Hasta La Ideas

With the launch of the iPhone 5 came the latest Samsung ad poking fun at the ‘fanboys’ (and girls) who worship at the temple of all-things Apple. But while the ads are funny, are they also misguided?

With impressive speed, 72 and Sunny rolled out its latest spot for the Samsung Galaxy S III. Lines of hipsters wearing white earphones are depicted queueing up outside unnamed but obviously meant to be you know what shops in various US cities. They discuss the imminent arrival of, well, you know that too. “I heard you have to have an adapter to use the dock on the new one,” says one, worriedly. ““Yeah yeah, but they make the coolest adapters,” assures another.

This isn’t the first time Samsung and 72andSunny have taken aim at Apple fans. It started last November with an ad for the Galaxy S II (shown above. Best line: “I could never get a Samsung – I’m creative”).

And in January, a Superbowl ad echoed Apple’s famous 1984 spot, only this time it was Apple users who were being set free (with a little help from, ahem, The Darkness)

The ads certainly hit home and may well make some long-term Apple users uncomfortable. The line “This year we’re finally getting everything that we didn’t get last year” in the latest ad is particularly well aimed. But then they go and let themselves down by turning the commercials into some kind of competition to see how many times you can say the word “Samsung” in an ad as they clumsily list all the Galaxy III’s features (the heavy hand of the client, presumably).

Executional issues aside, is running a campaign that basically says users of the competition (who are presumably people you would like to buy your products) are shallow idiots really a good idea? Perhaps Samsung has decided to adopt what we might have to refer to now as the ‘Mitt Romney Strategy’ – they’re never going to buy our products anyway so we don’t care about them.

The battle lines are pretty fixed when it comes to the incredible levels of loyalty tech users adopt regarding their chosen platforms, but such an aggressive approach feels more likely to reassure existing Samsung customers that they made the right choice than to win over any from The Other Side.

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