Samsung has found an unusual way to respond to Apple’s entry into foldable smartphones: get Tim Cook” to endorse the Galaxy Z Fold 8. The company’s New Zealand arm released a promotional video starring a man named Tim Cook from Palmerston North, New Zealand — not Apple’s former chief executive, but a namesake who also bears a passing resemblance to him.
The campaign deliberately borrows the polished, minimalist style associated with Apple product videos. In the clip, the New Zealand-based Cook presents Samsung’s latest foldable with exaggerated launch-language before ultimately describing the Galaxy Z Fold 8 as the best phone he has owned. Samsung makes the distinction clear by identifying him specifically as Tim Cook from Palmerston North.
The timing is central to the joke. Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo this week, marking its first entry into the foldable category after years of Samsung developing the format. Samsung introduced its original Galaxy Fold in 2019 and has since built multiple generations of foldable devices, giving it a substantial head start in the segment.
Samsung has also launched a wider campaign around Apple’s arrival, using social posts and other advertising to reinforce its experience in foldables. The company is trying to frame Apple’s launch not as the beginning of a new category, but as a rival finally entering a market Samsung has spent years developing.
The ad is unlikely to settle which foldable is better, but that is hardly the point. By finding an actual Tim Cook to promote the Galaxy Z Fold 8 immediately after the iPhone Duo reveal, Samsung turned one of Apple’s biggest launches of the year into a marketing opportunity of its own — and revived one of consumer technology’s longest-running advertising rivalries.
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Startup Unplugged
