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Samsung's Happy Galaxy Tab Users Are Actors

Posted by timothy on from the why-discriminate-against-actors? dept.

harrymcc writes "At the CTIA Wireless show in Orlando this week, Samsung unveiled new Galaxy Tab tablets and showed videos of interviews with 'true-life' users who raved about the Tab, including a travel writer, a filmmaker, and a real-estate CEO. One problem: the writer and the CEO are actually New York stage actors."

50 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. News flash! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Marketing = lies. Is anyone really surprised?

    1. Re:News flash! by JAlexoi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances..."
      Isn't that beautiful?
      "Beauty is truth, truth beauty and hoped thereby to prove that the guilty party in this case was Life itself for failing to be either beautiful or true."

      So... Samsung is in the clear...

    2. Re:News flash! by MrHanky · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The most interesting part of this "story" is of course the fact that it's much more an advertisement for Samsung's competition as a story in itself. "We: more honest than our competitors." It certainly isn't news.

    3. Re:News flash! by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm a happy Galaxy Tab user, I just don't feel the need to prance around and sing about it.

      Then obviously you're not holding it right ;-)

    4. Re:News flash! by Carewolf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, users in advertisement are called personas, they may or may not be based on real users, sometimes they just examples of users the product has been designed for, but even if they are real, they are played by actors because real users make lousy actors.

    5. Re:News flash! by macs4all · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "Do you have any doubt that if Apple showed a similar set of videos, they would be videos of real people who actually loved their iPads?"

      No doubt at all. Remember the original "Switcher" campaign? One of the reasons it was discontinued was that the real-life people in the ads started getting harassed/idolized in real-life. They were not actors.

      Contrast that with the one-and-only Windows "switcher", who's picture came straight from Getty Images...

    6. Re:News flash! by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2

      The only problem I have is that the actors were not presented as "advertisements" but "interviews" implying that they were real people. Could they be real users? I don't know but since it wasn't disclosed that they were actors and not CEOs and writers, it makes the whole thing a bit slimy. For testimonials on an ad, they may or may not be real people but they at least disclose if they were real people. Really is this any different from the MS switcher ads?

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    7. Re:News flash! by Teknikal69 · · Score: 2

      This is exactly what I thought when I watched apples last keynote with all the happy Ipad2 users talking in the clips. What's the difference?

    8. Re:News flash! by node+3 · · Score: 2

      Marketing = lies. Is anyone really surprised?

      This goes beyond "marketing = lies" in the normal sense. Marketing may cherry pick facts, present only the most biased data, and say things that technically don't mean what they sound like, while still being correct, but this isn't that. This is outright fraud. These actors were presented on multiple occasions throughout the keynote as being "real customers" with "real stories". This isn't even, "here's a typical experience of our customer" (which would be a more normal marketing lie).

      This reminds me of those "miracle cure wonder potion" traveling scams you see in movies where a plant in the audience pretends to be cured of some malady.

      The script was so corny, I kept looking for clues that the presenters on stage were hinting at it being a joke, but each time they came off as claiming this was actual, honest, customers giving their own candid opinions of the Tab.

    9. Re:News flash! by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Informative
      The difference is that Apple used real people and their real occupations. You can google for yourself:
      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  2. why are putting up with this shit? by improfane · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I never had a problem with Samsung, these companies are going to get worse with the bullshit if we just let them. Astrosurfing is something that needs to be fought back against. It needs to be made public.

    Why isn't there are defamation website or the realdeal or cutthebullshit website? Or thetrangressions website?

    Keep a history of all the bullshitty things a company has done to users. Apple and Microsoft would have reams of instance of screwing with the company. Something like fuckedcompany but more organized and has a specialized interface?

    It would need legal protection or it might be sued for defamation, even if it is correct. Does western civilization not realise how strongly the foot is on our throats?

    Bah.

    --
    Slashdot needs Geekcode | Can anyone recommend any good SCIFI? My tastes: Foundation, Startide Rising, CITY, Ringworld,
    1. Re:why are putting up with this shit? by Homburg · · Score: 2

      This isn't astroturfing. Samsung made promotional videos which they showed as promotional videos. It's completely clear that this is Samsung expressing their opinion about their own product, which is advertizing, not astroturf.

    2. Re:why are putting up with this shit? by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 2

      That should say screwing with customers.

      Every business function (but IT) are professional liars.

      You've obviously never called tech "support."

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    3. Re:why are putting up with this shit? by somersault · · Score: 2

      Exactly. TV adverts have actors, billboard ads have models. People here need to get a grip.

      Who here would actually buy a $1000 gadget based solely on a TV ad, without at least looking at the specs and reading some actual reviews first?

