Several Michael Jordan fans who were infuriated by the basketball star's brief appearance at a promotional event demanded an apology yesterday from his sponsor Nike Taiwan and refunds on the products they had bought.
At a press conference held by the Consumers' Foundation, the disappointed fans denounced Saturday's event as a fraud, as the company had refused to disclose beforehand that their idol would only show up on stage for less than two minutes.
"If I had known about his super-brief appearance, I would not have spent more than NT$11,000 buying Nike products to win the ticket for my 12-year-old kid," said mother Jessica Tang (
Another Jordan aficionado criticized the company's lack of sincerity in deciding to give the 700 fans a limited-edition poster featuring Jordan as compensation.
"If extra copies of the posters are made, then they are no longer valuable for the original poster holders," complained 24-year-old teacher Kuan Yung-chieh (
Using harsh language, foundation secretary general Cheng Jen-hung (
As the dispute snowballed, Nike Taiwan yesterday decided to give each of the 700 fans a pair of Air Jordan 1 Retro Low shoes that will not be sold in Taiwan. The offer comes a day after it said it would give the fans posters and priority consideration for the next event in Taiwan featuring NBA players.
Jordan's fleeting appearance last Saturday in Taipei not only enraged his fans -- who said he was stingy in spending time with his loyal supporters but had great fun at a pub the whole night -- but also irritated the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office.
The office yesterday announced that prosecutors have officially begun investigating Nike Taiwan. They said they believed that Nike allegedly took advantage of Michael Jordan's fame to promote its products, but that many Jordan fans did not get what they were expecting by buying Nike products -- namely, to meet Michael Jordan in person.
The 700 fans had earned entry to a draw to see Jordan by winning an essay-writing competition or by buying Air Jordan 19 shoes, which cost NT$4,500.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy