But if Sony felt Samsung was pushing too hard, it could cut back
Samsung as a supplier and potentially cripple Samsung’s memory chip
business. And memory chips were the bread and butter of the empire. It
could be the end of Samsung’s global ambitions.
There were other reservations in the executive suite. “Let’s not
overspend on advertising and promotion just for the sake of beating Sony
in some BusinessWeek ranking,” an assembly-line manager later told Kim.
“The brand will gain consumer credibility naturally, at its own pace. You
can’t force it.”
Two months later, Sony CEO Nobuyuki Idei offered his perspective
from the Japanese side, gazing down at Samsung, to The Wall Street
Journal.
“The product design and the product planning—they’re learning from
us. So Sony is a very good target for them.” But, he dismissively added,
“We still believe that Samsung is basically a components company.”
Then Sony retaliated in a way that sent Kim up the wall, in a product
placement in the new movie Spider-Man, starring Toby Maguire.
“Once upon a time,” the judge wrote in his poetic ruling in a court case
on the use of fictional Times Square logos in the film, “at a gathering of
many thousands in New York’s Times Square for the ‘World Unity
Festival,’ the crowd was murderously attacked by the jet-powered Green
Goblin, who was, however, eventually put to flight by the timely arrival of
Spider-Man.”
As the Green Goblin flung little green grenade-like devices at the
parade of innocents, the redheaded Mary Jane Watson, Peter Parker’s love
interest, was helpless, trapped on a balcony with the villain.
“It’s Spider-Man!” shouted a bystander.
Slinging his web through New York’s concrete jungle, the superhero
swooped down to catch a child in danger and flung himself in front of Two
Times Square, the iconic high-rise of flashing corporate advertisements.
Spider-Man was set to hit national theaters in May 2002 with this scene.
Samsung employees watching the trailer noticed a peculiar logo on the
iconic Two Times Square building, where Samsung’s signage should have
been. Instead of SAMSUNG it said USA TODAY.
“I...went ballistic,” Kim told me. “This was too blatant an affront to
Samsung, and I felt that we could not accept the situation.”