Our Report

Brief Introduction

‘The power of advertising: cultural and design aspects’ is a group assignment and also the final project for our module ‘Design studies 2: culture & consumerism’. The objective of this assignment is to re-advertise an advertisement that we felt was improper for the target audience of the particular culture and society it is aimed for.

In this report we will briefly describe the advertisement we are most dissatisfied with, its underlying message, the advertisements  relation to culture and the society it was made for, and express as to why we see the need for change. We will then elaborate on how our re-advertised version differs from the original one, as well as discuss its degree of effectiveness in relation to culture and consumerism.

Description of the Advertisement

 From our list of dissatisfying advertisements, the ad we have chosen is a Malaysian TV commercial in the form of a public service announcement by 8TV made especially for the month of Ramadan 2011. The three segment commercial that was shot at a Ramadan food bazaar, depicted a socially-inept Chinese Malay girl eating in public, wearing revealing clothes and being loud and obnoxious during the Muslim fasting month. Each scene was followed by another scene where the same girl behaved appropriately. They all ended with the same underlying messages “please don’t get carried away”,  “Understand and respect the significance of Ramadan  and “Selamat berpuasa” which were narrated by three Malay looking people.  This series of advertisements were removed a few days later after tremendous complains by viewers as not appropriate (Chieh 2011).

Its relation to the culture and society it was made for/ Why it needed re-advertising

With a combined population of 20 million people, Malaysia is a multi-cultural and multi-racial nation consisting of Malays, Chinese, Indians and numerous indigenous people (cureontour.com 2012). With such a diverse ethnic composition, it is not surprising that the society would be tolerant of their many different cultures and religions and maintain open door policies during their religious festivals (geographia.com 2006). So the reason behind the uproar was simple; lack of consideration to minority ethnic groups in the society it was made for. Casting a Chinese Malay person and implying that she does not know how to respect a religious festival in Malaysia in the first place offends the targeted ethnic group and also makes the Malays look discriminatory. This portrayed negative image of the Malaysian society, is exactly why we saw the need for change.

How different and effective is your idea in relation to culture and consumerism

Inspired by the Petronas’ 2007 Merdeka advertising campaign, our re-advertised version of the Ramadan commercial is an interview-style advertisement, where we ask a range of people living in Malaysia  three questions that relates to Malaysian culture. This style is sincere and natural, thereby eliminating the staged negativity of the initial advertisement. Also, the variety of  answers we get appeals to the emotions of patriotism and unity of all Malaysians watching, thereby clearing out any discrimination and focusing on everybody living harmoniously in one country.

Meaning to say, our idea is different and effective as our information comes in both quality and quantity. It is also rich in culture because of the diversity of people we have in our commercial and the mention of the variety of food available in Malaysia all the time. Our target audience not only being Malaysian Muslims is also a differentiating factor from the initial commercial. We target every consumer in Malaysia by interviewing people of different ethnicity, different nationalities, different sexes and different ages.

For our final advertisement  the background music we used was a song by Bob Sinclaire called 'love generation'. We have made use of this upbeat and happy song to create that feel-good vibe we were looking for and was quiet a contrast to the sound effects on the initial ad when the Do's and Dont's text fills up the screen.

Short Rationale

We used a few candid shots at the beginning to set the video running and set the scene. This was also  to show the diversity of Malaysian culture right from the beginning the copy says "Ever wonder how influential our culture is on the world?" This is to indirectly say that we are targeting everybody in Malaysia; Malaysian or international.

Then we propose our first question “What makes Malaysia so unique?”. The reason behind this question is to make people focus on the good things in Malaysia and feel proud to say and hear the factors. We framed all of our interviewees as close ups with a little space left as the looking distance. For the answers, we got a lot of people mentioning Malaysia’s culture, How Malaysia had different races living harmoniously in one country, its’ many holidays etc. Most of these scenes were shot in campus so that we get to film international students living in Malaysia as well.

The next question was  “ What do you know about Ramadan in Malaysia?”. The purpose of this question was to indirectly educate the audience of the Ramadan culture in Malaysia in a much more meaningful and effective way than the initial ad. We asked this question regardless of their religious background so we got a lot of interesting and different answers, all of which was very insightful. At this point, to relate back to the initial advertisement, we incorporated the ‘things we should be considerate of during Ramadan’ points from it to our ad as well. 

The third question was” What is the highlight of Ramadan in Malaysia’, to which almost everybody mentioned the Ramadan food bazaar, and anything to do with the variety of food available in Malaysia. The mention of Ramadan food bazaar has hints of the initial ad as it was set in a Ramadan bazaar itself. The main focus of this question though, was to connect everyone watching the commercial by appealing to their mutual love for Malaysia's cuisine. 

Last but not least, our last frame consists of people of different races happily wishing selamat berpuasa to the whole of Malaysia. 

Bibliography & Reference list:

Chieh, Y 2011, Media Prima pulls out ‘racist’ Ramadan ads, The Malaysian insider, viewed 3 December 2012, < http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/media-prima-pulls-out-racist-ramadan-ads/>

Kaleideculture 2006, geographia.com, viewed 21 November 2012, < http://www.geographia.com/malaysia/cultures.html >

 

Kukathas, U 2008, Consumerism, Green Haven Press, South America

 

Malaysia’s Culture, Language and Georgaphy 2003, Cure on Toure, viewed 21 November 2012, < http://www.cureontour.com/Malaysia_Culture.html >

 

More About This Experience 2011, experience Malaysia.com, viewed 5 December 2012, < http://www.malaysia.com/ramadan-month-culture.html >

Oswell, D 2006, Culture and Society: An Introduction to Cultural Studies, Sage Publications, London

 

Ramadan-Malaysia 2012, Journey Malaysia, viewed 5 December 2012, < http://www.journeymalaysia.com/MCUL_ramadhan.htm >

 

The Muslim Culture In Malaysia During The Holy Month 2012, 701 pages, viewed 5 December 2012, < http://ramadhan.701pages.com/articles/the-muslim-culture-in-malaysia-during-the-holy-month-110.html>

Wilson, T 2007, Global Media : Malaysian Use, August Publishing Sdn.Bhd, Malaysia