The days of seeing ads only on your phone or TV may be over — they’re now coming to your refrigerator. Samsung confirmed it will begin displaying advertisements and promotional content on the screens of its Family Hub smart fridges in the United States.
“Samsung is committed to innovation and enhancing every day value for our home appliance customers,” a company spokesperson told Fortune. “As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen that value, we are conducting a pilot program to offer promotions and curated advertisements on certain Samsung Family Hub refrigerator models in the U.S. market.”
The Family Hub refrigerator, which starts at $1,799, features a built-in touchscreen display designed for entertainment, meal planning, and smart home management. Under the new pilot program, advertisements will appear on certain models’ display panels when the refrigerator is idle.
According to Samsung, users will be able to dismiss individual ads, preventing them from reappearing for the remainder of a campaign. The company added that no ads will be shown when the display is set to Art Mode or photo albums.
The move reflects a broader trend of advertising encroaching into daily life. While Americans were exposed to roughly 500 ads per day in the 1970s, by 2023 that number had skyrocketed to over 5,000. More than 90% of those ads come from automated, AI-driven marketing systems designed to target specific users — systems that have raised growing privacy concerns, especially with smart home devices capable of gathering data from inside households.
Samsung emphasized that in this initial test phase, the Family Hub refrigerators will not collect any data related to user engagement with the ads. The company said the main goal of the pilot was to “gather consumer feedback” on new software features, rather than monetize user activity.
Still, the strategy marks another step in Samsung’s long history of experimenting with aggressive marketing placements. In 2015, the company faced backlash after reports emerged that its smart TVs were inserting advertisements into locally stored videos, including content streamed from third-party services such as Plex and Foxtel. Some users also complained of pop-up banners for “Yahoo Business Interactivity” while watching streaming platforms. Samsung said at the time that those ads were intended to be optional but did not respond to Fortune’s latest inquiries about its current ad practices.
Over the past year, Samsung has accelerated its “screens everywhere” initiative — expanding digital displays and AI-powered interfaces across its home appliance lineup, including washing machines and dryers.
Jeong Seung Moon, executive vice president and head of research and development for Samsung’s Digital Appliances Business, told The Verge earlier this year that the purpose behind integrating more displays was to streamline household efficiency.
“First, carrying out household tasks often involves the use of multiple appliances located in different areas of the home,” Moon said. “Managing these different tasks across multiple devices can waste time, but the screen resolves these issues by acting as a central control hub that seamlessly connects the home’s appliances. For users, this means they get to control their home environment from wherever they are, saving time and effort.”
At that time, Moon stated that Samsung’s smart displays did not include advertising and that there were “no plans regarding the inclusion of advertisements on AI Home screens.”
“Any future policies will be guided first and foremost by what best serves our customers’ needs,” he added.
{Matzav.com}
