Samsung Suggests its Smartwatch Can Help Men Land Dates

Samsung released an ad for the Galaxy Gear Watch this weekend that’s catching flack from some who say it implies men who sport the gadget can pick up women more easily.

First, a “suave” dude tells a female skier to say her number into his watch as they are on the ski lift. Then he takes pictures and video of her from behind as she is racing down the mountain, tracks down her misplaced phone in a crowded nightclub, orders wine, and plays romantic music — all from the wrist device. And throughout the two-and-a-half-minute spot, a different, hapless man never gets to ask the woman out because he keeps dropping or losing track of his smartphone in one of his many layers of clothing.

On the surface, the commercial, which boasts more than 1.1 million views on YouTube since its Dec. 21 debut, shows that the $299 wearable device enables people participating in winter sports to multi-task better. On the other hand, news outlets say the ad is cheesy, creepy, glorifying stalkers, pickup artists and a “dystopian future in which only Galaxy Gear owners have sex,” as a Quartz headline put it.

Or maybe the lesson here is that men who are bad at skiing are forced to invest in expensive gadgets to impress potential dates because they can’t show off their prowess on the slopes?