Let’s be honest, it can’t ever have sounded like a great premise for an ad – compare an unwanted computer to an unwanted puppy, have its owner neglect it, bash it about a bit, take it to a landfill with the intention of dumping it, before deciding it may be better to keep it after all.
According to the LA Times, Samsung’s Don’t Give Up on Puppy Love! ad for its SSD 840 solid state storage drive “featured computers that look like puppies, complete with ears and paws, getting smashed or thrown by their owners.” Following a bunch of negative comments about the ad, the tech giant has seen fit to pull it from YouTube less than 24 hours after posting it.
The end of the ad showed a man contemplating crushing his computer at a landfill, before deciding to try it out with Samsung’s solid state drive. As you might expect, the computer is given a new lease of life and the “puppy computer” and its owner are once again the best of buddies.
The Korean tech company appeared to get cold feet about the ad when it noticed it was getting more dislikes than likes. The comments were hardly favorable, either.
“Samsung, this was wrong, really, show it to a kid and see the reaction,” one YouTube user wrote. “Come on, how could you? did you see the face of the yellow puppy as it was bashed? oh COME ON.”
Another commenter wrote, “I’m actually a bit emotionally disturbed after viewing the early scenes of the ad. I’m an animal lover and have a number of pets at home and this brings up a very strong emotional reaction from me.”
“Samsung’s ad agency should quit smoking this bad stuff. Seriously, WTF,” wrote another.
The company behind the ad, London-based video agency The Viral Factory, claims on its website to “create engaging online content that people like” and which makes “brands and consumers happy.”
However, Viral Factory creative Alex Micu told Cnet, “We’ve made the decision to make the video private because it was clearly upsetting some people.”
If you managed to see the ad before it was pulled, can you understand the negative reaction it received, or do you think some viewers were overreacting?
[Image and via: Mashable]
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