“‘Dude, you’re a barista,’ that line instantly brings to mind Samsung’s recent television commercial that ridicules people who stand in line for a new iPhone,” Christian Zibreg reports for 9to5Mac. “Bad marketing, some would say, which offends and alienates potential customers who are your target audience. The adverts are actually part of a broader campaign which continues on Samsung USA’s Facebook page so Samsung is clearly hoping its message will go viral.”
Zibreg reports, “In addition to the ads, their Facebook page features interesting graphics illustrating a comparison between ‘cutting edge’ (their Galaxy S II, of course) and ‘old school,’ obviously Apple’s iPhone 4S likened to a bulky cell phone of the stone age [and two tin cans connected by string].”
“It’s a bit tongue in cheek and some would say in bad taste, but it’s actually working. Just the other day I heard this dude on the bus telling his girlfriend about Samsung’s commercial,” Zibreg reports. “Plus, my Android-toting friends are beginning to call me a barista…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Whatever.
The next time a settler calls you a “barista,” ask them, “Without iPhone and iPad, what would Samsung’s phones and tablets try to look and work like today?”
You can pour the coffee straight into their slack-jawed, answer-free, stupidly-agape, buy-one-get-one-free, cheap-ass, tasteless pie-holes.
One thing’s for sure: We’ll be buying Samsung-branded products the day after we dump our Macs for Dells running Windows.
And another thing: If he hasn’t already, Tim Cook should make it his focus to eliminate doing business with the thieving Samsung in every way possible.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward Weber” for the heads up.]
When you’re shooting desperate PR blanks like Shamstung there’s always a sucker who will fall for it. Consumer ignorance is what Android phone makers are shooting for.
That would make Samsung buyers barista-wannabes.
No, actually coffee customers.
They can’t afford coffee house coffee. They’re more likely Sanka drinkers.
Judge not, lest ye be judged… is that how the saying goes? It seems bad tactics to bash products of rivals, when it’s actually the consumer who decides if a product is good or not. Based on the data, the unit sales do not seem to indicate that consumers are misguided. Why doesn’t Samsung try to come up with good products themselves for consumers to want to buy. Oh well.
“Why doesn’t Samsung try to come up with good products themselves for consumers to want to buy.”
Have their own ideas? Develop their own products? What kind of flaming radical are you!? 🙂
Just stop buying anything Sumsung sell.
They want it to go viral and 9to5 and by extension, MDN, are only helping. Way to boycott Samsung?
Samsung’s Facebook page should say, “Ugly Edge vs Cool School”
I mean even the old phones were cool and cutting edge at one time.
Siri has everybody running for the hills and she’s only in Beta.
I’ll take Barista over Google Bitch any day.
Just ask the guy… Need lubricant?
Please Samsung, stick to TVs. Thank is what you’re good at.
Lighten up boys. It a commercial. Just like the Mac/PC guy ads. We love our Apple products and continue to preach the good word to others. Enjoy the free publicity for Apple.
The difference is the Mac and PC commercials made fun of products (anthropomorphic products, but still products). These commercials actually make fun of people. It’s not a good idea to win new customers by making fun of them.
If Apple is ‘old school’ then Samsung isn’t a shameful copier, it’s a mimeograph.
+∞!
Although, the lower tech Ditto machine might have been a more appropriate comparison.
Yes, Samsung. Compete on tech specs. Because that’s worked so well for Apple’s competitors in the past.
——RM
North Korea is beginning to look like the saner “Korea”…
Not even in jest.
C’mon their ad agency is doing their job. They are getting Mac sites and the media in general is talking about them. They’re smart and funny. This one is great. Kudos to the Ad agency.
This is just par for the course, reminds me of political smear campaigns, lol, you just take these for what they are and nothing more. Don’t get your butt hurt over them.
“C’mon their ad agency is doing their job. They are getting Mac sites and the media in general is talking about them. ”
You know what people talked about a lot? The Arch Deluxe. You know what was an unmitigated commercial disaster? The Arch Deluxe.
