Fake Steve Jobs Ad Violates Apple’s Promo Policy [Video]

UPDATE: Youtube has marked the ad “private,” though a few other copies were available when we checked. It no longer appears on the official Pecos channel, either. We’ll let you know if we find out whether they have pulled it for copyright violations or something else.

This ad is a twofer of bad taste: Taiwanese tea makers use a Steve Jobs lookalike as they violate Apple’s policy on third-party promotions.

The 21-second ad stars a fake Steve promoting Pecos tea and the company’s iPad 2 giveaway.

Apple recently started enforcing its guidelines for third-party giveaways — namely forbidding all iPad freebies. The guidelines (.PDF  here) were set out in April 2010, but Apple is only going after companies who have not adopted them correctly now.

In some cases, Apple simply discourages giveaways — you must buy 250 iPods to use them in a contest, for example.

But according to the guidelines, Apple’s hottest products are all strictly verboten when it comes to freebies:
“iPad, iPhone and the iPhone Gift Card may not be used in third-party promotions.”

Blogger Dan Bloom says the drink the Steve doppleganger hawks in a mock keynote  is called Tong Yi Cha,  a “sugary sweet tea concoction sold in the 10,000 plus convenience stores that make an appearance at every street corner in Taiwan.”

We’ve asked Apple for comment and will let you know if they reply.

Via Dan Bloom

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