Slashdot Mirror
Samsung is Suing Its Brand Ambassador For Using an iPhone in Public (appleinsider.com)
Samsung is suing its Russian brand ambassador for using an iPhone X, demanding as much as $1.6m in compensation, media reports submitted by readers said Wednesday. From a report: Russian brand ambassador for Samsung, Ksenia Sobchak, is reportedly being sued by the South Korean smartphone producer, for allegedly being caught in public using an iPhone X instead of handsets she was supposed to be promoting. Ksenia Sobchak was hired by Samsung to market its smartphones in the country, with the Russian TV presenter, journalist, and politician contracted to use the smartphones in public. Under the terms of similar agreements between companies and influential people, they are not typically allowed to be seen using competing products in public, a rule that Sobchak broke.
According to The Mirror, Sobchak was spotted using an iPhone X during a television interview, with the personality attempting to hide the Apple smartphone under a piece of paper while the cameras were on. Sobchak is also said to have used the iPhone X during social events in Moscow and other TV appearances, again against the contract's rules.
According to The Mirror, Sobchak was spotted using an iPhone X during a television interview, with the personality attempting to hide the Apple smartphone under a piece of paper while the cameras were on. Sobchak is also said to have used the iPhone X during social events in Moscow and other TV appearances, again against the contract's rules.
Note that PLENTY of manufactures do this.... If you're the brand ambassador, you're expected to promote your brand..
That is all.
Gets paid a shitload with very specific contract conditions. Breaks said conditions, she gets sued. completely standard and reasonable, why is it a story here?
I wonder if anyone outside a few nerds would have noticed without the lawsuit. They could have just sent her an email saying put the damn iphone away. Instead they made themselves a laughing stock.
I guess the US version of the office hasnt made it to Russia yet...
In soviet Russia, iphone breaks contract with YOU!
A Russian, tech-illiterate, minor celebrity broke a contract and will face financial consequences. iOS and Android are virtually identical these days, the only difference is branding. Nobody cares.
Yeah, that's bribery by any other name... Oh but it comes with a contract, so it's all legal and if they fail to promote it the bribery payment is not there's to keep.
LMAO, welcome to the world little kiddies, you are either important or you are little people and you don't want to be little people! 99.9% of you are little people.
in the usa a rule like that is not ok for 1099'er
I suspect relatively few people would have heard of this if Samsung hadn't proposed suing. Even if we did, we wouldn't have thought about the implications.
But, now you're suing. You're not tearing up a contract, you're suggesting it's a REALLY BIG DEAL by suing for millions of dollars. And so we're forced to look at the story closer, and realize that, yeah, it kinda is a really big deal. I mean, most of us wouldn't care that deeply about what we use. I'm an Android user, but if I were paid to use an iPhone for a year, I'd use it, it'd be my primary phone.
It's hard to imagine a situation where I'd risk not receiving the money because of some minor quibble about the UI, or lack of user programmability, or whatever.
Which means... Samsung's phones really must suck. I mean, like really suck. I mean, why would someone actually ditch a phone they're paid to use for a friggin' iPhone? People, the iPhone's UI isn't that compelling, it's nice, but... OMG the Samsung UI must be just awful. Awful.
So now we realize why Samsung considers it a really big deal. By using an iPhone, this Russian celebrity has just told the world that the Samsung phone he was paid to use is the worst phone in the entire universe, that it's practically unusable, and you should probably avoid it.
I had a Galaxy Nexus once. I hated it. So I can sympathize.
But just think, if Samsung had just decided to quietly terminate the contract, nobody, not me, not you, would have ever gone through this thought process.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
They voluntarily signed a contract - and received significant payment - to only use Brand X. They were caught using Brand Y.
That's a very simple case of "breach of contract."
You, sir, are an idiot.
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Pretty sure Samsung required in contact that any public exposure would require that you use the proper phone brand. How hard is it these days to simply do what your paid to do? If you love the iPhone so much why in the world did you sign a contract with Samsung? Yeah, this person should be sued for breach of contract. That's the way it works folks, you agree to do something for compensation then do it.
She probably just didn't want to catch on fire.
Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
People are like: "meh, they broke a contract" but if Apple did this, I bet there would be ravenous pearl clutching. The double standard is palpable.
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
sounds like the makings of an Apple commercial.
The majority of people would not care about which phone they used if you gave them a new phone for free. From those few hold-outs, almost all would be fine to use the assigned phone if you paid them on top.
One of the few people on the planet who have to use an iphone for some weird reason decided to accept the brand ambassador with samsung??? Why? How?
It's these types of stories that keep me refreshing slashdot.org.
Something about Britney Spears, photographed drinking a Coke when when was featured in Pepsi commercials, which I am guessing also would have entailed "brand ambassador" responsibilities.
Funnily enough, she invested in Coka Cola with the money she made from Pepsi.
