Jimmy Wales Makes a Personal Appeal (On Behalf of Swiss Watches)
Posted by Alex_Pasternack on Friday, Dec 10, 2010
If you use Wikipedia, you probably know Jimmy Wales, its founder, because he’s been making an appeal for funds all over the website, calling for users to donate to the Wikimedia Foundation.
But in some newspapers and magazines, he’s also making an appeal on behalf of Maurice Lacroix, a Swiss timepiece brand, for which he is an ambassador. “Free access to the sum of all human knowledge,” reads the ad copy in Beijing’s City Evening News. “Some called it impossible, I call it Wikipedia.”
City Evening News, December 3, 2010
The campaign’s message: “Stay true to your convictions.”
Western celebrities have long inserted themselves into cheesy advertising campaigns aimed at a growing Asian consumer market. But spokes-tourism for a Swiss watchmaker in China seems a bit strange for a man with such a focus on keeping information free, open and ad-free, no matter how desperate for money Wikipedia may be. What does his spokesmanship mean for the site’s claim to neutrality?
That’s to say nothing of the irony of his message in China, which still of course calls “free access to the sum of all human knowledge” impossible.
UPDATE: Here’s an English-language version, of unknown provenance:
See the associated video, and look out for the uncanny British-accented Jimbo doppelganger:
via Danwei
Related:
Now You Have to Donate to Wikipedia: The Dance Song
‘Pending Changes’: A Looser Wikipedia
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Email: alexp at motherboard dot tv. @pasternack,
