He's not Steve Jobs, but he sure is a good lookalike for the Apple chief exec. While we still don't know the name of this Taipei expat who plays the role of "Steve Jobs" in this tea drink commerical airing on Taiwan's TV, he's almost a dead ringer for the tech icon.
The tea company - www.teastyle.com.tw - is owned by a huge convenience store conglomerate in Taiwan, and this advert is part of an iPad giveaway the firm is sponsoring.
It's eminently watchable, just 21 seconds long, and it's gaining traction among Jobs watchers and bloggers worldwide, from Taipei to Tiananmen (pronounced "tea-an-amen").
The tea drink he's hawking is called "Tong Yi Cha" and as usual it's a sugary sweet tea concoction sold in the 10,000 plus convenience stores that mark every street corner in Taiwan.
What's inside? Mostly water and sugar, so forget about it being anything really like tea. It's not tea. It's sugared water with a tea flavor.
But the sweet-smelling TV ad is making waves in the blogosphere and giving Steve Jobs fans another viral video to file away in the doppelganger department. Enjoy.
The commercial begins with the faux Steve Jobs strolling across a black stage, clad in the iconic black turtleneck shirt and blue jeans, with a giant iPad 2 displayed in the background. And this is no cheap parody, the set-up looks "exactly" like a real Jobs keynote, and the actor is a pro, expertly mimicking Jobs' trademark earnest yet thoughtful stage walk and speaking style. The actor then goes on to tell the audience how they can win an iPad 2 by participating in the tea company's promotion, which runs until September.
The mystery here is why it took a Taiwanese company to do such a spot-on parody of the Cupertino guru. The other big question is: Will Apple try to stop this ad?
Apple is notoriously protective of the image of Jobs, and likely more so given that this promotion features the iPad 2. In any case, if you're one of the legions of Apple faithful who follow Jobs' every move, then this video (see above here at TechEye in UK which broke the story first and commissioned the piece) will be quite a treat, enjoy!''
Alleged Steve Jobs lookalike hawks Taiwanese tea, notes
.....Chris Matyszczyk ........"The real thing was obviously too expensive. Or, perhaps, just too difficult to work with.
So a Taiwanese drinks company decided to scour the world in search of an actor who looked just like Steve Jobs to advertise its Tong Yi Cha tea.
You must judge how well the company--a convenience store conglomerate--did. Does this man look like Steve Jobs? Or does he look like Steve who does the odd jobs at your mom's house?
You might, though, be temporarily moved by some of the method-acting that went into mimicking Jobs' physical mannerisms--the hands behind the back, the voice that packs conviction.
You might be wondering why this company thought that the Apple CEO might be a fine spokesperson for its tea. Well, this particular ad is a promotion in which you can win an iPad 2. Yes, every week.
So the creative team thought short and hard about how to dramatize that message, falling, in the end, for a re-creation of one of Jobs' famed San Francisco presentations.
Personally, I am disappointed that this spot merely lasts 20 ...21.....seconds. There was surely scope for a more fulsome performance from this actor.
There is the small possibility that Apple might also be disappointed, but for different reasons. Does anyone imagine that the company's lawyers might be less than fully amused by this, um, attempt at humor?
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Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20077551-71/alleged-steve-jobs-lookalike-hawks-taiwanese-tea/#ixzz1RTwf0HeL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGK6zPG7xn4這
... translation: THIS VIDEO IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR HUMANEYES TO LOOK AT DUE TO MILLION DOLLAR LITIGATION COMING SOON. NOSTEVE JOBS LOOKALIKES ALLOWED. DOPPELGANGERS VERBOTEN!BUT this link still UP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sk4GfU_TXw
and His Future Is Busy and Bright
Taiwan's 'face of Steve Jobs' Brook Hall has a story to tell. And it's
much bigger than one 21-second TV ad. Dan Bloom reports from Taiwan
[hat tips to Torch Pratt and Rookie of CCU] Thanks, mates!
It was all smoke and mirrors, little wires and a great hair and
make-up team in Taiwan, and the
magic of television editing.
And no, he's not Steve Jobs, but a longtime expat in Taiwan named Brook Hall
sure is a good lookalike for the Apple chief exec. Hall who plays the
role of "Steve Jobs" in a popular tea drink commerical airing on
Taiwan TV, he's almost a dead ringer for the tech icon -- and the
similiarity is so strong that the video has gone viral across the
globe with over 185,000 hits on one YouTube channel created by
Zenroll.
Although Hall has never been identified before as the lookalike Steve
Jobs in the recent tea commercial, he now confirms it is indeed him.
However, he has a much
bigger story to tell and this blog will tell it below. Read on.
A tea company set up the advert, and it was part part of an iPad
giveaway the firm was sponsoring. The ad was not sponsored by Apple
and Steve Jobs
has not even seen it, most likely, according to sources.
From Hall's perspective, the Jobs gig was -- in Hall's own words --
-- "a fun three hours to try to imitate him -- there was a great
makeup and hair team, and little wires that pull your eyes and cheeks
that can reshape your face a bit. I just studied the walk and the
speech patterns."
But Hall has moved on, and while he is
aware of the how the video has gone viral all over the world, he is
concentrating on his work as a theater producer and director in
Taiwan, where TV commercial gigs are just a part-time job (although he
done over 60 of them over the past seven years).
True enough, the Taiwan TV ad video, just 21 seconds long, gained
worldwide traction among Jobs watchers and bloggers everywhere, from
Taipei to Tiananmen, from Mountain View to Manhattan.
The TV ad made huge waves in the blogosphere in July
-- picked up by TechEye in London and
BoingBoing (and first posted by Kara Swisher at AllThingsD on July 7))
-- giving Steve Jobs fans another viral video to file away in the
doppelganger department.