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2014 ELECTIONS: Netizens allege Lien ad plagiarizes ‘power of five’ ad
By Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff reporter
Jerry Fan, an advertising consultant hired by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien’s campaign office, answers accusations of plagiarism at a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Lu Heng-chien, Taipei Times
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lean’s (連勝文) campaign office came in for criticism again yesterday over a campaign advertisement.
There has been a groundswell among netizens accusing the office of plagiarizing a TV commercial produced by the California State Lottery promoting “the power of five” in a campaign ad aimed at showing that Lien is determined to address food safety issues if he is elected.
Jerry Fan (范可欽), an advertising consultant hired by Lien’s office to produce five commercials covering Lien’s policies on various issues, told a press conference yesterday that he used “the power of five” as a “reference” in producing the campaign ad, but he rejected the accusation of plagiarism.
“Saying that what we have done amounts to plagiarism is outrageous,” Fan said.
Fan’s Chinese name is Fan Ko-chin, and some netizens made a play on words by calling him ko chin fan (可侵犯), which means “can be infringed or violated,” to imply that he believes copyrights can be infringed.
Fan said that the public will see that the ideas he has included in the five advertisements are entirely different from those of “the power of five” after they see the remaining three commercials, which are to be released soon.
Fan was involved in a plagiarism controversy in December last year, after he was hired by the Keelung City Government to promote the installation of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s Rubber Duck in Keelung Harbor and allowed unauthorized Rubber Duck merchandise to be put on sale at the event.
source: Taipei Times
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