      --
      which is totally what she said
    4. Re:why are putting up with this shit? by DJRumpy · · Score: 2

      They would have been promotional videos if they had stated the people in them were actors. This used to be a common practice for product ads. The fact that they skipped that bit is misleading and I happen to agree this practice is no better than dishonest astroturphing. Surely they could have found actual people pleased with the tablet had they spent chump change out of the Samsung budget.

      There is no reason a company of Samsung's size should do this.

    5. Re:why are putting up with this shit? by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh, the liar there is whoever named the department, not those who work there!

      Support Agent: No sir, we haven't heard of any other reports of spiders coming out of our cell phones. You must have left it somewhere the spiders could get to it.
      Customer: What? There are 1,000's of posts about this in your support forums!
      Support Agent: We're not responsible for what people post in our forums.
      Customer: Hey, look, your CEO is on the news. He's been taken to the hospital with what appears to be a poisonous spider bite!
      Support Agent: That's impossible sir. I know for a fact that our CEO uses the model that uses shellfish extract for it's finish and has the random scorpion in the box. He does not use the model that has the spiders in it.

    6. Re:why are putting up with this shit? by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 2

      Who here would actually buy a $1000 gadget based solely on a TV ad, without at least looking at the specs and reading some actual reviews first?

      I really doubt marketing departments ever consider what /.ers think before thrusting their products on the market. We are not anyone's target demographic unless they are selling something that is extremely technical that comes with both sarcastic and pedantic documentation that no one will read.

    7. Re:why are putting up with this shit? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Normally, we can assume they're all actors, but this isn't stretching the truth, this is a more flagrant dishonesty. The ad tells you that these are people and plainly gives you their "occupation" in a visual language that they are clearly trying to tell us they're real people and their real occupation, when it's not the case. The names they give are the actor's real names, which really muddies the waters in my opinion, give the actor's real names but fake their occupation.

    8. Re:why are putting up with this shit? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

      There are three professions where being untruthful is the key to success: Lawyers, salespeople, and marketing. All three are hired to portray their client in the most favorable light possible, and the very best ones lie through their teeth. The worst of these three are the marketers because they have legions of psychologists and scientists trying to figure out the best way to lie to people.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    9. Re:why are putting up with this shit? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      Exactly. TV adverts have actors, billboard ads have models. People here need to get a grip

      I think you misunderstand. The meaning of this story is that it is proof that the iPad is the superior tablet because the smiling people who appear in the iPad advertisements are all real people and not models.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    10. Re:why are putting up with this shit? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I really doubt marketing departments ever consider what /.ers think...

      This is a common meme and also very wrong. I am an average Slashdot user, and I see advertising all over the magazines I read and the websites I visit (well, I would if I didn't use adblock and ghostery, except on Slashdot). Some of those magazines are pretty specialized.

      Also, if marketing departments didn't care what we think, would they ever pay companies like New Media Strategies to sent armies of astroturfers here to post comments and disrupt our discussions on a daily basis? And by "armies" I mean most of the UIDs from 1900000 to 2000000. And according to my Texas Instruments programmable and graphic calculator, comes to about a hundred thousand astroturfers, or if you are so inclined, 1 x 10^5, or 11000011010100000.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    11. Re:why are putting up with this shit? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2

      No they were presented as "interviews" and "true-life stories." not advertisements. It would be one thing if actors portrayed real people or if it was presented as an ad. But they were not.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  3. News at 11... by hamster_nz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Guess what? The people in ads are, well, actors.

    And for the uber-naive, some online reviews are written by the product's manufactures!

    1. Re:News at 11... by AK+Marc · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's fine, as long as you don't introduce the actor as "Dr. Joe Smith, M.D. here to endorse our penile enlargement program" when Joe is a janitor and wannabe actor. That's not "acting" or "marketing." It's just plain fraud.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    2. Re:News at 11... by uglyduckling · · Score: 3, Informative

      This isn't an ad, it's billed as "The Samsung Galaxy Tab Interview Project", and the video opens with someone receiving an invitation. They are clearly implying that they are interviewing real people, which is false advertisement. It's one thing to have a video of an actor who appears to be in an office environment saying how amazing the product is; it's another thing entirely to falsely claim they are a real person being interviewed.

    3. Re:News at 11... by obarel · · Score: 2

      I thought that all the people who said "Windows 7 was my idea" were actually on the development team.

  4. It's called "marketing". by Gordonjcp · · Score: 2

    The "true-life" users might not be entirely suitable for sticking in front of a camera. Maybe they get nervous and clam up, or maybe they don't look or sound "right" for the video. Maybe there are issues with performing rights. It's far simpler to get the "true-life" user stories, write them up into something that flows, and get someone that can get a line out without sounding like a total idiot to perform them.