Where did this stupid idea come from that an ad agency is “doing its job” if it gets people to talk about a product? The job of an ad agency is to make people buy a product, not make some guy mention it on a bus or make your buddies accuse you of being a barista.
Publicity alone, without the sales to back it up, is a complete failure of advertising.
Will this ad campaign be backed up by sales? Well, not from iPhone switchers, because people don’t exactly go run out and buy your product after you insult them. From the users of other Android handsets that are inspired solely by Samsung’s Apple-hate to switch to a Galaxy? That sounds like a rather small niche to me. Odds are this campaign will only keep some of the existing Samsung sheep in the pen, and ironically, make some of the other sheep leave the pen out of curiosity over the iPhone.
In the advertising industry, it is widely acknowledged that 1/2 of all advertising is a waster of money. The problem is determining which 1/2 was the waste.
I don’t think that problem exists here.
What is a barista?
In the UK it means a lawyer (spelt incorrectly).
My point is that it’s not exactly a campaign that works globally, but they are using a global medium.
No idea, sounds like a cross between a lawyer and a gangsta?
Merriam Webster:
Origin of BARISTA
Italian, person working behind a bar, from bar bar (from English) + – ista 1-ist
In English usage, particularly a coffee bar
On my iPad I press the word to select it and from the pop up menu choose Define…
That’s the way to increase your vocabulary!
Just bought a big screen TV last week, wouldn’t consider Samdung. People have to vote with their wallets. It may take a little work, but you can largely avoid poorly performing companies.
If iPhone is Old School why does Samsung clone it without any transparency whatsoever?
If some Android geek calls you a barista, just talk to your iPhone and say:
Siri, what’s another name for an asshole?
Android…a smaller version of an asteroid which is the largest size obtained by a hemorrhoid.
Samsung is such a douchebag of a company. And I say that as a Korean-American. I have never owned a Samsung product in my life and never will.
“SAAA.. AAM…SUNG!…. SAAA.. AAM…SUNG! SAAA.. AAM…SUNG!”
four times a day I face East towards Samsung the Great Electronics Company, Purveyor of Android, Defender of Freedom and Vanguard against the Apple Plague. I face east and Kowtow in front of my Samsung Altar of Worship.
in the tradition of Samsung my Altar is an EXACT COPY of a memorial my aunt has of Elvis but replacing Elvis memorabilia with Samsung. The Guitar with a Galaxy S, the Elvis photos with shots of Samsung Executives etc. When in season I decorate the Shrine of Samsung with fresh flowers freely ‘borrowed’ from my neighbours yard — again in the tradition of Samsung that ‘Borrowing is Good’.
I genuflect and chant…
“SAAA.. AAM…SUNG!…. SAAA.. AAM…SUNG! SAAA.. AAM…SUNG!”
Bless their hearts. They resort to all that and at the end of the day Samsung still doesn’t have an iPhone.
Just goes to show Samsung’s mentality miscues yet again. Bashing, from their point of view, potential converts from the iPhone to one of their products – products which oddlly enough resemble very much those they are insisting are so inferiorly deaigned.
Wish I had an “old school” product selling 25 million units per quarter at a 40% margin.
The last iPhone vs Droid argument I heard was between an iPhone user who is a college graduate making a 6 figure income and a 15 year old Droid “enthusiast” who had hacked his phone to run Windows software, was wearing an XBoX 360 T-shirt, and who loved being able to “acquire” free software. Whose business model is likely to be more profitable?
They just don’t get it, do they? It’s not about wonderful technology or even capability. It’s about using a device that is actually friendly, intuitive and doesn’t make users feel stupid and small.
“Nobody cares how much you know,
Until they know how much you care'”
US ground zero for Baristas is Seattle – also home of Microsoft and tons of apple haters. Don’t punch your natural target audience in the nuts. Baristas take a lot of pride in their knowledge of Coffee and brewing, and there is no need to insult working people. This commercial is kind of like shits passing in the night.