CEO MEDIA PRIMA PULLS IT OFF !

Media Prima pulls out ‘racist’ Ramadhan ads. This issue has been published on August 2, 2011 whereby 8TV has released three commercials of a Chinese girl, acting and behaving unethically which has disturbed the Muslim as those actions were not supposed to do during Ramadhan. Surprisingly, that was not the issue in this article. The issue that has made it controversial is the statement given in those commercials, stating that ‘please understand and respect the significance of Ramadhan’. Indirectly, those commercials have disturbed the non-Muslim as they feel that the ads are racist to them (Chieh, 2011).

(Source: Google.com)

I personally think that there were misinterpretations in those ads. The main purpose of this Public Service Announcement (PSA) was to inform as a message of a respect since it was a month of Ramadhan. It was such a controversial issue as they think that Malays are now more favored and they feel discriminated by the country’s law. For me, the message was not to offend anyone but somehow it has affected some of them and has become one of the controversial issue.

According to Advertising Standards Authority (1996), it stated that the advertisements must be well presented to avoid misinterpretations regardless what and which types of the medium are used. Well-presented advertisements will make the public to be more interested and there will be no disagreement as most of them are understand and happy with the advertisements. In contrast, if the advertisements are not well presented, it can actually interrupt public’s view in terms of the content; the manner in which it is advertised, what is the message, what is advertised and so forth.

In the end, an advertisement is symbolized as an outcome that does not respect the true dignity, in particularly, the dignity of a family, religion and life (Pontifical Council For Social Communications, 1997). The publics are said to always mislead the advertisement between the truth and deception because they proceed from literal fact and truth (O’Barr, 2007).

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REFERENCES

Advertising Standards Authority 1996, Advertising code of Ethics, viewed on 11 November 2011, <http://www.asa.co.nz/code_ethics.php>

Chieh, YH 2011, Media Prima Pulls Out ‘Racist’ Ads, viewed on 11 November 2011, <http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/media-prima-pulls-out-racist-ramadan-ads/>

O’Barr, WM 2007, Ethics and Advertising, viewed on 11 November 2011, <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/asr/v008/8.3unit13.html>

Pontifical Council For Social Communications 1997, Ethics in Advertising, viewed on 11 November 2011, <http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_22021997_ethics-in-ad_en.html>