It’s true, with great position comes great responsibility. And it becomes even more crucial when the responsibility is given by one of the world’s most valuable brand – Samsung. Unfortunately, people tend to forget that, which cost them fortune many times. Something similar happened with Xenia Sobchak, the brand ambassador of Samsung in Russia.
The Korean smartphone giant has sued Xenia, a reality TV host, politician, journalist, for $1.6 million for using iPhone in events. She was hired by Samsung to promote the company’s flagship smartphones in Russia. It’s a well-known fact that people signing such contract are bound to refrain from using competitor’s product, at least in the public domain. Unfortunately, Xenia failed to abide by this very important rule of her contract with Samsung.
It’s a general practice among premium smartphone manufacturers to hire celebrities on contract to promote various devices. However, it’s a well-known fact that none of those celebrities actually use those devices as primary ones. But this time, apparently, Samsung has taken it way too seriously and sued its own brand ambassador for a hefty sum of money.
Xenia attracted the eyeballs of many viewers for using the smartphone in an interview she appeared in. Though she made a deliberate attempt to hide it with a piece of paper, people were quick enough to recognise the device as iPhone X. Soon, the image of her using iPhone X became viral.
It’s not known how much money Samsung actually paid to Xenia, but sources have claimed that the amount is much lesser than Samsung is seeking as a penalty.
People familiar with the matter have told that Samsung decided to penalise Xenia only after the multiple incidents she was noticed at using a smartphone of a brand other than Samsung.
Interestingly, this is also not the first incident when a brand ambassador or a celebrity is caught using a smartphone other than she/he was hired for. Last year Google faced similar embarrassment when the company decided to contract Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma to promote Pixel 2 smartphone under #TeamPixel campaign. Mrs Sharma shared two images on Twitter tagging Google Pixel team and purporting clicked from Pixel 2 smartphone. However, the act backfired as one of the top device reviewers MKBHD noticed the tweet tagged with “Via Twitter for iPhone”.
Ok I don’t even want to know how this keeps happening but it’s hilarious pic.twitter.com/sUuHVh4exw
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) September 4, 2018
Off late, smartphone companies have become strict with the policies and contract drafted for the paid campaigns. Samsung’s move to sue Xenia is seen as a stern warning to all those who feast on the money paid by companies to promote their brands/products but don’t abide by the contract.
