Who is Samsung targeting with these ads, the non Apple folks? In that case wouldn't it be better to focus on how great and desirable their own product is and how happy their own customers are with it rather than portray the Apple customers as "mindless zombies who are waiting in line for Apple products in spite of themselves". It is a terrible ad from a marketing standpoint because it doesn't stand to win their target audience (i.e. their competitor's customers) but merely put them off or upset/anger them.
The "Mac vs. PC" ads never made fun of the "PC" users (i.e. the audience Apple was trying to win over). Even when poking fun at the "PC", they did it in a friendly, as if they felt sorry for the "inferior" "PC", way. With all their aggressive marketing, never did Apple poke fun at the "PC" user or portray them in negative light. If Samsung wanted to successfully mirror Apple's past marketing campaign, they have failed with this one here.
I'd say that it's aiming at everyone who is not an Apple fanboy. Many people but apple products because they like the quality of the products or it just works for them. If a better device came along though, they would give credit where it's due and maybe take a chance by trying out that device. That's who I think it's aimed at. I also don't think those people would be offended by this ad, since it's not portraying them here. IMO, those people wouldn't be lining up on launch day to get an iDevice. I would like to say I'm one of those people. I love the iPhone, but I'm open to switching to android or wp8 or whatever else if they suit my needs better. I also dont hold a phone in such high regard that I would line up for hours to get it on launch day. Personally, I wasn't offended by the ad. I didn't really see it as Samsung calling everyone who owned an Apple device as a "mindless zombie". It was more like they were portraying the die hard apple fans having a boring time waiting in front of an Apple store for hours on end when they could get a better, more exciting device without the wait. Not really sure where you got mindless zombies but your interpretation is as valid as mine.
As for your second point, please look back at the quote I was responding to. The original poster said something along the lines of "If they have to attack an opponent's product, they're doing it wrong!" or the like. If I am mistaken, I will gladly concede your point. My response said that it seemed logical to point out where a competitor's product falls short of the company who's paying for the ad. I also said that I felt like "attack" was too strong of a verb to use. Did Samsung really attack iDevices in this ad? Again, your threshold for defining a word will be different from mine (diction used, severity of tone, amount of other synonyms used), but it felt like Samsung was just poking fun at iDevices too. I certainly wouldn't call it attacked.
Ha! Ha! I love it! One of my first posts on this topic was based on my misunderstandings that the Samsung Note NEEDED a stylus. I formed that impression based on watching Samsung's commercial. It was only after the Samsung fanboys came here and "educated" me that the device can work without the stylus as well.
After reading some of the comments it looks like there was a bunch of people who made the same conclusion that I did about the stylus.
Wow! talk about an advertising FAIL on Samsung's part!
Advertising 101: if after delivering your message in an advertisement, the consumer is confused or doesn't understand then it is YOUR fault, not the consumer!
We shouldn't need the technogeeks to crawl out of the woodwork to clear things up for the rest of us, I'm going to go back to my original opinion on the commercial: this device won't deliver.
Ad hominem attacks are counterproductive if you want others to take you seriously. Let's keep it civilized and not call others Samsung fanboys just because they were trying to help clarify a misunderstanding. Also, I don't believe the sample from this thread is good enough to make a generalization about the population that saw the ad an thus, the general impression that the ad left. This site is full of Apple fans and thus, people here are more likely to think of Samsung (who a lot of Apple fans believe is the devil reincarnate) in the worst possible way, and this is the same for their products. It's sort of like confirmation bias: Apple fans despise Samsung and as soon as they see a stylus, they subconsciously twist it in a way that makes Samsung confirm to their preconceived idea of the company. So, logically, their first thought would be "we have to use a stylus?" Also, Internet forums are skewed by response bias. When optional surveys online or in real life are taken, the category of people who have the largest response rate is people who feel strongly about the issue (ie conservative Christians and gay rights activists for a survey on whether gay marriage should be legalized). Thus, people who really love or hate the stylus idea will post on the forum. The people that hate it the most are those with the impression that the stylus is mandatory. Those that have neutral or weak feelings about the issue would be less inclined to post about it, since they really don't have much to say either way and would probably see their time as better spent.
That's pretty amazing I think. Not to mention that iPhone 3GS is actually FASTER with iOS 5 than with iOS 4. 
