The UK is getting ready for TVs, digital displays and cinema screens across the country to switch off as Samsung rolls out an advertising campaign that interrupts scheduled ad breaks with several seconds of ‘TV blackout’.

The disruptive campaign is designed to trick viewers into thinking their TV has been ‘switched off’, thus highlighting the default status of the TV in the home while it is not in use. The darkness ends, with text emerging: “This is your TV screen… most of the time; a void full of nothing.” The adverts will go on to explain that Samsung QLED TVs boast an ‘Ambient Mode’, which allows TV sets to blend in with their surrounding interior design, or display imagery when not in use, meaning that consumers need never see the void again.

The #TVblackout campaign will leave a large footprint, stretching across 10 days, with over 200 TV spots on multiple channels and networks, and reaching an estimated 49 million viewers. Launching on May 25, popular Friday night viewing that will be disrupted includes Coronation Street (ITV), The Simpsons (Sky) and First Dates (C4). In an audacious move, Samsung will also air the ad during the commercial breaks of the Champions League final on Saturday May 26, informing the audience that it is “time to adjust your set.” The campaign will also take over digital displays at the iconic Piccadilly Circus, as well as interrupting the famous Pearl and Dean theme tune during the adverts before cinema screenings of “Solo: A Star Wars Story”. 

This isn’t the first time that UK viewers have been targeted by Samsung’s innovative campaigns. In November last year, Samsung premiered Washing Machine: The Feature Film at London’s Leicester Square, which layered a dramatic original score by celebrated composer Michael Nyman over the filming of a 66-minute family wash cycle. The unique project built upon the impact of a 3 min 20 sec advert featuring a QuickDrive wash cycle, which was broadcast during a complete ad break takeover of one of Britain’s most popular TV programs. 

*Samsung QLED ‘Ambient Mode’ background setting feature may vary depending on the environment where the TV is installed including, but not limited to, wall designs, patterns, and/or colours

Source: UK Newsroom

World-first sees washing machine cycle turned into slow cinema with soundtrack by Michael Nyman

• Britain’s most famous living composer creates a dramatic original score to accompany film of a 66 minute wash cycle
• Composer of Oscar winning film The Piano inspired by ‘mechanical cycles’
• Film set to get fans of slow cinema in a lather with full uncensored, moment-by-moment footage of a full wash cycle majoring on a single, long continuous shot
• Washing Machine to receive premiere at London’s Leicester Square + available online FREE
• Unique project sees art meet technology to launch Samsung’s QuickDrive, a washing machine which cuts laundry time in HALF¹ – without compromising performance

One of Britain’s most innovative and celebrated composers has created a unique original score to accompany a 66-minute family wash cycle.

Michael Nyman whose haunting work has accompanied dozens of hits and arthouse movies, including Oscar-winner The Piano has composed the soundtrack to accompany a new feature film which turns the everyday drudge of the washing machine cycle into art.

In an audacious move, the poetic monotony of the spinning drum and sloshing water are the sole focus of ‘Washing Machine’ – a movie which will receive its world premiere at Leicester Square in London’s West End in early December.

The film chronicles the full cycle, moment by moment, of Samsung’s QuickDrive washing machine, in this big screen addition to the canon of slow cinema treats. The production team captured the action with a single long shot trained on the machine to bring the full glory of the wash, rinse and spin to the screen.  Samsung believes that cinema audiences, who have in recent years become accustomed to unusual experiences such as live relays of theatre, rock concerts and opera, or simulcasts of TV premieres, will be able to break new ground with the release.

Ivor Novello-winner Nyman, who recorded part of his soundtrack live in London surrounded by monitors featuring the wash cycle, commented: “By coincidence, this new work comes exactly 300 years after the 1717 premiere of another celebrated composition inspired by the flow of water – German-British composer George Frideric Handel’s Water Music so in some ways we have come full circle with ‘Washing Machine – The Movie’.”

The movie builds upon the ground-breaking 3 min 20 sec advert featuring a QuickDrive wash cycle which was broadcast during a single-shot complete ad break takeover on Gogglebox on C4 on the 24^th of November. It follows research commissioned by Samsung showing that huge numbers of people are already fascinated by the mesmeric power of watching the wash spinning, with hundreds of thousands of hours clocked up on YouTube.  Indeed, footage of full-length washing machine cycles has achieved more than THREE MILLION views.

The piano-led 66 minute soundtrack features one of Nyman’s signature minimalist compositions, driven by an explorative melody which takes the audience on a passage through the various stages of the wash cycle. The repetitive motion of the spinning drum is melodically represented through Nyman’s masterful playing, with thematic ideas developing as the wash progresses.

Nyman said: “The idea of this intrigued me when I was approached, putting a score to something so visually repetitive and prosaic. As a film composer you are frequently taking a cue from the drama on screen or interpreting it sonically, but here the challenge was to offset the mundanity and also enhance the hypnotic appeal.

“I have written a lot of music to manufacturing processes, but this is the most elaborate mechanical, mechanistic film I’ve been involved with. I’m interested in the mechanical process, the way that I create musical cycles which are based on repetition and variation and the correlation between that music and what happens in a washing machine process. I really want the music to be heard and I want the music to be loud, so I think with this project its man over machine.”

Samsung’s research which inspired the film revealed that on average, British adults will spend an average of 1,481 hours watching the washing go round and round – which adds up to the equivalent of 61 days across a lifetime.  For those who love to get lost in the hypnotic thrill of the washing machine but don’t want to waste too much of their lives, the Samsung QuickDrive is perfect because it cuts laundry time in half², without compromising wash performance.

Mark Seaman, Head of Domestic Appliances, Samsung UK & Ireland, said: “Our film features a virtuoso performance from both man and machine. The Samsung QuickDrive gives a washing performance unlike any other so it was only fitting to turn it into an artwork in its own right. What better way to showcase the fastest washing machine we have ever made than to feature it in one of the slowest movies ever created, complete with a soundtrack from one of Britain’s most celebrated composers.”

Washing Machine – The Movie will receive a world premiere at Leicester Square’s Cineworld Theatre on the 5^th December 2017.  The film will be available to watch free of charge via YouTube from the 6^th December.

Notes to Editors

Film credits

Director – Peter Mountstevens

Producers – Max Gheysens and Sam Corry

¹Samsung QuickDrive WW8800M vs Samsung WW8500K (5kg 40°C Cotton wash)

Source: UK Newsroom

Samsung Electronics launched Samsung Newsroom U.K., a new media channel for Samsung news and activities.

The new site will keep consumers and media informed about Samsung’s latest news while also covering locally relevant launches, services and citizenship activities, as well as Samsung’s business insights and vision.

Samsung Newsroom U.K. joins a list of local Samsung Newsrooms that includes the United States, in addition to Korea, Vietnam, Brazil, India, Germany, Russia, Mexico, and Argentina. Samsung plans to continue expanding its local newsrooms to share its stories with more regions and in more languages.

Founded in 1984, Samsung Electronics (UK) Limited is one of Samsung’s leading global subsidiaries, and embodies its commitment to inspiring the world and shaping the future with transformative ideas and technologies.