During Ramadan,
8TV channel released a series of commercial regarding how to behave well in
Ramadan. According to Yow Hong Chieh (2011) the advertisement makes the public
angry. It was claimed to have racist issue in the advertisement. Chief operating officer of Media Prima posted up a
statement on Twitter saying that he will pull out the advertisement. The former 8TV
chief executive asking
public to stay calm, the purpose of the advertisement
was just to inform non-Muslin how to behave on Muslim’s fasting festival.
8TV controversy ads
(Source: Youtube.com)
Recently, a news
by Jones (2011) stated that an advertisement for Marc Jacobs perfume starring
Dakota Fanning, a 17 years old actor was banned because it “sexualized children’’.
Britain's
Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) also
claimed that the 17 years old actor posing was sexually offensive.
 |
| 17 years old Dakota Fanning holding the perfume bottle in between her leg, was sexual provocative (Source: Google.com) |
Based on
the two examples above, we should take precaution on designing an advertisement
like this. As we all know, tobacco and alcohol advertisement are strictly
banned in Malaysia. Same goes to advertisement that content of sexual elements.
Besides that, advertisement that touches racial issue also has to be careful
because Malaysian race relations issue is still on a dangerous level.
According to
Lebedev(2001) Definition of Cultural Context can be by
our educational and cultural background. It means that the opinions, thoughts, and
feelings from us that result from experiences. As a designer must know his
cultural context at very well, especially multiracial country like
Malaysia, he must has an objective vision when designing the advertisement,
which means knowing what should and what shouldn’t. If he or she manages
to know the country cultural context, situation that I just mentioned above
might not exist.
For my
conclusion, based on Schriver (1997) each reader has their unique experience to
interpret documents, which means that experience comes into an important role each
time he or she interprets visual or verbal language. Hence, different culture
has different meaning on evaluating that Ramadan public service announcement.
Yow Hong Chieh 2011, Media Prima pulls
out ‘racist’ Ramadan ads, viewed on 15
November 2011<http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/print/malaysia/media-prima-pulls-out-racist-ramadan-ads/>
Lebedev, A 2001, § 73. Cultural contexts, viewed on 15 November 2011, <http://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/73/>
Schriver, K.A., 1997. Dynamics in document
design: creating text for readers, John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA.
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