Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-related advertising is on the rise as companies look to capitalize on consumer concern over the disease, industry sources said yesterday.
"With SARS rampant around the nation, more and more products are linked directly or indirectly to fighting SARS," an account executive of Dentsu (Tai-wan) Inc (
The total volume of ads, however, did not significantly increase because of SARS related advertisements, said the executive, who asked to remain anonymous.
"They were afraid of appearing to be profiteering from SARS, but I believe SARS has created considerable profits for some of these companies," she said.
Newspapers and TV ads are plugging products to combat the disease, including vitamins, air purifiers, health food and hand-washing products.
Lu Chia-yu (
The advertising department of the Chinese-language Liberty Times, however, said SARS-related product ads have recently increased by 20 percent. The Taipei Times is part of the Liberty Times Group.
ING Antai Life Insurance Co (安泰人壽) has run ads recently that encourage a traditional Chinese greeting of clasping one hand over the other to avoid shaking other people's hands. The company says it ran the ad to promote awareness of public hygiene and that it cost 15 to 20 percent of its annual advertising budget.
"Our business didn't grow due to the fear of SARS," said Ingrid Chen (
"Some of our customers have extended their insurance coverage for potential SARS contamination, but the travel insurance business is dropping due to fewer and fewer people going abroad," she said.
Meanwhile, Consumers' Foundation (
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire
RSS