Samsung ad gets applause for copying Apple's iPhone spot from 2007

Critics have broadly panned Samsung's initial efforts to deliver a Galaxy Gear "smart watch," but there's accolades for the product's commercial, which is closely patterned after an ad Apple commissioned at the introduction of the original iPhone in 2007.

In one example, Brad Reed of BGR wrote today that "Samsung's Galaxy Gear ad is cooler than the actual watch," noting that "critics may have savaged Samsung's first Galaxy Gear smartwatch but that hasn't stopped the company's crack marketing team from churning out a terrific ad that's much cleverer than the device itself."

Yesterday, Devindra Hardawar of Venture Beat similarly observed "Galaxy Gear commercials are brilliant ads for a terrible product," while Steve Kovach mused in his Business Insider blog that "the Galaxy Gear, may be getting poor reviews, but the commercials for the gadget are pretty sweet."

Samsung's Gear isn't really a futuristic wrist-phone like the images from TV shows and movies depicted in its ad. Instead, it is essentially a $300 Bluetooth headset strapped to the wrist and outfitted with a camera and display. The device requires a user to also carry a Note 3 phablet for it to work at all.

Further, Samsung's "terrific ad" is actually a copy of the "Hello" spot Apple debuted at the 2007 Oscars (below) introducing the first iPhone, as noted by Obama Pacman.

This year, Apple's "Greetings" ad (below) for the iPhone 5c presents a similar montage of global characters answering the phone, but the people in it are not depicted as cartoons or celebrities.

Obama Pacman also presented previous examples of Samsung looking to Apple for marketing "inspiration," such as in creating virtually identical ads for its own versions of the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 in 2011.