The Internet Hates 'Jack,' The Guy In The New Samsung Commercial
AdAge wants you to hate Samsung's new Galaxy Gear commercial more than Justine Sacco. Adweek thinks it's "Awesomely Bad." Agency Spy calls it "The Frontrunner for Worst Ad of 2013."
It went viral on Reddit under the title "Hands down the worst ad I've ever seen. Take a bow, Samsung."
Why all the hate? A lot of reasons, but mostly it has to do with "Jack," the predatory hero of the two-and-a-half minute ad.
The agency behind the ad has not been revealed, but it certainly wasn't made with American actors. Their accents might be Russian.
Here is how it goes down:
Jack's the guy on the right. He quickly falls in love with a beautiful snow bunny named Amy. The guy on the left is a loser. He doesn't even have a yellow vest, let alone a Galaxy Gear. As Jack gets Amy's number onto his cool smartwatch, the dweeb drops his smartphone into the snow:
As they ride down the slopes, Jack eases back, secretly using his watch to take photos and videos of Amy. At the bottom of the slope, Jack awkwardly grins at Amy before showing her the footage - which for whatever reason, she loves:
Later, we see Jack in full-blown stalker mode, silently enjoying the footage of Amy on his watch in a loud bar. He meets up with Amy, and the equally creepy loser-guy (more creepy?) watches them from afar, perhaps plotting their murders:
After Jack spills that guy's wine and brings some to Amy, the couple goes outside and shares a romantic conversation in barely intelligible English. Amy goes in for the hug, and then:
But, as Adweek pointed out, Samsung making terrible ads overseas with scripts by non-native English speakers isn't anything new.
Whatever happened, the "Geared Up" video is out there, and it's got almost two million ads.
Here it is, in full: