MALAYSIA'S TOURISM ADVERTISEMENT

Map of Malaysia

            Located in Southeast Asia, Malaysia has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world not to forget the collection of unrivaled rainforests and national parks. Malaysia exists on two sides of South China Sea, split into Peninsular Malaysia which covers the southernmost point of Eurasia and Malaysian Borneo (East Malaysia), which is on the island of Borneo. Malaysia borders four countries that are Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia.

            Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multicultural country because half of the population is made up of Malays, while the other half consists of Chinese, Indian, Aboriginal background, as well as other indigenous people. Malaysia faces strong competition to attract foreign tourists from other countries of Southeast Asia; the tourism heavyweight Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore pushing up, and the underrated newcomers, the Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar. However, “Tourism Malaysia” – the government unit in charge of tourism in Malaysia, brilliantly keeps up to maintain the country’s attractiveness.

Malaysia’s tagline image

            "Malaysia, Truly Asia" has been chosen as the tagline as it defines the important qualities of the country's unique diversity. It sums up the distinctiveness and attraction of Malaysia that make it an excellent tourist destination. There is only one place where all the colors, flavors, sounds and sights of Asia come together – Malaysia. No other country has Asia's three major races, Malay, Chinese, Indian, plus different other ethnic groups in large numbers. Nowhere is there such exciting diversity of cultures, special celebrations with fun events, traditions and customs, offering many experiences.

            Malaysia has been using the tagline for more than 10 years; as ‘Malaysia Truly Asia’ made as an effort to boost tourism and improve the country’s economy. The campaign presents different things to see and do in Malaysia each year, and always uses the “Malaysia Truly Asia” tagline. “Malaysia Truly Asia” tagline has been set in in the public’s concern and proven to be effective as part of Tourism Malaysia’s marketing campaign. Tourist’s arrival in Malaysia has also been increasing from 2011 to 2014. However in 2015, Malaysia has dropped around two million tourists compared with 2014. Tourism and culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz has said in a written parliamentary that a total of 25.7 million tourists came to Malaysia in 2015 as in 2014, a total 27.4 million tourist came to Malaysia. It may not be a drastic drop but it sure affects the economy of the nation itself.

CULTURAL ISSUE BETWEEN MALAYSIA AND USA ADVERTISING 

Advertising plays a great cultural role in our society. It is much more than giving us information about products and services, it tells us what products signify and mean. It does this by marrying aspects of the product to aspects of the culture. The products we consume express who we are, they are cultural signifiers: the type of watch we wear, the brand of athletic shoes, or the kind of car we drive tell others a lot about us. So, advertising not only tells us about products we consume but it also tells us what those products signify in our culture (Stern, 1992). 

ABOUT THE AD

 The advertisement shows Willem Dafoe plays a hungry version of Monroe in a recreation of the skirt scene in the 1955 film “The Seven Year Itch”. Comedian Eugene Levy plays the stage hand in charge of making Marilyn Monroe‟s dress flap in the wind above a subway grate. The look of loathing on Willem Dafoe's face is priceless. Audience meant to laugh at Willem‟s muscular, manly body and his gruff voice in juxtaposition with the beautiful actress we know he‟s impersonating. A production associate hands Willem a chocolate bar and says “Eat a Snickers; you get a little cranky when you're hungry.” Willem takes a bite and is magically transformed back into the radiant Marilyn. She slips back into her famous pose with the greatest of ease. The commercial ends with a cameo by Eugene Levy, famous for his work in the Christopher Guest documentaries and the American Pie movies. Levy‟s character says of the quintessential Marilyn shot, “This scene will never make the cut. Morons.” 

THE SELECTED MATERIALS 

The commercial has been made by BBDO Advertising agency. BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The spot goes back to 1955 (even leveraging the 1950‟s SNICKERS packaging) and features a hungry Marilyn Monroe on the set of the classic film „The Seven Year Itch.‟ In the all-new: 30 commercial, the hungry blonde bombshell transforms into a cranky version of herself, played by actor Willem Dafoe. 

CULTURAL ISSUE ELEMENTS 

IMAGE 

Despite the obvious openness to influences from around the globe, society in Malaysia remains fairly conservative and conformist. Behavior that departs from established cultural and behavioral norms – basically, anything that draws attention to the individuals concerned – is avoided. With a multicultural population, Malaysia has been known to be one of the world's more moderate Muslim nations. As in the advertisement, the main actor was wearing a mini dress which shows a lot of skin and it may not suitable to be play in Malaysia. 

COLOR 

Color communicates a message without having to use words. Understanding the diverse cultural perspectives on color symbolism is important to know what is or is not acceptable in a specific culture when a company's vision is to expand beyond the borders of its own country. This advertisement does not use any color that might touch any sensitive issue among the audience. SYMBOLS 

This advertisement puts the spotlight on Willem Dafoe in his attempt to play what looks to be a cranky Marilyn Monroe in the shooting of the famous skirt-blowing scene from the 1955 movie classic “The Seven Year Itch.” (And boy was he cranky) Plus, there's a cameo at the end from Eugene Levy. 

COMMUNICATION STYLE 

While the “you're not you when you're hungry” theme has been done and done again, Snickers manages to switch it up enough each year to keep it fresh, funny and surprising. 

