Apparently, the Doppelganger Effect in Taiwan doesn't stop, and this week an entirely new TV commercial with a new American expat playing the role of "Steve Jobs" has begun airing on TV screens across Jobs-infatuated Isla Formosa.
Again, no word on whether Apple execs have seen the advert (most likely not) or if they intend to sue for infringment of copyright and lookalike trademarkedness (most probably there is no lawsuit in the pipeline).
Of course, this new "fake Steve Jobs' doppelganger" comes at a sensitive time in Apple's corporate history, and while the Taiwanese people are more than respectful of the ailing tech wizard's health and are certainly cheering for him to make a speedy recovery, the new TV spot — just 15 seconds long — was made before the resignation letter was released and planned at least two months ago when it was shot in a Taipei studio for a local snack company called Vedan Enterprise Corporation in central Taiwan's bustling ''second city'' of Taichung.
The new spot is also giving away a free iPad to those who buy the junk food snack packs and enter a drawing, Kety Chen at Vedan told this gimlet-eyed doppelganger sleuth by phone.
While not as good a lookalike as Mr. Jobs as Brook Hall was in that earlier TV spot for a popular tea drink (now off the air in Taiwan, but archived for all eternity on YouTube, with over 200,000 hits and counting), this new fake Apple CEO looks the part if one stretches one's imagination across the seas and plants it firmly in Asian terra firma.
And yes, this new snack food advert is making waves in the Chinese-language blogosphere and giving Jobs fans in Taiwan and around the world another viral video to file away in the doppelganger department. Sadly, it comes at a sad time in Jobs life, and one wishes him nothing but the best of health from here on out.
