By adamg on Thu., 8/31/2017 - 9:03 am 
Bos IT Guy was among the people wondering what Samsung was thinking with these ads that went up in South Station yesterday.
Or as Tory Bullock puts it:
When I tell people that everyone thinks if you're black and live in Mattapan, Dorchester, or Roxbury that it's assumed you're a criminal, they never believe me. They look at me like I'm crazy. Then you go to South Station and see a lovely new piece of marketing. Can you hear me now?!
Ed. note: This is probably reason 412 why New York ad firms should really hire a local to review any ads aimed at locals, because any Bostonian would have been able to tell them in 5 seconds this was a bad idea.
UPDATE: Samsung apologizes; ads taken down.
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Yikes!!!!
By hollydollydoo
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:08am
Yikes!!!!
When you pay an ad agency to make a localized ad...
By Snuggles
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 12:08pm
...for a major city... and they manage to do something this offensive... which they totally should've checked and been able to predict even if they weren't familiar with the area... on a very sensitive brand (massive company, and main competition in this prized space is Apple)... how many billions of dollars in malpractice insurance to they carry?
Some Apple fanboy should take this national, and explain what it means. Right after I short Samsung stock.
Who are the ignorant fucks
By anon
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:10am
Who are the ignorant fucks who thought up this "marketing" statement? Tear it down immediately. Where else is it appearing?
If it's not true why get upset about it
By EM Painter
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:17am
and if it is true, why not accept and correct it
Glad to see
By bosguy22
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:26am
There's no overreaction.
Because it perpetuates a
By anon
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:27am
Because it perpetuates a stereotype.
And the stereotype of
By Carmella
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 10:19am
And the stereotype of Charlestown people all being bank robbers? I never hear complaints there. Probably because they're not looking to make issue of things that don't matter.
By the way, many people consider Mattapan Station to be the end of the Red Line, even though the Mattapan trolley is actually a wing of the Green Line.
I've never heard that about
By anon
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 10:22am
I've never heard that about Charlestown before. I have, however, heard a lot about the orange line, Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury, etc.
Orange Line
By adamg
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 10:59am
Oh, ya, it's a horrible situation down there. OK, sure, I ride it to and from Forest Hills at least a couple times a week, and have for years, and I've never been mugged or threatened or anything, but it's only a matter of time, right?
Try wearing one of these...
By dmcboston
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 12:44pm
[img]http://i.imgur.com/VS1WAeI.jpg[/img]
You heard what happened to the work trucks downtown?
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 09/01/2017 - 1:45pm
Two work trucks, parked downtown all week.
NH plates and "Hillary for Jail" and pro-Trump stickers.
You heard what happened, right?
.
.
.
.
.
NOTHING!
Just like the last time I saw someone on the Orange Line with a MAGA hat. Everyone just minded their own business. Some side eye, but nothing more.
Melodramatic victimization is the stock in trade of fascism.
Orange line
By Christine Poff
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 2:31pm
When I moved to Boston 25 years ago to an orange line neighborhood I was told over and over again I couldn't live there, "people get killed on the orange line." Hasn't happened yet, and I came from a neighborhood in Brooklyn where bodies were often found in dumpsters on the street. All good in Boston. Lets keep working to end race stereotypes!
Relax
By lbb
Fri, 09/01/2017 - 9:55am
Relax, Adam, I think the person you're responding to is talking about the fact that the stereotype exists, not the reality.
BLM
By Sab
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 12:19pm
"Probably because they're not looking to make issue of things that don't matter." Addressing stereotypes about black people is kind of a big deal, no? Obviously it matters.
I disagreed
By Anthony
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 12:33pm
I would have to disagree because some of the Charlestown people look at bank robbery as a badge of honor rite of passage how it is in Charlestown being a townie
by the way I did say SOME
however contrast people in Mattapan Roxbury Dorchester and other areas being stereotyped as the criminal element of Boston is disgusting degrading and disrespectful resentful and hurtful.
