Samsung to Apple: Camping out for a new phone isn't Woodstock

The gloves are off.

But it gets cold in Philadelphia, so you need those thumbless gloves to stay warm and keep texting on your iPhone.

This is just one of the sweetly spiky scenarios that Samsung has just released in its attempt to kick Apple fanboys when they hurt: in the ego.

There are two new Galaxy S II spots, following on from a faintly flat little teaser released last week, in which Samsung man showed off his, um, turn-by-turn directions.

These latest two offer a little more face-scratching truth.

In one spot, Samsung pokes at "creative" people loving iPhones while actually being baristas. Then there's that whole camping out thing.

While the casting of the Samsung couple is a little difficult, there is a lovely line at the end, uttered by an Apple fanboy/barista camper: "This is our generation's Woodstock."

Apple's "Get A Mac" campaign succeeded because it used humor to offer a serious emotional truth: Microsoft nerds weren't terribly attractive (in every sense). This Woodstock line offers another--equally stimulating--emotional truth: phones really aren't all that, not even iPhones.

The second spot features an Apple fanboy being seduced by a lady and her Samsung, while he seeks those thumbless gloves. Here, the casting's pure. The only troubling conceit is that the lovely lady would find this almost Microsoftish Apple fanboy attractive.

I fancy, though, that more than a few real human beings might, at the very least, be amused by these spots, especially now that these ads have been shorn of too much Samsung boasting at the end. The Google voice transcription is shown, rather than shouted, as is the 4G LTE capability.

Will there ever come a day when you can put your Samsung Galaxy S II down on the bar, just to show how beautiful, witty, and cool you are?