마이클 베이 감독
트랜스포머의 마이클 베이 감독이 미국 라스베가스에서 열린 CES에서 삼성전자 프레젠테이션 도중에 돌연 퇴장한 점에 대한 미안한 마음을 표했다.
베이 감독은 본인의 공식 홈페이지를 통해 “방금 CES에서 큰 창피를 당했다,”고 하면서 삼성의 곡면 TV를 소개하는 도중에 대사를 잘못 읽어 큰 실수를 했다고 밝혔다.
그 와중에 프롬터도 제대로 작동 하지 않아 결국 베이 감독은 무대를 떠났다.
그는 또한 본인이 제품 홍보를 해주는 경우가 거의 없다고 덧붙이며 삼성전자 제품의 우수성에 대해 다시 한번 강조했다.
한편, 삼성전자측은 이번 일에 대해 베이 감독에게 책임을 물을 수 없으며, 하나의 “헤프닝”으로 본다고 전했다.
일각에서는 삼성이 이른바 노이즈 마케팅을 위해 일부러 연출한 것이 아니냐는 의혹도 일었다.
“베이 감독의 인간적인 면모를 보여주는 동시에 특별한 이변이 없었던 이번 CES에서 노이즈마케팅 효과도 노릴 수 있다,”고 한 업계 관계자가 전했다.
(코리아헤럴드 박형기, 김영원 기자)
<관련 영문 기사>
Michael Bay apologizes over Samsung mishap
By Park Hyong-ki and Kim Young-won
LAS VEGAS -- Michael Bay, a Hollywood director who has directed a number of blockbusters including the Transformers series, apologized on Tuesday for walking off the stage during an event for Samsung Electronics at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
“Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES. I was about to speak for Samsung for this awesome curved 105-inch UHD TV. I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the exec vice president’s intro line and then the teleprompter got lost. Then the prompter went up and down, then I walked off. I guess live shows aren’t my thing,” he said via his official website.
He added that he does not usually lend his name to products, but that this one from Samsung was “just stellar.”
At the event, Bay was set to speak about Samsung Electronics’ curved ultra-high definition TVs, which were featuring his movies on their screens.
Midway through the speech about how his movies create visual worlds beyond people’s ordinary life experiences, Bay was rattled by a glitch in the teleprompter he was reading from and flubbed his lines.
Despite efforts from the Samsung staff to get Bay to continue, he eventually made a quick exit after saying he couldn’t go on.
“Samsung is unlikely to take any action, although the company will be quite upset,” said one source close to the electronics maker.
Some in the promotion industry said the situation actually may not be all bad, since the event received much publicity, with tech-related bloggers and the media reporting on the incident.
“Any publicity is good publicity,” said one industry watcher who declined to be identified. “Besides, there was really nothing much to see at this year’s CES, so this made headlines.”
(
hkp@heraldcorp.com) (
wone0102@heraldcorp.com)
