Click to Skip Ad
Closing in...

Samsung’s new flower vase bursts into a blob of flame-retardant goo when you throw it into a fire

Published Mar 30th, 2019 3:32PM EDT
Samsung fire vase

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

Even though it’s mandatory that you keep a fire extinguisher at home if you live in South Korea, around 40% of homes reportedly don’t own one — even though thousands of fires occur in the country every year. Which is why Samsung decided to come to the rescue with a new product. Or, rather, a company did that you probably didn’t know that Samsung owned.

Meet the Firevase. Produced by Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, a subsidiary of Samsung, it holds beautiful flowers. And, if needed, you can also throw this bad boy at a fire to extinguish it, as demonstrated in the video above.

The insurance company gave away 100,000 of the vases as part of a marketing campaign promoting the use of fire extinguishers. The way the vase works — its structure includes a chemical that extinguishes fires. If you have one of these and a fire breaks out in your home, you’re meant to throw it directly into the fire. The vase will then explode and release expanding potassium carbonate, which will keep the fire from much-needed oxygen and kill the flames. You can see it in action in the video at the top of this page.

According to one report, in giving these out the Samsung-owned insurer prioritized homes in areas the government deems as especially fire-prone, like traditional villages.

Samsung actually won advertising industry plaudits around the promotional campaign for the vase, a campaign which was created by ad agency Cheil Worldwide. The video prepared by the agency ran in movie theaters as well as online, and the campaign won the top prize for design as part of the 2018 Korea Advertising Awards. According to Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, this campaign also helped increase awareness for keeping a fire extinguisher at home, raising that awareness to 81%.

Andy Meek Trending News Editor

Andy Meek is a reporter based in Memphis who has covered media, entertainment, and culture for over 20 years. His work has appeared in outlets including The Guardian, Forbes, and The Financial Times, and he’s written for BGR since 2015. Andy's coverage includes technology and entertainment, and he has a particular interest in all things streaming.

Over the years, he’s interviewed legendary figures in entertainment and tech that range from Stan Lee to John McAfee, Peter Thiel, and Reed Hastings.