Media Prima pulls out ‘racist’ Ramadan ads

Media Prima raises the racist issue in Malaysia by airing a controversial series of Ramadan commercials on its 8TV channel which results them to receive heavy public criticism. The Media Prima Berhad CEO Ahmad Izham Omar apologized for any ‘inconvenience or uneasiness’ causes at the internet by asking the public to “chill” and not to “overanalyze” the commercial (Yow, 2011).

In the advertisement, it showed an ethnic Chinese girl acting in a rude manner towards Muslims and followed by a message saying “Do not be loud or obnoxious” (BBC, 2011). Because of that, it tends to shows that the Chinese races in Malaysia are rude and not educated as they did not understand the gestures and the culture of the Muslim. Besides that the advertisement also shows that the Muslims are trying to avoid the Chinese girl when she tends to socialize with them. Hence, it creates offensive meaning for the non-Muslim races in Malaysia especially the Chinese as the Chinese girl is being used in the advertisement (Bedi, 2011).

This phenomena also shows that the importance of understanding the situational context whereby this advertisement might be acceptable in the western country but not in the eastern country. Hence, it requires advertiser to understand the culture at the country before they publish their advertisement. Besides that, it also rise the advertising ethics issue of the 8TV as they are previously fined by the Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commissions (MCMC) for airing an advertisement by Danish beer maker Carlsberg during the Euro 2004 championships. Hence, the public tends to criticize 8TV for their unethically advertising ways to ‘educate’ people about the things that should be followed during the Ramadan (Asiaone, 2011).

In this case, Kress & Vann (2002) mentioned that other cultures may contrast value the more general, abstract and theoretical. Viewers with those values will read the pages in the light of their habitual valuations. In this case, it clearly shows that the 8TV did not understand the culture context in Malaysia by airing the controversial advertisement as the religion and language are sensitive issues in Malaysia after the deadly race riots in 1969 (Asiaone, 2011).

Reference

Asiaone, 2011, “Malaysia TV removes Ramadan ads amid ‘racism’ complaint”, viewed 14^th November 2011, <http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20110803-292554.html>

Bedi RS, 2011, “TV station withdraws ‘racist’ Ramadan ads”, viewed 14^th November 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/8/3/nation/9224933&sec=nation>

BBC, 2011, “Malaysia’s 8TV pulls ‘racist’ Ramadan adverts”, viewed 14^th November 2011, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14385624>

Yow HC, 2011, “Media Prima pulls out ‘racist’ Ramadan ads”, viewed 14^th November 2011, <http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/media-prima-pulls-out-racist-ramadan-ads/>

Kress G & Leeuwen TV, 2002, “Front Pages: The critical Analysis of Newspaper Layout”, Approaches to media discourse, Oxford.