Watch director Michael Bay bomb harder than 'The Island' at Samsung's CES event

LAS VEGAS — When you hire blockbuster director Michael Bay, you can expect a few things: gratuitous explosions, obligatory T&A — and sometimes, both in the same scene.

But when Samsung hired him to promote its new curved 4K TVs at its 2014 International CES press conference today, the company probably didn’t expect him to catch a bit of stage fright and run off.

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Bay, the director of classic action films like The Rock and not-so-classic moneymakers like the Transformers series, seemed flustered when he came onstage with Samsung EVP Joe Stinziano. At first, Bay said he was having an issue with the teleprompter. But after attempting to “wing it” in vain, he simply walked off.

The room fell a bit silent after Bay left, with many likely wondering if Bay was putting on some sort of act. But when it became clear he actually left, things got a bit awkward. To his credit, Stinziano rebounded and finished off his segment alone.

Ultimately, this fiasco shows the potential dangers of roping in celebrity representatives, especially when they clearly don’t know anything about your products. But it’s still a win for Samsung: People will remember this far longer now, compared to if things had gone off without a hitch.

Bay published his reaction to the event on his blog:

Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES – I was about to speak for Samsung for this awesome Curved 105-inch UHD TV. I rarely lend my name to any products, but this one is just stellar. I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the Exec VP’s intro line and then the teleprompter got lost. Then the prompter went up and down – then I walked off. I guess live shows aren’t my thing.