deceived so Samsung is giving them what they want. JCPenney learned that the hard way.
“Screen images simulated” is not necessarily deceptive. It can be difficult to get good shots of a screen. If I were making a commercial like this, I would capture the screen images and then merge them into the shot to be able to create something that didn’t look like crap.
@Rich
This is certainly not false advertising as there is a disclosure right on the ad indicating the product that is shown, and this could very easily be explained by saying that this ad is targeted toward iPhone 6 customers who haven’t upgraded yet since the 6+, 7, and 8 are visual similar to the 6.
The disclosure is on the screen in tiny print for ~3 seconds with bad contrast right at the beginning before you know what is going on. It may not be false, but it is misleading and deceiving. That said, the ad itself also explains the situation with a text message asking if the person has upgraded from their iPhone6 yet. To me, working that into the ad is a much better disclosure than the mouse print.
As for the screen images simulated, I think some are confusing that phrase with ads that use a “sequences shortened” disclosure. As long as the images are accurately depicting what would be happening on the phone, I understanding using a digitized version of it to make sure it looks good. The sequences shortened disclaimer, however, usually means that ads speed up or skip steps to make something that is complicated or slow seem simple or fast (and thus is deceiving the public).
I stand by my previous false advt statement. If you wantvto be truthful youbshould compare current model to competitors current model you are comparing. So that is misleading at best.
The other day i saw a drug advt. it stated how wonderful theur drug was as compared to …a placebo or nothing at all.
So that means when you compare things in an advt as long as you compare to an inferior product you can say how wonderful your is.
Even tv stations are now in on the act. They get a certification that their weathermen are “mosy accurate” ok so what are the qualifications for this statement ! No one will say. So if channel a is right 25% of time b 27% and most accurate 30% then the statement is factually correct but still not right. 30% accurate means 70% inaccurate. So if i say my phone is greatest but compare to an old phone that is misleading and to me false advt.
Why not work to make your product as good as you claim so you can truthfully compare it to all models of all, phones and come out best !