    1. Re:It's called "marketing". by AK+Marc · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And if you don't put "dramatization" or "actors" (or at least "real stories told by actors" which I've seen more than once) at the bottom of the screen when lying, it's no longer "marketing" it's "fraud."

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    2. Re:It's called "marketing". by klagermkii · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The fraud is that they claim there's a particular real-estate CEO called X who believes Y about the Galaxy Tab, and in the way it's presented it's not unreasonable for someone to believe that that person actually exists. With movies there's a clear expectation going in that it's fiction.

      However, if you go and make up fake reviews about your own movies such as calling them "another winner" and attributing them to non-existant movie critics, then that's also fraud.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4741259.stm

    3. Re:It's called "marketing". by alostpacket · · Score: 2

      IANAL but this was something a quick googling found: http://law.jrank.org/pages/6727/False-Advertising-Proof-Requirement.html

      Doesn't really seem to quite make the cut for fraud.

      --
      PocketPermissions Android Permission Guide
    4. Re:It's called "marketing". by Homburg · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, it's just as well that Christopher Nolan put something at the bottom of the screen saying Christian Bale is an actor, and Batman doesn't actually exist, or he'd be doing hard time for fraud right now.

    5. Re:It's called "marketing". by msauve · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's far simpler to get the "true-life" user stories, write them up into something that flows, and get someone that can get a line out without sounding like a total idiot to perform them.

      How convenient for Samsung, then, that they were able to find actors who had the exact same names as the characters they played! FTA:

      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.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    6. Re:It's called "marketing". by ibmjones · · Score: 2

      Christopher Nolan was not marketing Batman as a real person.

    7. Re:It's called "marketing". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, it's just as well that Christopher Nolan put something at the bottom of the screen saying Christian Bale is an actor, and Batman doesn't actually exist, or he'd be doing hard time for fraud right now.

      Try watching the credits until a message similar to this one comes along :

      "The events depicted in this movie are fictitious. Any similarity to any person living or dead is merely coincidental."

      It's in every friggin' movie.

  5. I'm shocked and amazed by 91degrees · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That people don't realise that marketing companies use actors.

    The other day I saw an advertisement for a fast food establishment*, and there was a family there enjoying the food. I later learned that they weren't even related! The guy on the poster for haemorrhoid treatments doesn't actually have haemorrhoids either.

    The point is that they're not deceiving you about anything that matters. A travel writer could use the galaxy for that purpose. Perhaps a travel writer even did, and they got an actress to explain why because it looks better. If you're going to choose something because its recommended by a pretty woman rather than a woman of more average appearance, then who are you to judge the marketing companies for taking advantage of this?

    *Disclaimer - dramatisation only. I skip through the ads.

    1. Re:I'm shocked and amazed by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's not the end of the world, but they're implying them as an endorsement by people in the field. The fact that the video says it's an "interview project" and list actual real names and but stretched or faked occupations, is pretty shady in my opinion.

  6. Look at that! by Weedhopper · · Score: 2

    Actors with day jobs!

    Look at the bio for the woman they link to. At the end, she actually is involved in some sort of travel "writing."

    Samsung's twisting the truth, but of all the dirty, underhanded crap that the big boys pull, this ain't a big one.

    1. Re:Look at that! by JabberWokky · · Score: 3, Interesting

      She's worked for the Travel Channel. It wouldn't surprise me if she's done some magazine articles. At the very least, her statement in the ad jibes with her career. I wonder if Joseph Kolinski has sold real estate.

      Honestly, if they were actors, being paid as actors to portray characters, wouldn't they be using character names? This kind of sounds like they may have picked a minor side job they do when they can't find acting work and used that as their career. Otherwise, why use their real names if they are playing wholly fictitious characters? It's not exactly like they would balk at playing a part using a character name.

      --
      "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
    2. Re:Look at that! by Weedhopper · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That was exactly my point when I commented on this article yesterday on the site itself.

      People are coming out of the woodwork screaming about fraud and astroturfing. No. Pretty much every single person who you'll find for this kind of gig is going to have an acting background on top of their day job. This is how the acting communities work. A handful of people out a hundred can make ends meet just by acting. The rest have to make ends meet by working day jobs. The overwhelming majority don't make much money at. Most move on after a period of time, but some of them plug away.

      One of my best friends had (and still has) the acting bug. She lived in New York for a while after graduating. and managed to get quite a few small roles while waiting tables and tending bar. Eventually, she gave up it as a vocation (I think her parents bribed her) and now she's a lawyer. Still participates in community theater, still loves getting in front of the camera whenever she's given the opportunity. Just like every other actor who never made it as a professional actor.