LANGUAGE 

The main actor has been using a word that is not suitable to be used publicly that is moron. It may be applicable in the US but not in Malaysia. Advertisements are experienced as part of cultural communication and hence can reveal cultural values and norms of the target audience. When carefully analyzed, they can uncover any prevalent or recurring pattern as well as discover its possible meanings and messages. Cross– 50 Vesna Lazović Content Analysis of Advertisements in Different Cultures cultural analysis of advertisements therefore can highlight cultural similarities and differences in advertising as well as reveal how different elements of an advertising campaign are impacted by culture 

REFERENCES 

1. "Snickers." Snickers. Mars, Incorporated, 2014. Web. 28 November 2014. http://www.snickers.com/ 

 2. Effie Awards. 2011 Gold Effie Winner “You‟re Not Your When You‟re Hungry” N.p.: Effie Awards, 2011. Effie.org, 2011. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. 

 3. "Snickers: Marilyn | BBDO Worldwide". BBDO Worldwide. N.p., 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016. 

4. "Snickers Commercial 2016 | Super Bowl Commercials 2016". Super Bowl Commercials 2016. N.p., 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

WEIRD OLD AD FOR CELLOPHANE IN THEIR MICROPLASTIC 

In the old days, playing in plastic bags apparently wasn't dangerous. Check the thread for even more weird, old ads. I searched online and it appears that DuPont was obsessed with telling parents to put their kids in plastic bags...

... and another

... and another

This sort of reminds me of the first episode of the "smash hit" TV series Eerie, Indiana where the family slept in #Tupperware. There were some other Cellophane ads that were less scary...

although the facial expressions on these kids makes them appear hesitant to eat anything stored in cellophane...

Seeing ads like these should make you take a harder look at all the marketing we are exposed to today and realize how ridiculous most of it is.

Credit: (@C_HaWQ on twitter)

TINKERLAB WINS SITI KHADIJAH PITCHING

On 11st July 2018, 3 teams of students from Universiti Teknologi Mara in Shah Alam developed and presented pitches for an ad campaign for Siti Khadijah. Our assignment: develop an ad campaign that would make Siti Khadijah reach wider audience not specifically for muslim woman. Siti Khadijah is currently the leading brand in women prayer outfits in Malaysia with its unique and innovative face design for the prayer outfits also known as telekung. 1 of the team known as TinkerLab agency have won the pitch, strategy and creative duties for SK. It has been entrusted with the content-driven campaign strategy and creative mandate of Siti Khadijah.

TinkerLab agency consist of 8 members working together with Sir Khairudin bin Murad; the lecturer for advertising campaign helped us develop our pitches and served as judges, and executives from Siti Khadijah were also on hand to judge the presentations.

We are super excited and thankful to Siti Khadijah for this opportunity. Siti Khadijah is the fresh and exciting entity to work with. They are enthusiastic about widening their reach in the market and we are trying to give our best in helping them achieve that. I am very glad that the leadership with Siti Khadijah has believed in our ideation and supported our vision for the brand. We are very glad to be a part of this journey with Siti Khadijah.

I am going to expose some extremely sexist advertisements from the 60's and credit goes to Tumblr. This should shed some light on why feminism is a thing in today's world. Take a look at the photos provided down below and let me know what you think of these ads.

This was only 50 years ago."Its a mans world" The fact she looks like a servant to him. That's how women were treated back then.

Meninism do exist back in time.

This one disturbs me the most. Read the whole paragraph.

um yes women can (?)

When beer is all he can think of instead of other things.

In another old ad, this one for Chase & Sanborn Coffee, a husband is shown spanking his wife.

Ads are mainly meant for promotional reason, not for trying to tear someone else down. Many advertisements could apply to a majority of a larger demographic if they opened up their eyes. There are a multitude of products that are advertised unreasonably as gender specific. With a greater amount of awareness and acceptance, sexist advertisements could lessen or even be eliminated from our society. Advertising can be controversial in many ways through advertising, whether it’s sexism or something else, the issue is always going to arise. Although there are many ways to fix the problem, someone who is watching the broadcast is going to have an ongoing issue with it.

How awesome are these ads by Penguin Books in Malaysia . The advertising campaign emphasizing the “unputdownable” nature of classic literature. The hands of readers are transformed into classic novels, “The Railway Children” by Edith Nesbit, John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, and “Hound of the Baskervilles” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I like how the ad shown above bring positivity and encourage others to read more. Although most people think that advertising is only about promoting a product or service, advertising is actually a multi-faceted tool that can help a business accomplish a myriad of objectives. Advertising can take many forms, and can be handled in-house or by an outside marketing and advertising firm. How much advertising will cost you is determined by your budget and by your ultimate advertising objectives.

According to an article entitled "The Positive Effects of Advertising" by Lisa McQuerrey; Advertising is important to a business because it helps you identify and compete with other similar businesses, and it has the additional benefit of raising the image, the reputation and identity of a company among the communities it serves.
Reputation Management
A good advertising campaign can help shape the public perception of your business. For example, if you want to be known for low prices, fair dealings, a family friendly environment, having knowledgeable professionals or an elite experience, advertising can have a positive effect toward shaping your messaging to help meet those objectives. It can also help differentiate you from your competition, enabling you to stand out from the crowd.
Increased Sales
Another positive effect of advertising -- when done correctly -- is an increase in sales. This can then allow for expansion efforts, franchising, new product introductions and a host of other business functions. A company that has a positive public profile also has the potential to attract better employees and investors.
Tip
Some businesses, when cutting back on expenses, consider advertising as an “extra” expense they can do without. Removing yourself from market view, however, can actually cost more in lost business than what the original advertising might have cost.
If you don’t opt to hire an in-house advertising pro, you may discover that you're well served by hiring an advertising or marketing firm to develop a strategy for you. Narrow the field of choices by looking for agencies that specialize in advertising your line of business. Ask for references and sample campaigns, and articulate what you’re trying to achieve with your advertising investment. A good company will be able to outline a specific strategy for you and can work within your budgetary guidelines. A professional group will also help track the results of your advertising initiatives, to help you determine which approach works best for your business.