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 (
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS