Samsung's Happy Galaxy Tab Users Are Actors

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."

How many /.ers actually WTFV?

[drb226]

(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.)

Re:It's called "marketing".

[msauve]

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.

Re:News at 11...

[uglyduckling]

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.

Re:News flash!

[UnknowingFool]

The difference is that Apple used real people and their real occupations. You can google for yourself:

• Phi Schiller, SVP Marketing, Apple [apple.com]
• Ron Johnson, SVP Retail, Apple [apple.com]
• John Connolly, Technology Director, Chicago Public Schools [convergemag.com]
• John Halamka, MD, Beth Israel [ansi.org]
• Marc Benioff, Chairman & CEO, Salesforce.com [salesforce.com]
• Howard Shane, PhD, Children's Hospital [childrenshospital.org]
• Shannon Des Roches Rosa [squidalicious.com]