performing marketers, bringing them closer together as a tribe.
Whatever the executives at Samsung’s headquarters in Seoul thought,
the team’s “Next Big Thing” commercial garnered seventy million online
views. It was the most popular tech ad of 2012.
Todd was ecstatic when he opened The Wall Street Journal on January
28, 2013, to an uncanny story.
“Has Apple Lost Its Cool to Samsung?” the headline read.
“Samsung, the market leader in smartphones, on Friday said its fourth-
quarter profit surged 76% to a record high on the strength of smartphone
sales, including its Galaxy S line. The latest version is considered
comparable by many shoppers in both design and technical features,” wrote
tech reporters Ian Sherr and Evan Ramstad.
“Apple, meanwhile, reignited concerns about demand for its iPhone 5
after reporting flat earnings for the holiday quarter, sending its stock down
14% in the past two days. The stock has also dropped 37% since hitting an
all-time high on Sept. 19, just two days before the iPhone 5 launched in
stores.”
The Wall Street Journal piece pointed to Pendleton’s “marketing
onslaught” that had allowed Samsung to close the “coolness gap with Apple
Inc.” The article riveted the tech industry.
But the Super Bowl was fast approaching (six days away), and
Pendleton wasn’t finished attacking Apple’s position in the marketplace. He
had a new $15 million ad-libbed commercial set to air during the Super
Bowl, made with 72andSunny, featuring comic banter among Paul Rudd
and Seth Rogen and Breaking Bad’s Bob Odenkirk, plotting their own
fictional ad spot for the Super Bowl.
“We actually can’t say ‘Super Bo—’?” asked Seth Rogen.
“No! It’s trademarked,” snapped back Bob Odenkirk. “You get sued!”
“Can I say ‘San Francisco’?”
“Sure.”
“But I can’t say ‘the forty-nine—’?”
“Eee!”
“Can we say ‘the San Francisco fifty minus ones’?”
“Love it.”
The commercial was more a brand-building exercise than an effort to
sell more phones, poking fun at Apple’s lawsuit. Samsung was riding a