The ad, titled Night Owls, which promoted the Galaxy Watch4, Galaxy Buds 2 and Galaxy S22, shows a young woman running at 2 in the morning, with headphones on, through dark streets and alleys. At one point he runs past a man on a bicycle on a deserted bridge. As the young woman runs, the voice says, “Sleep at night. I ran faster. Push harder. Follow the herd. Not for me, I run with a different program: mine “. The announcement comes after the death of 23-year-old Ashling Murphy, who was attacked while running along a canal near Tullamore, west of Dublin, earlier this year, and the murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa. Jamie Klingler, co-founder of Reclaim These Streets, said the ad was “completely and utterly deaf, especially in the light of Ashling Murphy”. “It’s the Kendall Jenner Pepsi moment for Samsung. It is not safe for us to run at night and the last thing I want is for someone to break into our space while we are trying to exercise. “It’s almost funny how badly this ad lands,” he said. Klingler said it was hard to imagine a woman who would feel safe running at that time of night, and that was what made the ad “beyond unrealistic.” Sahra-Isha Muhammad-Jones, founder and co-founder of Asra running club, a group of Muslim women, said: As a running woman, she is no longer safe, but as a black Muslim, she is even more insecure. “This ad was like what would happen in an ideal world.” “It can be a trigger for women to watch this ad and then have to come to terms with what is really happening to women in this country.” Muhammad-Jones added that the ad was like a missed opportunity to spark a meaningful debate on women’s safety. “My first reaction was to laugh. “Advertising is completely unrealistic and completely closed,” said Esther Newman, editor of Women’s Running magazine. “We have been working for years on women’s safety issues when it comes to running and the vast majority of women in our audience feel insecure while running, from abuse to actual abuse. “We know women often think about stopping running because of it,” says Newman. “Women feel insecure when it comes to running at any time of the day. “Seeing a woman choose to run at 2 in the morning with headphones on is just ridiculous.” Newman said the ad was not empowering and instead was “short-sighted, naive and comical”. Samsung said: “The Night Owls campaign was designed with a positive message in mind: to celebrate individuality and freedom of exercise at all hours. “It was never our intention to be unconscious in the ongoing debate over women’s safety. “As a global company with a diverse workforce, we apologize for the way we received this message.”
