Well, it worked! Didn’t it? In spite of Gizmodo’s snarky assessment of the “PR stunt” from the Samsung PR team in Kiev, the image of mimes maneuvering a giant hand holding a globe made of cellphones popped onto the vaunted pages of the chronicler of all things digital.
In fact, Gizmodo used not one, but two images, one of which showed a non-descript camera crew capturing the “news.” Must have been the hired help for the obligatory B-roll that may eventually find its way onto the airwaves and online video-hosting sites. Also must have been a slow news day in the Ukrainian capital.
For me, there’s a non sequitur in all this given that mimes generally are not known for their auditory prowess (something to which I assume Samsung aspires), i.e., “a pin dropping.” Perhaps the company wishes to make a connection with Cingular’s fab ad executions wherein one end of the conversation is left dangling uncomfortably as the other end suddenly goes mute.
Come to think of it, isn’t there a new Mr. Bean movie out? Too late, however, for a cell phone product placement.