Samsung has a long history of needling iPhone users through their ads, and it is generally fairly amusing. Even iPhone users find them funny if they have a sense of humor about the more extreme fanatics. They’re still at it with their teaser video for the upcoming Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012 event, being held in London on May 3rd.
The end of the video displays this text progressively: “With technology that fits in this easily, you can now stand out from… …everyone else.” And when it displays “everyone else” the video shows a pen full of white sheep ‘baa’ing. While they never call out Apple or the iPhone, given the history of their rivalry I think it is clear who that is aimed at.
So that’s all well and good, a little jab at the competition. But they also apparently arranged another stunt at an Apple Store in Sydney, Australia as part of a pseudo-viral “Wake Up” campaign that seems to be designed to drum up interest in advance of the Galaxy S III launch. (And here I am writing about it, so I guess it is working.) The website wake-up-australia.com.au is just a large countdown timer. There have been incidents of “Wake Up” popping up around Sydney – on billboards, in a pool, etc.
But this time a couple of large black buses pulled up outside of the Apple Store in Sydney and disgorged a horde of black clad ‘protesters’ who held black placards emblazoned with “Wake Up”. They then proceeded to chant loudly outside of the store, blocking the sidewalk and generally creating a disturbance. And a local blogger caught it on video:
Frankly I think this is way over the line, and just completely dickish behavior. That goes beyond good natured ribbing and is just harassment of the Apple Store employees and customers. And the general public who had to deal with the obstruction and disturbance. All to drum up attention. But this is like a toddler throwing a tantrum to make everyone pay attention to them. Samsung – you’re better than that, cut this crap out.
EDIT: Apologies to Samsung, the real jerk is RIM.
From mUmBRELLA via Android and Me.
