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Samsung's creepy TV ad hypnotizes you to forget a TV show

If you have 23 minutes and an open mind, Samsung promises a fresh binge-watch.

David Katzmaier Editorial Director -- Personal Tech
David reviews TVs and leads the Personal Tech team at CNET, covering mobile, software, computing, streaming and home entertainment. We provide helpful, expert reviews, advice and videos on what gadget or service to buy and how to get the most out of it.
Expertise A 20-year CNET veteran, David has been reviewing TVs since the days of CRT, rear-projection and plasma. Prior to CNET he worked at Sound & Vision magazine and eTown.com. He is known to two people on Twitter as the Cormac McCarthy of consumer electronics. Credentials
  • Although still awaiting his Oscar for Best Picture Reviewer, David does hold certifications from the Imaging Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology on display calibration and evaluation.
David Katzmaier
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Samsung

"The hypnosis session you're about to experience has been designed to enable you to forget one of your favorite TV series, so you can experience it as if for the first time, even though you've already seen it."

That's what you'll hear when you visit Unspoil Me, a site Samsung set up to promote its new QLED TVs

The soothing voice belongs to Fredrik Praesto, billed as a "certified hypnotist." It's accompanied by a spinning whirlpool shape in a sea of black, the only visual as Praesto describes the session ("it will take about 20 minutes"), settles you in ("I want you to think about a TV series you want to forget") and encourages you to "close your eyes and forget the outside world."

The bizarre marketing ploy was created by Samsung Nordic AB and requires you to agree to relatively lighthearted terms of service, wherein you state, "I will therefore only think about a film clip or TV-series which I'll have the possibility to forget." For 20 minutes. Yeah, right.

Full disclosure: I did not sit through the entire session, in part because I was pretty creeped out by the idea of self-hypnosis, and I want to remember every second of "Game of Thrones." But here's what happened when my colleague Katie Collins tried it out.

Hey, at least it doesn't try to hypnotize you into buying a TV. Or does it....? 

Samsung QLED TVs will blend into your wall

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