Samsung Brasil Makes Past and Present Collide in Nostalgic Ad

At System1 we talk a lot about the power of cultural references and nostalgia. Cultural references are of course a great way to target specific age groups among your audience, but they also possess a deeper power. As described in Orlando Wood’s books Lemon and Look out, cultural references create a broader context for an ad, and that broader context engages the attention of the right-brain, which understands relationships between things. And the right brain is also associated with greater effectiveness for advertising in the long-term. 

In other words, cultural references not only entertain and enchant the audience, they work to engage on a deeper level than other elements. 

So here’s an ad from Samsung and agency Cheil Brasil which takes the idea of nostalgic cultural references and carries it to extraordinary new heights. 

The ad recreates an iconic episode from the much loved TV series Chaves, about the comical misadventures of an orphan kid in the apartment complex and neighbourhood he lives in. The Mexican series ended in 1992 but its Brazilian version has been a part of Brazilian kids’ lives since the 1980s and repeats still reach millions of viewers today. Chaves’ neighbourhood involves a bunch of colourful characters, including “the witch of 71”, a single woman whose black cat and apparently spooky behaviour lead Chaves and friends to believe she has magical powers. The joke, of course, is that all of the uncanny things Chaves sees in apartment No. 71 have completely normal and natural explanations. 

But Samsung have come along to put a twist on this story. Now Chaves and his pal are greeted in No.71 by a number of new, inexplicable happenings. Lights turn on and off, air conditioning comes on, and even the fridge starts showing weird displays. Is it witchcraft this time? No, it’s Samsung’s SmartThings product range; connected devices which can be controlled by voice or phone. Which leaves their owner none too happy that Chaves is accusing her of being a witch! 

The ad is notable for its painstaking attention to detail. The exact shades of clothes, decorations, and even background lighting are faithful to the original episode, which dates from 1977. Except for the fact that we see the “witch” controlling all the devices on her Samsung phone, this could really be a lost scene from the 1970s or 1980s series. This accuracy helps increase the charm of the cultural reference as a tactic to drive emotional response. 

The result is an ad with a 4.3-Star Rating, predicting strong long-term growth for Samsung. Brand Fluency is also high, showing that even with a very dominant nostalgic feel in the ad, the brand is at no risk of getting lost. And we should point out that Samsung have done a very good job here of making an ad which introduces, explains and is all about new technology without it ever pushing technical features or benefits too hard. Not only has Samsung tapped the power of cultural references extremely well here, it’s done it by entertaining the audience. 

“We want to demonstrate that home connectivity is within everyone’s reach in an easy way, using a narrative that explores consumers’ memories and emotions. What once seemed like magic is now innovation through SmartThings.” – Ilca Sierra, CMO of Samsung for Latin America