PR can be incredibly creepy at times, in fact most of the time tech PR can make you cringe in one way or another.
We’ve managed to rustle together some of the worst out there, with a wide range of cringe-worthy campaigns, teasers and adverts from a wide range of tech companies.
Samsung managed to create one of the creepies and worst teaser campaigns in history by using a richie rich style kid being put in charge of a box. What on earth Samsung’s PR department were thinking when it green lit this project we don’t know, but what we do know is that we have been having nightmares ever since. You’d think that for such an important event such as the Galaxy S4 launch, Samsung would turn down the cheese at least a little.
It seems that Palm’s strategy for selling the Palm Pre was to literally steal the souls of the people who viewed its TV adverts, something which should have been banned by the Advertising Standards Agency long before it aired. The advert was probably the creepiest we’ve ever seen, and we’re going to put Palm’s failure solely on its shoulders.
The Moto X was meant to be a new beginning for Motorola, it was the time for the company to be hip and modern like its new owner Google. Well at least that’s what it hoped, but it took the move too far when it started making penis jokes all over the Moto X’s promotional material. Sure there’s nothing wrong with the odd innuendo, but maybe a page clearly meant for tweens isn’t the right place to do it.
It’s always nice when retailers manage to be just as creepy as the manufacturers. Whilst the manufacturers tend to be a little more cringeworthy than full-on creepy, it seems that Phones 4U just wanted to scare viewers of its 2011 horror advert. It felt the need to go full-on “Night of the Living Dead” rather than sell phones. Luckily the ASA stepped in and banned this atrocity.
Oh Samsung, only you can make your way into this top 5 twice, but this time you surely have taken the crown. It starts off with a guy trying to swipe an actual Apple (yeah we’re not sure exactly why), and then he discovers the Galaxy S4 — which he can use to make phone calls!!! After about 3 seconds of screen time, the Galaxy S4 leaves and we have some dancing ninjas. Then it just ends with this random sheep — possibly something to do with not being an iSheep? Okay, I’m officially confused.