Hasta La Creative!

Last year, Samsung grabbed attention at the Oscars with a certain celebrity selfie. This year, 72andSunny mostly promoted Samsung’s other hardware — specifically its SUHD TVs, tablets and Gear VR virtual reality headset.

Comedy Central’s Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele (of Key & Peele) appear in “The Best TV Deserves the Best TV” in which they are amongst a cast of people talking about their favorite shows and movies. The comedic duo, it turns out, have an idea of their own for “the greatest show of all time ”  — Found, which is just one episode. They throw out some other ideas in the 90-second ad, such as Zombees and Night Club Court, and their appearance has the feeling of some of the more open-ended, seemingly improvisational segments on their show used to fill in space between sketches. Without Key and Peele, the spot would feel like just another ad celebrating film and TV to promote a high definition television, but they help elevate it to something a little more worthwhile.

“Movie Magic,” the other spot Samsung ran during the award ceremony is more typical Oscar ad fare. After a couple sees a movie together, a woman decides she’s going to make a movie that will “kick that movie’s movie butt” and the remainder of the ad focuses on her creative process, while highlighting several Samsung devices she uses. While not without its charm, the basic premise is commonplace enough that Apple released something fairly similar, showing how their devices could be used by aspiring filmmakers, and it drags on at 90 seconds.

At least that’s what Samsung’s lawyer Jon Quinn said during opening statements in the brands’ ongoing patent trial. According to a quote in The Verge, Apple considered dropping TBWA\Chiat\Day after its rival’s campaign inspired headlines like this one, from The Wall Street Journal, pondering whether or not the company had lost its seat at the head of the popular table. Quinn told the jury:

“This new, edgy marketing strategy … it drove Apple crazy.”

The campaign in question was, of course, “Next Big Thing” by 72 and Sunny.

The series and subsequent headline supposedly unnerved Apple marketing VP Phil Schiller so much that he emailed Tim Cook and suggested an agency review, writing:

“We have a lot of work to do to turn this around.”

While rumored board meetings on the topic did not inspire a change, Quinn’s claim hardly serves as a vote of confidence — and Samsung shows no signs of reconsidering its strategy.

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