8TV Ramadhan Ad.

Honestly speaking, this advertisement spoke in volumes to all of us. In our kahuna family, we're made up of all sorts of different races and religions. And though I, Nicole, am the only lonely atheist, we still see eye to eye on almost everything. 

We have a liberal, American educated-ish Malay Sara, a slightly UK educated-ish Bruneian (did I get that right?) Lynz, a full bred, patriotic as hell Maldivian Maisha, and a slightly awkward, red haired, don't fit in with the Malaysian society, Chinese Nicole.

What we all came to agree was that this advertisement suggested racism in a country that seemingly promotes equality to all races. 

8TV produced three different advertisements during the Ramadhan, but they all targeted the misdemenours of only a single Chinese girl. Well, yes, they tried to cover it up by showing at the end of each advert the right way of acting during the Ramadhan period, but the advertisement struck a huge uproar between races. 

We chose this as the ad we wanted to revamp because of it's relations to us as a group filled with diversity. 

Here are the reasons why!

1. Completely unclassy casting

The producers 'Malaysianized' the script and accent of the Chinese girl so she came off sounding loud, annoying and uneducated. They also gave her the typical Chinese girl hair, and rimmed glasses to add to her naive and dumb look. 

They could have casted a girl that had a more diverse look, so that no one could pinpoint her race. And also by covering up her accent, people could have assumed that this girl is international. 

2. The lack of races in the cast

As we all know, Malaysia is made up of tons of races, but mainly being the Malays, Chinese, and Indians. By having 3 separate commercials, and casting only a typical Chinese girl in all of them, it would obviously cause a huge amount of unsatisfaction amongst the people in our country. 

They could have casted a naive Malay child in their first ad, a Chinese girl in their second ad, and an Indian man in their third ad. By diversifying the races in their advertisements, it would have dispersed whatever negative racist thoughts we would have upon watching them.

3. Our own diversity

As I have mentioned before, we are all of different backgrounds and cultures. What better way to utilize this advantage we have over other groups than taking on a Malaysian advertisement! We would definitely be able to bring something exciting to the table ;) 

-Nicole