A Chinese tech company is looking to create buzz around its new phone by ... comparing Apple to the Nazis
And it's taking an unusual approach to achieve that: By comparing Apple to the Nazis.
First spotted by The Verge's James Vincent, Leshi TV's billionaire founder and CEO Jia Yueting posted a provocative image to his verified Weibo page (which has more than 5.5 million followers): A cartoon of Adolf Hitler, raising his right hand in salute, and wearing a red armband on his left arm, where the Apple logo replaces the Nazi swastika.
Standing next to Hitler is a group of happy-looking young people, standing in front of a door, which is also in the shape of a smartphone. Arrows at the bottom point towards either the cheerful bunch, or the stern-looking Hitler who is also standing in front of yellow signs emblazoned with a "CAUTION DO NOT CROSS" warning.
The poster also carries text across the top, which according to The Verge, translates to "Crowdsourced, freedom Vs. arrogance, tyranny."
The image is accompanied by more text, which (loosely translated using Google translate) accuses iOS of being the "closed-loop" platform "developers love to hate" because it "greatly curb[s] technological innovation, hinder[s] industrial progress, and hurt[s] the interest of users."
Yueting writes that everyone worships Apple, but that he sees it as a "dusk empire" - dying, in other words.
As The Verge points out, the marketing does bear some resemblance to Google's latest advertising push for Android, "Be together. Not the same," which also uses colorful cartoon images and intends to highlight that other technology companies (but basically just Apple) are restrictive in choice and don't allow consumers to express their individuality.