Korean electronics giant Samsung is in damage control after a new campaign showing a woman jogging alone through a city at 2am with her Galaxy smartwatch and headphones was slammed as both dangerous and “tone deaf”.
The ad’s the work of Ogilvy New York and called “Night Owls”, however, the minute-long spot was quickly called out by women’s groups and and safety campaigners for being “unrealistic”. Others questioned if the agency had employed any women at all on the work, given the obvious dangers in the message.
Check out the offending spot below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnEzVb_AAiI
British women’s safety campaigner Reclaim These Streets was first to call the spot out. The group was established after an Irish woman, Ashling Murphy, was murdered while on a run in January.
A spokeswoman for the group telling Radio 1 Newsbeat the advert was “totally tone deaf and demonstrates the lack of female decision makers on the campaign, especially in light of Ashling Murphy having been killed on a jog in January. It’s almost laughable how badly this ad lands.”
Esther Newman, editor of the magazine Women’s Running and podcast, said this advert is “not representing the truth”.
“Women don’t run at that time because we are too scared to,” Newman said.
“It’s really shocking. I don’t know any woman who would be running at 2am in the morning. Certainly not in a city.
“Wearing headphones is a contentious point. Most women runners I know don’t wear headphones, and that’s during the day, because they are concerned about their safety,” she added.
Online community Run Mummy Run agreed that the portrayal of a woman running late at night, in those circumstances, was unrealistic.
A spokesperson commented: “The implication seems to be that a woman has the luxury of this type of freedom with her safety, but sadly this is not the current reality.”
Samsung has acknowledged the controversy surrounding the ad, but no news yet if the TVC is to be banned.
A spokesperson for the electronics giant said: “The ‘Night Owls’ campaign was designed with a positive message in mind: to celebrate individuality and freedom to exercise at all hours. It was never our intention to be insensitive to ongoing conversations around women’s safety. As a global company with a diverse workforce, we apologise for how this may have been received.”
