After Apple, It's Bloggers Versus Samsung

The darkest clouds have been looming over Samsung for a while now, and their PR machinery made it worse. Two Indian bloggers – who stated that they wanted to be independent reporters – were invited to Samsung's event at the IFA, as part of the Samsung Mob!lers program. When they refused to be downgraded to company promoters, very bad things happened to them, as you can read here.

For those who aren't familiar with the Mob!lers program, it's Samsung's way of letting tech independent bloggers and enthusiasts get their hands on the latest gadgets – in the hope of generating fanboy-style reports and raves. Participants are either reporters or promoters, not both; here are some details about how the program is drafted.
Looking at the requirements they were put under – like having to wear branded T-shirts throughout the event – Clinton Jeff and his friend realised something wrong was going on. Independent bloggers have a reputation and an agenda of their own – and a duty to not do paid pitches for a company. A blogger who agrees to wear the Samsung logo is deduced to be a fanboy. This is a role for official promoters, not for independent reporters – which is what Clinton Jeff and his co-blogger said they were signing up as.
The meat of the matter is that when the two decided to take a stand and not agree to be promoters, their return tickets and hotel accommodation were cancelled, leaving them stranded in Germany. You can read the entire story here. It's replete with screenshots of mails from Samsung.
In fact, a lot of people worldwide did read the story. They blogged, liked, shared, and tweeted about it. Samsung's reputation took a nosedive at an unfortunate point in its history, with this happening at about the same time as the multiple Apple lawsuits.
But this isn't the first time Samsung has experienced such a foot-in-the-mouth moment. A French blogger had been asked to work as a mouthpiece for Samsung at the London 2012 Olympics. Despite having described the incident as a "30 years child in a labour camp with useless activities", she continues to protect Samsung's identity – even downplaying the entire episode. I guess it's hard to convince fans that their favourite brand can do something wrong!
The recent incident was first explained as "a misunderstanding" by Samsung's PR. More recently, Samsung has issued an apology to Clinton Jeff.
Maybe what Samsung did is not so different from the norm in the area of product promotion. (Or maybe it is; we wouldn't know.) But considering the timing, it's tempting to say the company is going through a bad-luck phase.
In fact, the timing (Apple's accusations, and the launch of the GALAXY Note II) is so bad that some people have gone the way of conspiracy theories – were the bloggers paid to create negative publicity? Were they Apple secret agents creating a misunderstanding? Etc. You know how these go.