Samsung's A Real Upgrade ad targets Apple over foldable phone and AI

Samsung on Monday released a new social media advertisement that directly taunts Apple for lacking both a mainstream foldable phone and some of the generative artificial intelligence features Samsung is promoting on its latest devices. The spot, titled "A Real Upgrade," centers on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and a comedic contrast between a user leveraging Galaxy AI and an iPhone user who struggles to reproduce the same effect.

The ad contains multiple vignettes in which a Galaxy Z Fold 7 user employs an AI-driven feature to add a shirt to a bare-chested photo. In one scene the phone is unfolded to showcase the larger display and multitasking, while an iPhone-wielding friend attempts to mimic the result by holding a napkin or leaf against the subject's chest. At one point a character asks, "Did you just unfold that?" and the spot closes with the line, "Can your phone do that?" and a frustrated iPhone user putting his phone away, according to the ad as posted by Samsung on its social accounts. The commercial also features actors identified in reports as Dylan Efron and Jake Shane in poolside and table scenes that play the same gag in different settings.