Oh, those crazy smartphone OEMs! Samsung is calling Nokia's new Windows Phone advertising campaign, 'Blown Away by Lumia,' unethical, according to The Times of India, presumably because the videos show Samsung handsets being, well, blown away by Nokia's Lumia 800.
The advertising campaign, which is basically a spin-off of Microsoft's own 'Smoked by Windows Phone' campaign, is being run in India, with similar marketing going on in the UK as well. Basically, contestants are picked out of a crowd in public places and compete against someone using a Lumia handset to see who can complete a task first. Assuming that the Lumia beats whatever the contestant is using, the contestant gets their picture taken holding up a sign that says “My phone just got blown away by the Nokia Lumia.”
Samsung apparently isn't happy about this, with a spokesperson from Samsung India calling the campaign “clearly unethical.” The Times of India didn't specify exactly what Samsung feels is unethical about the campaign, but Nokia says that their hands are clean.
According to the ironically named Viral Oza, a Marketing Director at Nokia India, “the Lumia 800 emerged as a clear winner by winning 94% of the total 104 challenges timed by Nielsen. This challenge,” he added, “has not been created to target competition but to highlight the social media capabilities of the device.”
Microsoft's own Smoked by Windows Phone campaign garnered some criticism of its own after a contestant threatened legal action because Microsoft award him a promised $1,000 PC after his iPhone 'smoked' a Windows Phone.
And just for the record, Samsung pulled a similar stunt of their own with the Samsung Street Challenge, so they really don't have much room to complain. You can check out some of the Blown Away by Lumia videos below:
Thanks to Neowin member FoxieFoxie for the tip
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