Samsung GS4 launch: Tone-deaf and shockingly sexist

[onehandle]

Dear Samsung: What just happened? In the middle of a red-hot conversation about women in technology, the resurgence of the equal-pay discussion, and Sheryl Sandberg reigniting the very concept of feminism in America, Samsung delivered a Galaxy S4 launch event that served up more '50s-era stereotypes about women than I can count, and packaged them all as campy Broadway caricatures of the most, yes, offensive variety.

To be fair, everyone in Samsung's bizarre, hourlong parade of awkward exchanges, forced laughs, and hammy skits was a stereotype. The kid was lispy, tow-headed, and tap-dancing (the little girl did ballet, of course). Will Chase, the emcee-as-actor, was orange and desperate for fame; his in-skit "agent" was clueless, abrasive, self-absorbed and vaguely Jewish. The backpacking guys were horny, the Chinese actor in his 60s was an "old guy." So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the women would also be a little, let's say, underdeveloped, as characters.

But tow-headed little boys don't grow up to make less than their other-gendered counterparts, and orange-faced actors generally don't get offers of explicit and increasingly violent sexual favors in the YouTube comments on their videos. So, it felt a little unnecessary for the tow-headed kid's mom to be a stage mom all the way. For example. And then, to her, our orange-faced actor emcee reeled off a mother-in-law joke worthy of the worst kind of sitcom laugh tracks. It went on and on.

The Brazilian woman was hot (duh). A bride-to-be arrives on stage with a chirpy, "check out the ring!" The Air Gestures that let you control the phone without touching it are presented as a boon to giggly women with annoying voices whose nails are wet and who don't want to put down their drinks. The comically alcoholic one, DeeDee, then proceeds to demo how eye tracking can pause a video when you look away from the screen... as she looks away at a hunky gardener type who proceeds to take off his shirt. "While the women are cooling down," says the emcee, "why don't you tell us about S Health?"

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-57574466-256/samsung-gs4-launch-tone-deaf-and-shockingly-sexist

[still_one]

1. The launch show for the S4 really was bad. Instead of exploiting the features of the phone, it got

lost with the cheesy show they put on

They presented a phone with a lot of capabilities, and messed it up with the presentation