Copyright Fast Company
It’s official: Samsung has found a way to turn fridges into giant, unavoidable ads. In a move that comes as a shock to pretty much no one, Samsung announced on October 27 that its premium line of Family Hub fridges, which each come with a giant, AI-powered, embedded screen, will start displaying a widget featuring curated ads. By early November, anyone in the U.S. who owns a Family Hub fridge with a 21.5″ or 32″ screen will start seeing the ads, even if they bought the appliance well before the news was announced. Commenters on Reddit and Tiktok are reacting with outraged shock to the concept of their kitchens becoming the next venue for the performance of late-stage capitalism, and for good reason. But the fact that Samsung has made this move isn’t exactly surprising, despite the fact that it explicitly promised not to do so mere months ago. When we incorporate screens into every mundane aspect of our daily routines, it stands to reason that companies will view those tiny, coveted windows into our everyday lives as an advertising opportunity. Subscribe to the Design newsletter.The latest innovations in design brought to you every weekday Privacy Policy | Fast Company Newsletters Samsung walks back its promise Back in April, Samsung told The Verge that it had no plans to incorporate ads into its series of screen-ified fridges, washers, driers, and ovens. By September, though, it had already walked that promise back. In a statement to Android Authority at the time, Samsung shared, “As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen that value, we are conducting a pilot program to offer promotions and curated advertisements on certain Samsung Family Hub refrigerator models in the U.S. market.” Now, according to Samsung’s new announcement, fridge ads will begin appearing in the form of a widget that also cycles through weather, news, and calendar updates. In a statement to Fast Company, Samsung clarified that users will have the option to turn the widget off entirely via their settings, or dismiss certain ads at will. Still, the feature is rolling out automatically to everyone who already owns the fridge and chooses to update its software, despite the fact that nearly all customers bought these appliances before they knew that such a feature was a real possibility. If this was really a user-centered UX, shouldn’t they get to opt-in to ads, rather than be forced to opt-out? For now, the ads are only related to Samsung products and services. But Samsung hasn’t exactly promised that the ads will stay internal. In an interview with The Verge, Shane Higby, Samsung’s head of home appliance business in the U.S., said that “future promotions will depend on the feedback and insights gained from the program.” Higby added that the current ads are “contextual or non-personal” and that the fridges are not “collecting personal information or tracking consumers.” (In other words, your fridge isn’t keeping track of how many carrots you have left in order to sell you more carrots.) Still, users have reason to feel a bit wary about that possibility, given that major companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon have all faced recent lawsuits alleging that their home devices were eavesdropping on users. advertisement Samsung told Fast Company that the ad program is part of an effort to “strengthen the value” of its home appliances for customers, but it’s unclear exactly what value customers get out of this supposed exchange. The writing was always on the wall Online, reactions to the Samsung Family Hub fridge ad feature are overwhelmingly poking fun at the dystopian idea of an appliance that’s trying to sell you something. One TikTok video from September with more than half a million likes shows a man trying to open a locked fridge with the caption, “POV: it’s 2025 and you forgot to pay your Samsung fridge subscription fee so now you have to watch 67 unskippable ads to retrieve a glass of choccy milk.” On the subreddit r/technology, most users are in agreement that, if a fridge is going to try to sell ads, it should cost significantly less than a normal fridge, not more. “I am definitely paying 5x for a fridge that solicits me!” one user joked. “Can it also target specific ads to all my family members? …or maybe that is the $6000 fridge that I need? Can I get an add-on option where it also keeps food cold?” Another added, “Fridge should be $100 (delivered!) then if they expect me to put up with that crap.” These reactions are certainly a fair response to Samsung trying to sell you a microwave while you’re just trying to grab a snack. But the writing was probably always on the wall for a company that started replacing physical buttons on almost all of its appliances with smart screens—and has literally made its modern tagline “Screens Everywhere.” As consumers, it’s our job to show Samsung that we’re not interested in seeing our own kitchens turn into a marketing opportunity—and we can do that by collectively opting to purchase regular old appliances that couldn’t advertise to us if they tried.