"Which means... Samsung's phones really must suck."
How on earth does that follow? For starters Samsung phones run the same OS as every other phone on the market except for Apple's so how on earth can they be offering such a significantly worse experience? After that, their phones are always well received critically including this latest gen and have been absurdly popular for about a decade now. You don't achieve the market dominance Samsung has in such a competitive market as Android smart phones without making a good product.
Given all of this it seems infinitely more likely they were teaching a lesson here and confident enough in their brand that they could care less about how it shows in the news. Besides, how mainstream is this news going to be? I seriously doubt it will even register in terms of general social consciousness.
For the record, I just switched off from being a 7 or 8 year Samsung user to a different brand. My choice, however, had nothing to do with a lack of quality in their phones. It had everything to do with price versus value and the fact that there are a ton of cheaper smart phones on the market nowadays that do exactly what I want them to do for half the price of a Samsung. This carries over to Apple as well as their phones are of very similar capabilities and cost the same ludicrous amounts. Both top tier brands are completely failing nowadays to deliver anything that properly distinguishes themselves from phones that are half the price.
This Samsung rep was clearly just a twit who preferred Apple's OS over Android so much she was willing to risk her job over it.
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some laywer at Samsung must have too much power on their hands. This can't come from marketing, unless their marketing dept is really a bunch of Apple operatives placed there. What a cluster f*ck.
Isn't using an iPhone punishment enough?
This never would have happened if they got rid of the Bixby button.
Where the coaches and staffs were "forced" to use surface tablets and would just use them to hide their iPads?
They're going to make millions suing people who use iPhones on the sly...
Here's a partial list of people that have gotten caught using iPhones when they were hyping competitors/bashing iPhones...
David Beckham
Gal Gadot
David Ferrer
Ellen DeGeneres
Sania Mirza
John Legere
Oprah Winfrey
Jessica Alba
Kate Upton
Donald Trump
I'm not sure why this is super surprising. If you're paid to use X product and you get caught using a competitor's product then of course you're going to get sued. It's so simple almost anyone can understand it. Don't like it? Then don't agree with the contract, don't take the money.
Sounds like a similar situation about 5 years ago. Blackberry had just hired musician/singer Alicia Keys as some kind of brand ambassador or creative input, or some other ceremonial title. Her first twitter post was something about how good the new Blackberry Z10 was, but of course it also had the client identification text: "sent from my iPhone." Oops!
Hey, Windows users, there is no such thing as "forward" slash, there is only slash and backslash.
can't stand that privileged nobody
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
"Samsung phones, so bad that you'll risk a $1.6m lawsuit to use something else."
The Streisand effect.
This stupidity is probably why their phones suck balls.
then don't be caught dead in Converse, man!
Whutz wrong wid you man?
Don't bite the hand that feeds you!
Apparently in the video, as she covers the iPhone with a piece of paper she states she's not allowed to be seen using one, due to the contract. So she knew. She might have an overriding sense that rules don't apply to her, though. She is a politician, after all.
At least the phone he uses isn't an insecure phone that the Russians and Chinese are listening in on, as is the case with the President of the Fearful States of Amerika.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Now everyone is reminder of how iPhones are irrisistable even to brand ambassadors every time they see the news.
Samsung is fucking giving free advertising for Apple.....
Is this any worse than when Siri was asked what the 'best' smart phone was, and answered the Samsung Galaxy ? Did they really pay someone that much money or is this an 'estimate' of damage or a potential damage to the brand issue ? I used to love when Nickelodeon network used what was obviously an apple product but with a pear logo on screen to avoid advertising for Apple.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
That no matter how much money they pay you, the SameSong phones are not yet usable. People would rather use the competition.
Paying famous people for using their products. That's a low for Samsung.
It is not uncommon at all. Leonardo di Caprio is an ambassador for Tag Heuer watches for example. It is just an advertisement channel.
"OMG IT'S WRONG TO GET FIRED FOR WHAT PHONE YOU USE!!?!?!" actually live.
I live in an Orwellian double-speak named "Right to Work" state where I could fired for literally anything other than the handful of protected classes (gender/race/religion/sex) and have literally no recourse for it. I'm not saying it's right or wrong but it's definitely the reality.
In this case, this woman was hired specifically for her high profile and supposed to be marketing their phone for them by being seen using it.
She willfully broke her contract in a very public way and they're suing her for the damage she caused their image which is exactly what she had been hired to improve not destroy.
Samsung should stop chasing Apple's coat tails anyway. I have a very old Samsung phone and would not buy most (any?) of their new options because they've removed basically the point of getting one; flexibility and user serviceability. If I can't use an sd card and replace the battery myself, etc, then I'm not at all interested. Pre-loaded malware/bloatware doesn't help their case either.
That happens because the phones that you make are not explosive enough. We all know that you are a company on fire; surely you can come up with hotter devices? We are all burning with anticipation.