Big ·MarketingSamsung confirms it will begin showing you advertisements on your $1,800-plus refrigerator’s screenBy Sasha RogelbergBy Sasha RogelbergReporterSasha RogelbergReporterSasha Rogelberg is a reporter and former editorial fellow on the news desk at Fortune, covering retail and the intersection of and culture.SEE FULL BIO Samsung is piloting a software that would display ads on the screens of certain Family Hub refrigerators.David Becker—Getty ImagesIt’s not g services ratcheting up the number of ads you’re watching.
It’s now your kitchen appliances, too. Samsung will begin displaying advertisements and motions on the screens of its Family Hub refrigerators in the U.S., the company confirmed to Fortune.
“Samsung is committed to innovation and enhancing every day value for our appliance customers,” a spokesperson told Fortune in a statement.
“As part of our efforts to strengthen that value, we are conducting a pilot gram to offer motions and curated advertisements on certain Samsung Family Hub refrigerator models in the U.S.
market.” The Family Hub refrigerator—which will set back buyers at least $1,799—is a smart appliance featuring a touchscreen display with applications for household task management and entertainment.
Part of a software , advertisements will appear on certain refrigerator cover screens when the Family Hub fridge is idle.
Users can dismiss specific advertisements on the cover screen to ensure they won’t be shown for the ad campaign’s duration, and ads will not display when the cover screen is in Art Mode or showing picture albums.
Android Authority first reported the . Americans have gone from seeing 500 advertisements a day in the 1970s to more than 5,000 daily, as of 2023.
Over 90% of digital display advertising comes from grammatic ads, or automatically generated marketing usually using AI to target specific audiences for a duct.
But the liferation of grammatic ads has raised concerns privacy, including smart appliances collecting data, such as smart TVs taking screenshots of what users are watching.
Samsung said in its first phase of the pilot, Family Hub will display ads, but not collect data consumer ad interactions.
The company emphasized the purpose of the pilot gram was to more broadly get consumer back on the software features.
Samsung’s ‘screens everywhere’ apach Though Samsung users may now have to view an ad while grabbing some orange juice from the fridge, brand loyalists may recognize the company’s strategy of being heavy handed in where it displays marketing.
In 2015, the company came under fire for reportedly inserting ads every 20 to 30 minutes into users’ locally stored content on Samsung smart TVs, including from third-party servers Plex and Foxtel.
Other users complained of pop-up ads for “Yahoo Interactivity” when they were using ing services.
The company said at the time that this pop-up was supposed to be opt-in only; it did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for its advertising patterns.
Over the past year, Samsung has doubled-down on an initiative to put “screens everywhere” on its ducts, expanding its Bespoke AI features to digital displays on its washers and dryers.
Jeong Seung Moon, executive vice president and head of re and development for the Digital Appliances at Samsung Electronics, told The Verge in April that the philosophy around installing digital displays was meant to imve accessibility and eliminate inefficiencies of household tasks.
“First, carrying out household tasks often involves the use of multiple appliances located in different areas of the ,” he said.
”Managing these different tasks across multiple devices can waste time, but the screen resolves these issues by acting as a central control hub that seamlessly connects the ’s appliances.
For users, this means they get to control their environment from wherever they are, saving time and effort.” At the time, Moon said Samsung did not feature motions on its displays and had “no plans regarding the inclusion of advertisements on AI screens.” “Any future policies will be guided first and foremost by what best serves our customers’ needs,” he added.Fortune Global Forum returns Oct.
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