In India, we have not forgotten yet the controversy generated a few months ago by ads of Royal Stag featuring cricketers Harbhajan Singh and McDowell’s featuring MS Dhoni. The ad war heated up so much that Harbhajan Singh was forced to send legal notice to Vijay Mallay run company in which MS Dhoni featured. And then better sense prevailed and matter was sorted out by tendering apology by Vijay Mallay led company.
We are also aware of ad campaigns run by two cola companies – Pepsi and Coca-Cola, in which they take a potshot at each other. This ad rivalry is quite common among leading corporate houses and Samsung Vs Apple ad has joined the elite group of “mocking at each other” companies.
In the recent ad released by Samsung, iPhone fans are shown queuing up outside supposed Apple stores in major cities in the US, mocking at the huge queues generated by every new launch. The commercial is for the Samsung Galaxy S II, which mocks the waiting customers outside a Apple store. They also keep commenting on the various issues they have been facing with their phones. One guy even says “Uh huh, the battery looks sketchy”, as if he had been waiting too long in the queue. One woman is shown tweeting that after almost 9 hours, they have reached at the gate of the store.
All the waiting is fine until one of the customer notices a Galaxy S II in a passerby’s hand. One of them even eagerly asks if he can hold the phone in his hand. And the first thing someone comments, comparing the Galaxy S II and the iPhone, is how big the Galaxy’s screen size is. The ad ends with one of the Galaxy S II owners mentioning “It’s the Galaxy S II. This phone is amazing”.
Apple may not retort in an ad, but will definitely retort by launching improved and innovative products in the coming months and if rumours and analysts are to be believed, Apple is working seriously at iTV in association with Sharp company of Japan. If they launch this product successfully then Samsung will be hit hard as they are one of the biggest manufacturers of TV in the world.
Apple and Samsung have been caught up in more than 20 lawsuits across more than 10 countries. Apple has got injunctions against Samsung regarding the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and Australia, but Samsung is remedying that by making a few changes to the tablet and plans to re-launch it in Germany.
Let us see how this war of words and actions take shape in the coming days 🙂
