Taiwanese 'Action Pad' TV Ad Mocks Steve Jobs

Too far? Outrage as Taiwanese TV ad mocks Steve Jobs with winged lookalike who promotes Android 'Action Pad' (that Apple boss vowed to 'destroy' months before his death)

He famously pledged to use his 'last dying breath' to destroy rival Google's Android because he believed it was based on stolen iPhone technology.

Now, a Taiwanese electronics company is facing outrage from angry consumers after using Steve Jobs' image to promote what it calls the 'Action Pad', which runs on the operating system.


In the ad, Taiwanese comedian and impersonator Ah-Ken, dressed in Jobs' trademark black turtle neck sweater and blue jeans and sporting white angel's wings and a halo, extols the virtues of Action Electronics Co's combined tablet PC and multi-language dictionary.

'Introducing the new generation of the pad,' says the 'Jobs' character, whipping the Action Pad out of his back jeans pocket.
Ah-Ken's wings flaps as he shows off the dictionary functions on a giant screen behind a darkened stage furnished with a sofa and small table.

A broad grin on his face as he taps away on the device on the sofa, the character says in the 20-second commercial's final scene: 'Thank God I finally get to play other tablets.'

The ad is subtitled in English throughout, a nod to the device's dictionary function.

Jobs, who died in October 2011, famously referred to Android as 's***,' according to his biography.
The rant in the book provides insight into the unravelling of Jobs' relationship with Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and an Apple board member from 2006 to 2009.

He branded the technology 'grand theft Android' and promised to spend all his company's money to wreck them. He vowed 'thermonuclear war' and said that he would not accept any compensation because all he wanted was the company ruined.

He said: 'I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong.

'I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this.'

The commercial does not use Jobs' name or refer to him or Apple in any way.
Chelsea Chen, a spokesman for Action Electronics, a maker of electronic gadgets including portable DVD players and Internet devices, still defended the spoof.

'Steve Jobs always promoted things that were good for people, Apple products, so his image can also promote other things that are good,' she said.

Chen didn't see any adverse reaction from Apple.
'It's just an impersonator, not Jobs,' she said.
'We have no choice but to use Android, we can't use iOS,' she added, referring to Apple's mobile device operating system.
It's not the first time Jobs' image has been used in Taiwan to promote products, a measure of his fame in the wired, tech-exporting island whose companies make most of Apple's products.

Last year a drinks company had a Jobs look-alike promoting a green tea drink.

Jobs has also been featured by Taiwanese satirical news video maker Next Media Animation, which once portrayed him knocking the helmet off 'Darth Vader' Bill Gates of Microsoft with a light saber and then wearing it himself and ruling the tech universe from an office in a Death Star.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Taiwanese
• 'Action
• Pad'
• TV
• ad
• mocks
• Steve
• Jobs

[gweedsnz]

I love how apple thinks everyone has stolen their ideas. Get over it, you weren't the first with a tablet as Samsung pointed out, The shape of a tablet is just that - A tablet, just like a car has four wheels. Apples are over priced, to restrictive and unfortunately for all you iSheep, Android is taking the market over by storm. soon it will be iWhat?

[richb1134]

Great commercial. Fuck Steve jobs he did not do anything new or great, he was just a selfish asshole

[lceus]

Bullshit.

Do you really think steve is in heaven?

[angrymarketing5]

STEVE JOBS WAS MORE OF A CONMAN THAN THESE GUYS

[jackyfan]

Yea, and it is taking a hell of a lot of tablet and smartphones just to take out one or two models in the market. It's amazing!

[culin87]

fuck steve jobs

[RedRedFortune]

PAD.

[gweedsnz]

OOOOH!, wee seam two half an engelish teecha on board. Well dun. clap clap. yes I know I make some grammatical and spelling errors, but English is my second language and I think I manage it pretty well considering there is many people on here who only speak English and their spelling and grammar is WAY worse.

[KDALove]

Oh it is, but unlike these posers, I don't feel proud of it nor do I kneel at Steve Job's feet.

[xkidmidnightx]

Haha, I bet you every electronic device you own was made in china in the exact same (most likely worse) conditions. Retard.

[xkidmidnightx]

CHING CHONG CHING CHONG. Asians can never make anything original.

[ch0biq]

Oh I understand all of that. I've never been a fan or sponsor of any apple product. It's a shame you didn't get the joke.