Good Guy Samsung gives free custom S3 to lucky Facebook fan in exchange for dragon drawing

Anyone familiar with the “Good Guy Greg” internet meme?  Well, we have a new good guy around, and it’s one you might have never thought capable of doing such good deeds. Especially after being hammered by a jury and judge in its legal patent war against Apple.

That’s right, it’s Good Guy Samsung! Sammy has just given out a free custom one-of-a-kind Galaxy S3 to a Facebook fan that has only had to ask for the super-phone. It all started back May, when everybody’s favorite Android phone was fresh after its grand unveiling.

At the time, the S3 wasn’t even released in Canada, being only expected to hit North America in June. Still, one bold Canadian guy named Shane decided to try his luck on Facebook and… asked Samsung for a free Galaxy S3. Shane told his favorite company that he already owned one of their LCD TVs, a first-generation Galaxy S phone and a Samsung laptop, and that he thought he might have deserved a free S3 for his dedication to the Korean-based tech giant.

Now Shane realized that he couldn’t ask Samsung for absolute charity, so he traded in a Microsoft Paint-style drawing of a quirky dragon blowing fire (with his mouth closed) and going “rawr”. Samsung Canada’s response came really soon after, but, as expected, Shane didn’t get his desired S3. Instead, Sammy told the tech fanatic that his drawing of the dragon was “epic” and sent him another cute drawing of a kangaroo on a unicycle.

Not only was Shane not disappointed about Sammy’s response, but he indirectly helped the company to get some unexpectedly huge media attention by posting the private conversation on Reddit. The Canadian’s post soon became viral, reaching the “hot” section of the popular social news website in only a matter of hours.

Needless to say that the post’s internet success came to Samsung’s attention, which then decided to repay the favor and send the company’s faithful fan a little surprise. Not only did Shane then become the owner of a spanking new Galaxy S3, but he can now prance around with a truly unique gadget, customized with his own “art”, both on the phone’s casing and on a custom launcher background.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. This whole shenanigan has PR stunt written all over it. It’s pretty hard to think that one ordinary guy simply thought to himself “Hey, why not ask Samsung for a free S3 and get all cute about it and send a quirky drawing?”. It’s even harder to think that Samsung Canada’s response was spontaneous and was simply the work of a regular “Facebook community manager”. But even if this was the work of a very complex and well-thought marketing team, who the heck cares?

Is the story silly yet awesome? By God it is! Is it the perfect example of how one can conduct a great marketing campaign that can make a company’s products known to a whole lot of young and tech-savvy people? Of course it is!

What I would like to see is what would happen if someone told Apple he or she had an older iPhone, an iPad and iMac and wanted a free new iPhone… Would they even respond? What do you guys think?