Samsung’s Fake Galaxy Tab Interviews: Hey, Those Words Sound Familiar!

----------

Samsung's Fake Galaxy Tab Interviews: Hey, Those Words Sound Familiar!
Did Samsung claim actors were real Galaxy Tab users in promotional material? It sure looks like it did.

By Harry McCracken, Technologizer Mar 27, 2011 8:42 pm


When I watched the video interviews with three "true-life" Galaxy Tab users that Samsung showed at its CTIA event, I was observant enough to figure out (with the help of about six minutes of Google research) that two of the users were actors and the other one works for a film-production company that counts Samsung among its clients. But I didn't notice or detail every oddity about the them. Folks who are discussing my story on all this, both in the comments and elsewhere on the Web, are having fun pointing out other curious things about the interviews, such as the fact that "leading New York real-estate CEO Joseph Kolinski" raves about the 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab even though the only 8.9-inch Tabs that Samsung itself had on hand at CTIA were non-working models.

Phil Earnhardt watched the YouTube version of Samsung's CTIA event very carefully. The interviews open with fake magazine covers about the "interview" subjects...



Which open to simulated magazine spreads on the subjects...



The pages flip by in a jiffy, but Phil was apparently interested enough to hit pause and zoom in, so he could reader the text on the real-state CEO interview. (As numerous people have noticed, it identifies him as Joseph Korinski even though he's called Joseph Kolinski elsewhere, and seems to be played by an actor named...Joseph Kolinski.)

Here's a fuzzy blow-up:



Phil even figured out that the text was lifted from a review of the original Galaxy Tab. One that wasn't glowing -- for instance, the text that Samsung's video producers lifted says that the Tab is "no where near as polished and complete" as the original iPad.

When Phil quoted the review, it sounded familiar. As well it should have: I wrote it. It's the piece I did for TIME last November.



The "business magazine" that "interviewed" Kolinksi/Korinski has a TIME-like red ribbon around its cover; perhaps whoever was responsible for mocking it up decided that it would be appropriate to, um, borrow words from TIME to fill it.

I'm amused by this twist. But now I'm more befuddled then ever. Let's see: Neither Joseph Kolinski nor Joseph Korinski is a real leading New York real-estate tycoon. But Joseph Kolinski is a real successful New York actor. And while the words in his magazine-interview text aren't his own, they are real. It's just that they're mine...
----------

Very strange case of Samsung prejecting actors as real life samsung tab users to market their product.

To me all this is very unfortunate and unnecessary because I know that Tab is a good device in itself.Therefore it should be able to sell itself and such crap ads are not required.Word of mouth on the networking sites will give this product the buzz and sales will come in eventually...

What this exposé does is give Samsung a bad rep.The marketing agency responsible for this also stands to lose quite a few contracts.
In my opinion there's nothing wrong with a brand using actors in their marketing. This, as we know, is done all the time.But it's entirely different to use actors and pass them off as being genuine true life stories from real users of the brand. And it seems Samsung went out of its way to go the fake route.Was the brand unable to find a single person who actually liked the Galaxy Tab? Did they even try? Or did they just say, "Lets use fake names.No one will know"?

Wouldn't it have helped the consumer if Samsung was a bit more transparent?It shouldn't have been that hard to find people who've used a Galaxy Tab and are happy with it...