Every once in a while, the internet rediscovers an oddity so perfectly absurd that it becomes an instant meme. Back in 2012, one such story was about an Apple employee named Sam Sung, yes, you read that right. Working at Apple while carrying the name of its biggest rival brand, Samsung, was irony in its purest form. And the internet couldn’t resist.
The man behind the meme
Today, 36-year-old Sam Struan lives a quiet life in Glasgow, Scotland, working as a consultant and resume writer. But over a decade ago, he was known across Reddit, Twitter, and news outlets worldwide as the Apple employee named Sam Sung.
Born Sam Sung, Struan recalls his early years being filled with light-hearted jokes about his name, but nothing prepared him for what came next. In his early 20s, while working at an Apple Store in Vancouver, Canada, someone posted a photo of his Apple business card on Reddit. Within hours, it went viral.
“I had no idea what Reddit even was,” Struan told Business Insider. “At first, I thought it was some sort of scam text.” But when calls started flooding in, from customers, journalists, and even Apple itself, he realised the situation had spiralled far beyond his control.
When fame isn’t fun
Apple, worried about the sudden attention, pulled him from the shop floor and revoked his business cards. Struan remembers those few months as stressful and surreal. “I was so scared, and I just wanted to keep my head down and stay employed,” he said.
By 2013, Struan left Apple to pursue a career in recruitment. The following year, he auctioned off one of his now-iconic business cards, raising over $2,500 for charity. While the gesture earned goodwill, the unwanted fame lingered.
A name change and a lesson learned
Tired of being known as an “internet joke,” Sam made a life-changing decision, he changed his surname to Struan, after one of his favourite villages on the Isle of Skye. He admits that having a more neutral, anglicised name even opened better career opportunities.
Looking back, he wishes he had taken it all less seriously. “I wish I could tell my younger self to see it as something funny,” he said. “Not to stress about job security, just to enjoy it for what it was.”
What began as an amusing coincidence between tech rivals became a lesson in how unpredictable and overwhelming viral fame can be, especially when the internet decides you’re its next punchline.
