Samsung Hires 'Actors' To Pretend To Be Happy Galaxy Tab Testers?
from the calling-the-ftc... dept
I'm still waiting for Android tablet computers to catch up to the iPad in terms of usefulness, and I'm guessing there's probably still another year or so to go (if the phone market is any predictor). Samsung, of course, has been leading the push for Android-based tablets and they made some news with the launch of its latest version of the Galaxy tab at CTIA. Indeed, the new devices do look pretty neat. But why spoil genuine appreciation of the device when you can hire actors to pretend to like the device... and then claim to the world that they're not actors at all? That appears to be exactly what Samsung did. Much of the launch focused on these interviews with three "regular folks" from "different backgrounds" who were given a chance to test out these new tablets and then be interviewed about them. You can see the full launch video here, and the "interviews" start around the 8 min mark.I was curious to learn more about them. So I Googled around and couldn’t find any references to a travel-writing Joan Hess (one with, as she said, a following on Twitter) or a real-estate CEO Joseph Kolinski.Of course, some people will claim that this is standard operating procedure and that everyone should assume that anyone in such a video is clearly an actor, rather than a real person speaking off the cuff. But this is a press launch event and the clear implication by Samsung officials is that these were real people and real interviews. If the product really is as great as they say, why not actually trust real people to say that, rather than hiring actors?
I did notice, however, that freelance travel writer Joan Hess bears a striking resemblance to New York actress Joan Hess:And that real estate CEO Joseph Kolinski could be New York actor Joseph Kolinksi's twin brother:
Filmmaker Karl Shefelman, on the other hand, looks a lot like... filmmaker Karl Shefelman. Who works for a New York production company. One that's done work for Samsung. 
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Heretical Sincerety?
ಠ_ಠ
ಲ_ಲ
ಥ_ಥ
>_<
^_^
:-D
HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
Sorry, couldn't keep a straight face for very long on that one.
(yes, all the other little boys and girls *almost* pointed out 'mac~cock-racy' as well... chickens just aren't that funny without a road involved)
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Re: Heretical Sincerety?
*sigh* Someone fetch CLT and an AC, we need bait.
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I will avoid Samsung
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Re:
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How about that:
I'm still waiting for Android tablet computers to catch up to the iPad in terms of usefulness,
That's reading comprehension for you
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The Patty Duke Show
Karl Shefelman also looks a lot like Jay Leno's brother.
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Re: The Patty Duke Show
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Re:
Of course, some people will claim that this is standard operating procedure and that everyone should assume that anyone in such a video is clearly an actor, rather than a real person speaking off the cuff. But this is a press launch event and the clear implication by Samsung officials is that these were real people and real interviews. If the product really is as great as they say, why not actually trust real people to say that, rather than hiring actors?
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 25th, 2011 @ 4:37pm
Apple is not lei. Samsung yes. Shame on Samsung. And btw its not true galaxy tard is thinner. There Are images circulating on information week site.
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That's a really good excuse - if you are 5 years old
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old school
you know the answer to that one mike: the difference between broadcasting and communicating.
the big dumb corporations know the former, and it's lack of public scrutiny, and are scared shitless of the latter
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Hmm...No Need To Lie
Most people out there should be able to see through this obvious ruse. (Mike said someone would say this "is just standard operating procedure", I guess that's me.) Product marketers want to 'educate' the market about the value proposition their widgets have for typical market segments, so paint some likely scenarios.
And in an era of Reality TV, the overlap between truth and quasi-truth has crossed the line into pure BS. Do you really think it's a doctor on a TV ad when a guy/gal has a stethoscope around the neck? A scientist because they say so and wear a lab coat? It's all marketing.
However, I'm 100% with Mike that this was dishonest. It's just not true, and I'm not sure what Samsung even gained by lying. I mean, why bother trying to present it as real customers? The message of "usage scenarios" would be can be effectively communicated by actors. Just own up to it.
On another note, the Samsung Tabs looked really good, and the price points were much more attractive than the over-priced Motorola Xoom. At the CTIA show, Samsung let people play around with prototypes of their Tablets, but said that the shipping versions (later this summer) would be much thinner, even coming in thinner than iPad 2. Android tablets will start pouring onto the market this summer from HTC, Huawei, Samsung, and other hardware vendors. Expect the Android tablet momentum to start in earnest around then.
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Hmm...No Need To Lie
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Samsung said they were real
"true life stories of Galaxy Tab users"
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Re: Samsung said they were real
Nest thing you'll be telling me that Santa does not exist
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I know the feeling... kind of like listening to one down-home average American after another on Fox News saying the same things over and over. Just plain-talkin' grassroots folks speakin' their minds, right off the ol' teleprompter.
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Response to: Lichi on Mar 26th, 2011 @ 2:44am
And yes brands do use "real" people - Dove real women campaign springs to mind...
This was a fail as it was said to be something it wasn't that's the error not the use or misuse of actors.
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obviously actors
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Real names imply real people, not actors
Obviously, they could not use the Android enthusiasts you see here in these comments, because they don't want to show off some anti-social loser who breathes through his mouth.
As to open/closed … the Samsung tablets in question run only one piece of open source software: Apple WebKit. The Honeycomb code is not open, and even to the extent that it may be, it will be used by Google's hardware partners. Apple WebKit, by comparison, is truly open and is used not just by Apple's partners, but by Apple's competitors, including Google (Android, Chrome), Adobe (AIR, Creative Suite), HP (mobile products), Nokia, RIM, Roku, and many others.
But all that is irrelevant. We are talking about consumer products here. What is important is enabling the consumer, not other tech companies. Samsung had to use actors to play consumers who were enabled by Galaxy Tab because no actual consumers have been enabled by Galaxy Tab. On the other hand, Apple still has line-ups for iPad 2 because they enable consumers. Some nerds are focused on iPad doing "less than a PC," but to consumers, iPad does *more* than a PC. Consumers use a PC almost exclusively for Web, email, movies. iPad does that plus book reading and hundreds of thousands of native apps, which consumers don't know how to install on a PC. They are liberated by the broader world they see on iPad, not walled into something smaller. They run a more diverse heritage of software from a more diverse set of developers, not less, not just from Apple.
So enough with the nerd dogma and diatribes. There is a market out there of consumers who have real tasks to accomplish. Either serve that market or STFU.
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Really...
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Fraud is fraud
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Dont hold your breath.
Common side effects include; disbelief, pessimism, hate and outrage. YMMV
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Actors are real people, too
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Re: Actors are real people, too
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those people have the jobs they mentioned
because they are part-time actors.
If you want to write a story,
please make sure you do the fact checking!
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Re: part time actors?
If this is true it sheds a new light on the thing. But if you want to be taken seriously with your anonymous post at least cite your source.
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Followup
Are there any forums like this that don't allow anonymous comments?
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Ads
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