If the tommies want that type of reputation they're welcome to keep that but I know a lot of Tony's who despise bankruptcy and that reputation.
You know
By bgl
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:21pm
I think you are watching entirely too many Ben Affleck movies.
Right. I'm sure the average person
By roadman
Fri, 09/01/2017 - 8:21am
looking at this ad immediately thinks "racial stereotype".
Another overreaction that only serves to hurt legitimate efforts to attain equality.
Actually
By anon
Fri, 09/01/2017 - 9:49am
That seems to be the consensus of MBTA riders.
Who are probably smarter than drivers,but still ...
Why do you care what people think
By EM Painter
Fri, 09/01/2017 - 11:30am
.
When you are a minority
By anon
Fri, 09/01/2017 - 12:00pm
What people think is a matter of life and death.
Go contemplate your privilege ... oh, wait ... you don't know how to think.
Thanks for whitesplaining
By anon
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:43am
Thanks for whitesplaining
Never had a problem in Mattapan. Had lots of shit stolen in Charlestown.
sorry Dostoevsky was white
By EM Painter
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 1:42pm
I'm sure he wishes he was black
I am clutching my pearls....
By Marco
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 1:44pm
As a white Mattapan resident, i am offended by some comments here. There are plenty of white and Hispanic criminals in Mattapan too!
(i've also never had a problem, although the DRIVERS down here, that is a different story....)
Could be worse
By Rob O
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:19am
It could read "Murderpan"
Already being taken down
By Ron Newman
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:40am
according to this comment and this post and others I've seen today.
Easy enough fix...
By dmcboston
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 12:25pm
...but it might have worked better if it was done like this in the beginning.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/UckRJdR.jpg[/img]
Should have said "Ashmont" or "Braintree"
By anon
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:10am
That implies that you are a ditz and left it on the train, not that it was stolen. To get to Mattapan, a human would need to transport it.
Better yet: lost and found is at DTX, no?
Yep
By adamg
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:23am
And that's why I'm thinking somebody sitting in a cube farm in New York called up a T map and saw "Mattapan" at the opposite end of the Red Line from Alewife and thought it would be clever to pair the two, and didn't realize what that odd-looking blobby thing at Ashmont means.
why?
By bosguy22
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:25am
Is Ashmont acceptable, but Mattapan isn't?
RTFC
By anon
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:44am
Ashmont and Braintree are places that your phone could go without human assistance - i.e. you left it on the train.
You do know that those are the ends of the line, right?
Huh?
By bosguy22
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 4:06pm
Could you not have boarded a trolley at Mattapan, left your phone, transferred to the Red Line at Ashmont on your journey to Alewife....all while your phone ends up back in Mattapan?
Trying really really hard here, eh?
By anon
Fri, 09/01/2017 - 9:45am
Isn't it much easier to accept that this is just stupid and racist?
Apparently not. Empathy fails you.
Also, it's in the Commuter Rail concourse
By Ari O
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:25am
So it really should be "Worcester and Stoughton" or "Franklin and Providence" or something.
Use a different line
By Rob O
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:35am
If they were trying to suggest that you left your phone on the train accidentally (rather than it was stolen), they should have said Riverside or Oak Square.
It's more conceivable that you forgot to take the phone with you when you transferred than you put your phone on a train on the same line heading in the opposite direction.
It's hard to see what they were thinking here.
People are thinking a little
By Carmella
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 10:20am
People are thinking a little too much about it.
Just dropping this off here
By anon
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 10:54am
You need this on a BINGO card.
I was going to say the same
By The first anon,...
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 11:38am
I was going to say the same thing. How in the heck did my bag get on the train by itself going in the wrong direction unless someone picked it up and made off with it?
I came into this with an open mind and I still don't think the Samsung people meant any harm by it but their lack of critical thinking is not helping their case with this at all. Logically it just doesn't make sense. It still would not make sense but I think it would be funnier if they said you were going to Braintree but your bag was going to Ashmont?
Red line trains just go back and forth
By KG
Sat, 09/02/2017 - 9:36am
The reason Ashmont or Braintree makes more sense is because after people debark at Alewife, then train the travels back down the Red Line and ultimately goes to either Braintree or Ashmont. If you leave your phone on the train and no one disturbs it, it will end up traveling to one of these two stations.
It makes more sense than using a station on another line, which implies either the commuter transferred lines or the phone was stolen. And Ashmont would have been the best choice, because alliteration is always marketing gold. :p
Um
By cinnamngrl
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:49am
Mattapan has a trolley. It runs from Ashmont to Mattapan Square. And Samsung very much means to say that the phone is stolen. The Knox system is designed to show whether a phone was tampered with.
That's so great you know what
By anon
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 2:14pm
That's so great you know what Samsung is thinking. Now how about the ad agency that came up with this idea? What were they thinking? Clearly this was a mistake and they've rectified it. How many blacks here were offended by this? How many whites were offended by this? Come on, show of hands please! Thanks for telling the world that this black man is so easily offended you arogant bitch.
is Alewife a zip code?
By cinnamngrl
Fri, 09/01/2017 - 9:07am
No, it's not. Is it a neighborhood? Also, no. Nobody says I live in Alewife. They say north cambridge near Alewife or near Arlington line.
It seems they would have said Mattapan Square, if they were describing stations at the opposite end of the redline.
I agree it was a mistake. But like you, the mistake was letting their prejudiced assumptions slip out.
live in Alewife
By Ron Newman
Fri, 09/01/2017 - 9:56am
Some people may now say that, as residential buildings have opened on the west side of Route 16 near the station, and now along Route 2 as well.
really?
By cinnamngrl
Fri, 09/01/2017 - 1:35pm
Are you saying you have heard that in conversation?
End of the line
By Carmella
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 10:16am
You get off the subway at Ashmont and get in the "high speed" line, the end of which is Mattapan. Some consider that the end of the Red Line. Stop looking for racism behind every corner. Is it ok when we see Irish depicted as drunks every St. Patrick's Day? The endless jokes about Italian-Americans and the mafia? The open jokes about bank robbers from Charlestown? Why are those stereotypes always given a pass?
I know, right?
By Rob O
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 10:35am
The blacks are always whining about racism. And don't no one try to turn the tables on me, I have a black friend.
Here's to saying what we feel, everyone else be damned!
I agree with Carmella. All
By baustin
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 12:26pm
I agree with Carmella. All racism is acceptable because there's so much of it.
The luck of the Irish and Ctown Townies Bankkkers
By Anthony
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 12:42pm
Look some people in both areas look at that reputation as a badge of honor part of the history people in the other areas did not do not
Want those reputations I'm sure there are people in all these areas do not like any of the reputations but we must call it out because of perception and we all know perception is 99% of life
Wrong
By LaurenC
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 1:40pm
Basically your speaking on something you don't understand. Even in your own statement you realize that you would have to GET OFF the Ashmont train and GET ON the high speed line to Mattapan which is an urban area. It very well could be a mistake but for all the money that Samsung makes it should have been more carefully researched. At the end of the day, the ad comes off as racist even though that may not have been the intent. Logically if your phone was going to Mattapan that means someone is in possession of it (i.e. stolen). I like Samsung but this ad is not okay.
If this offends you, then you
By wtf021
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:37am
If this offends you, then you are hypersensitive snowflake. Did your college have a safe zone? Did you get participation trophy growing up playing soccer? I bet you throw a holiday party, not Christmas party, every year. Please stop whining and complaining so much. Thanks
I didn't know parrots could use computers.
By UHub-fan
Thu, 08/31/2017 - 10:08am
Ain't the 21st century amazing?
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