      And this is NYC we're talking about, for Taco's sake. CEO of a real estate company could describe a half dozen types of businesses that simply don't exist in most of the world.

      Oh yeah, and those shows like Blind Date and their ilk? Half those people are actors, too. They're not acting in a role other than themselves for Blind Date. They're trying to get "exposure" or just jumped at the chance to get in front of a camera.

      Of all the cockamamie REAL underhanded bullshit marketing tactics that big corporations pull every day, this is the one people are going to freak out about? GTFO.

  7. How many /.ers actually WTFV? by drb226 · · Score: 5, Informative
    (Watched The Fine Video)

    I was skeptical, but I have to admit it went beyond my expectations

    OK. Yes. I understand that most of the time, people in ads are actors. But this pushes it too far. It apparently shows the actor's real name, and (real?) age, and fake profession. Then these actors are "interviewed" about their "reaction" to the Galaxy tab. I can understand putting comments like "it's just what I need!" in a fake ad. I can also understand using an actor to portray the testimonial of some other real person. But this appears to be 100% fabricated. When you start inventing "skeptical" people that turn believer about your product, you're stepping over the line.

    (That said, I think the Galaxy Tab is freaking awesome and would love to have one.)

    1. Re:How many /.ers actually WTFV? by strikethree · · Score: 2

      "(That said, I think the Galaxy Tab is freaking awesome and would love to have one.)"

      The Galaxy Tab is relatively nice. It is not worth the price unless you do not have to save up to buy one. The screen is larger than a typical phone so it seems like it would be good for reading, but honestly, the screen is still to small for reading comfortably. It sure beats a phone for reading though.

      You should not buy one in America. Buy an international version so it is not locked and has the phone enabled. You do not pay more for these features, you pay the same but the American versions are crippled. Who would have guessed?

      The screen is reasonable quality. Numerous custom ROMs are available. The GPS works okay. The battery life sucks and will not last long if you are doing anything serious on it. It will last for several hours if all you are doing is reading with the back light set to dim. If you turn on 3G, expect your battery to get sucked dry fairly quickly.

      All in all, it is a fun device with lots of interesting things that you can do with it. Honeycomb is not available for it yet. It can run Android 2.2.1 (not Honeycomb) if you hack it.

      Have fun. :)

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  8. Nothing compared to... by LBArrettAnderson · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is nothing compared to what I learned about Apple's Mac ads... Get this... the guy who says "I'm a mac..." he isn't actually a computer at all! Neither is PC! I couldn't believe it, but it was a pretty reliable source who told me this.

  9. You mean... by dietdew7 · · Score: 2

    They're not ALL "historical documents?"

  10. What??? by lennier1 · · Score: 2

    Marketing talking out of their ass? This threatens my entire understanding of the universe!!!!111eleventyone

  11. I am shocked! Shocked! by denzacar · · Score: 2

    To find that lying in order to sell a product is going on in here.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  12. Hypocrites! by zmollusc · · Score: 2

    It isn't the astroturfing, marketing or advertising deception that irks me, it is the hypocrisy. I don't mind buying products on the recommendation of a shill just so long as I can use what _appear_ to be banknotes to pay for them.

    --
    They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
  13. HOLY SHIT GUYS!!! by jmac_the_man · · Score: 2
    Did you know that Justin Long ISN'T REALLY A MAC? Or that John Hodgeman ISN'T REALLY A PC?

    It's a commercial. With actors in it. Deal with it

  14. Re:News flash! Relax, everyone! by repetty · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, users in advertisement are called personas....

    Thank god it has a name. That changes everything!

    Okay, everyone. There's no lying going on here -- it just personas.

    Everything's okay!

  15. they're getting truly pathetic! by sribe · · Score: 2

    Well yes, and also did you see the article where someone put the new "0.2 millimeter thinner than an iPad" next to an iPad and discovered that it was in fact thicker than an iPad?

    And when the reporter asked to turn it on and use it, he was told he couldn't turn it on because it was just a "prototype". Uhm, no, prototypes generally do something, if it doesn't power up then it's a "mockup". So they claim they're going to make a tablet thinner than the iPad very soon now, but they can't even make a mockup to hand around that's actually thinner than the iPad???

  16. Re:News flash! Relax, everyone! by Hope+Thelps · · Score: 2

    Maybe the writer was in a bad car accident and is scarred and has lost an eye. Perhaps the real estate CEO has a severe stutter, or is a redhead. It doesn't diminish what their message.

    Exacty. Now contrast that with the situation where it's actually an actor who's only pretending to be a writer or a CEO; that does diminish the message.

    --
    To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. ~ h2g2