She knows more than you think.
Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/ZDNET
Meet Samsung’s new spokesperson: Grandma.
You might not have seen something like this before, certainly when it comes to technology. But Samsung has decided to shake things up a little and, for me at least, it’s an uplifting step.
Every time a new gadget comes out, it’s the young people who get it first. And, supposedly, in both senses of “get it.”
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Instead, please welcome Samsung’s Grandma Fluencer.
Of course that may sound like an oxymoron. Influencers are always young, loud, and vibrant. Which, perhaps, are three words you don’t want to associate with an air conditioning unit. Especially one called WindFree.
So, to advertise its WindFree air conditioning unit, Samsung hired a grandma who isn’t just extremely knowledgable about tech, but can make her granddaughter seem quite mundane.
The Korean company’s notion is that Samsung’s air conditioners have changed, “even for those who are most resistant.” Supposedly this means older people.
Grandma isn’t impressed with her granddaughter’s haughty dismissal of baby boomers as people who never change their minds. Yet here is Grandma explaining to her Gen-Z family member that the world has changed and she is at the forefront of it.
The more her granddaughter questions her grandmother’s expertise, the more Grandma shows that she has far more to her than her younger cool person ever thought.
Grandma has so many tricks up her sleeve that some might wonder how she does it.
The ad drifts into all sorts of action movie references and feats. But then comes the most important question from the granddaughter: “Can you sell it like a regular YouTuber?”
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And yes, of course, Grandma manages even to persuade the Gen-Z dictator.
You might think this frivolous entertainment, but perhaps it’s more than that.
The clichés of the past often revolved around younger people sneering at older people’s alleged ignorance about tech. Yet, as Grandma might have it, the world has changed.
I have a suspicion that older people are now far more familiar with the ways of modern technology and the principles behind its creation. (Even if they don’t always like them.)
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They grasp new gadgets more quickly and embrace new technology trends more readily. (Even if they don’t always want to embrace them.)
Why, it’s the older generations who invented so much of the technology that’s ubiquitous today. If he were alive today, Steve Jobs would be 69. Would he be dismissed for his lack of tech knowledge? How about Bill Gates, age 68?
And while Nvidia president Jenson Huang may have the world of AI in his hands and the rest of the world at his feet, he’s not what might be termed a spring chicken. He’s 61.
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Samsung, therefore, may have taken a considerable step forward in presenting a piece of technology in a way that is, perversely, more modern than many other typical tropes.
I wonder if Grandma will be the next worldwide spokesperson for the Galaxy S25.