Tech

Thursday 2 February 2012

Taiwan TV ad has fake Steve Jobs promoting an Android Tablet


One of the biggest tragedies in the tech community, last year, aside from the Thailand floods was the death of Steve Jobs. A true legend in his domain, Jobs has proved to be a source of inspiration to millions of tech fans the world over. His iconic “uniform”, which was a simple Black Turtle-neck sweatshirt, blue denims and sneakers could be construed as some sort of a “Super-hero” uniform to some (minus a cape). Some went as far as creating a Steve Jobs “Action-figure” complete with a matching outfit just to show the world how much he would be missed.

But for the people in Taiwan, Steve Jobs was clearly much more than a mere icon. It seems his celebrity status was retained even after his passing on to the nether realm. In a recent Taiwanese commercial that aired, a local comedian and celeb impersonator was hired to play Jobs. Donned in Jobs’ famous outfit and sporting almost no hair, comedian Ah-Ken walked on stage speaking confidently about a locally branded tablet. Naturally, no one expected this to be an iPad, but it could have been an iPad clone till all was revealed and lo and behold out came – Action Pad, an Android-based tablet device.

If that didn’t beat all, Apple’s now deceased front-man pitching an Android device, what could have been a little over the top was the fact that the Fake Jobs was also sporting Angelic wings and a halo. The company in question - Action Electronics Co., certainly took advertising to the next level with this little stunt.

Take a look at the video below –


According to a report, Chelsea Chen, a spokeswoman for Action Electronics is said to have made a statement saying - "Steve Jobs always promoted things that were good for people, Apple products, so his image can also promote other things that are good. It's just an impersonator, not Jobs," she said. "We have no choice, but to use Android, we can't use iOS," she further added. There is no mention of Apple, Jobs or the iPad or any other “I” device in the commercial, but the stage set up, back drop and outfit are all reminiscent of any Apple event. Another thing one might notice is the very iOS-like icons displayed on the screen behind the character in the video.

While it might leave a bad taste in an Apple fans mouth, more since, Ol' Steve was quoted to have said in his Biography that he was going to, simply put, Destroy Android, we’re sure he's watching from somewhere laughing his head off. What we’re sure would have gotten to him the most has got to be at the very end with the subtitles translating to – Thank God I can finally play another pad.

So far it seems like Apple is taking it in their stride, but after all is said and done, to have his likeness used like this in an ad for an Android powered tablet just takes the cake. Needless to say YouTube users have made their feelings known quite clearly.

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