Samsung Brazil tried to pass off stock photos as Galaxy A8 samples

Smartphone cameras have improved in leaps and bounds over the past few years, but it seems like Samsung Brazil didn’t feel confident enough in the Galaxy A8‘s front camera setup.

Twitter user @feliperas (h/t: Android Police) noticed that Samsung’s Brazilian division was using two stock photos when posting tweets about the Galaxy A8’s selfie prowess.

After being called out by the Twitter user, Samsung Brazil confirmed it was using stock shots. It also added bizarre reasoning, saying these shots “express the attitude of our target audience,” according to a machine translation.

Using stock photos in such a misleading fashion just seems like a recipe for disaster, especially with the prevalence of reverse image search engines, metadata, and other tools. And it’s not like the Galaxy A8 is a slouch, offering two front-facing cameras (16MP+8MP f/1.9) that enable bokeh effects. Doesn’t it actually seem easier and more cost-effective to just, you know, take a selfie with the phone?

It’s far from the first time smartphone brands have been caught out for misleading camera capabilities. Back in 2016, Huawei misled people by suggesting that a shot taken with a high-end camera was actually produced by the HUAWEI P9.

Going back even further, Nokia touted optical image stabilization on the Lumia 920 in a video ad back in 2012. The video led users to believe that a man on a bicycle was able to capture videos that were largely judder-free. However, eagle-eyed viewers were able to see a camera rig and van in a brief reflection.

Can you think of any other smartphone manufacturer fails like this? Let us know in the comments!

NEXT: Motorola Moto Z3 review — Is the promise of 5G enough?