iPhone #ALSIceBucketChallenge proves Samsung marketing clueless. Again.

August 24, 2014

Earlier today Samsung marketing thought it would be a good idea to have the Galaxy S5 take the #ALSIceBucketChallenge — which has succeeded in generating record donations for an incredibly worthy cause — and use it not only to advertise their phone, but to try to do it at the expense of their competition, including the iPhone. The problem obvious to anyone outside Samsung marketing — aside from the stupefying perversion of charity — is that the conditions under which they performed the challenge were pretty much fine for any of the competing phones they called out, including the iPhone. To prove it, I took 15 minutes and made the video above (after taking 45 min. to shake my head first).

I donated to ALS when I made my own video last week. I'm donating again today. I only hope Samsung marketing and everyone who made their ill-considered video is, at the very least, breaking open their massive bank accounts to help out as well.

Update 1: Samsung Mobility has made a donation. Good on them! Still love to see marketing get in on the action!

Update 2: Many observers have noted that, while the GS5 starts with one time on the screen, as the ice and water hit it, the time changes, along with the battery level. The most plausible explanation I've seen is that Samsung used a screenshot stored in the photo gallery for the display image, and when the ice and water it, it was toggled out of full-screen mode. That brought up the current time and battery level on the status bar.

It's goofy that they did it that way and didn't themselves catch it, but I'd argue that's the theme of all the pieces I've written on Samsung marketing — they don't think things through.