Yesterday I saw this Air Asia X ad in The Star (full page advertisement). Tadaaa!!!
Moi, being a very conservative person, feel somewhat offended by this particular ad. Do you? I ask myself yesterday, when did Malaysia becomes so open about two people kissing openly? What kind of messages are we sending to the kids by showing this ad in a local daily? Gosh, I have goosebumps each time I think about where Malaysia is heading, particularly when I have 4 kids under my care.
7 years ago when I was working with Parkson Corp. the rules and regulation pertaining to the media was still very strict. An ad can’t show one’s armpit or show too much skin, much less show 2 people in a compromising position. But today, I don’t think these rules even apply anymore. Everything can go lah. With new media taking over the mainstream media as the most popular medium of advertisement and getting your daily dose of news, everything is possible. Just look at the ads on the right hand panel of Facebook. You could even see foul language being used in selling sexual enhancement products, etc. that are not suitable for audience under the age of 25. And our 10 year old kids are on FB!
PDA (that's Public Display of Affection, not Personal Digital Assistant ok!) is so common amongst local youngsters these days, particularly budak2 Melayu. We have lots of things to thank for that, amongst them are our local artists with their skimpy dress hugging and kissing each other openly. It's like a public service message to the young generation to say that "It's OK to do that." There are also the idiot box aka the TV to thank for. Even kids channels like Nickelodeon and Disney air stories stories that I don't approve of. A few months ago, I had a shock of my life when I saw a 10 year old kids with "In a relationship with xxx" status in FB. Astaghfirullahala'zim.
It's even sadder to see some Malay Muslims who proclaim themselves as the "Modern Malays", sipping a glass of wine openly and proudly, etc. (you know what I mean right?). When I was still working, I felt so offended when I was labelled as modern Malay - simply because of my dressing style! There wasn't a tiny bit of pride when people said that of me.
Going forward does not necessarily mean that we have to abandon our culture and adopt what most people think is ‘modern’. Progressive does not equate to freedom. And freedom often comes with a hefty price. I hope our kids will not be the ones paying the price, nau’zubillah.
I laud Brunei for standing strong on its policy for not allowing liquor to be sold in its land and gambling activities to be held in the oil-rich country. And I curse the media for making a mockery of their stand on it (you should read what The Star wrote about this issue). They do not bow to the pressure of modernisation like us, bravo! I laud countries like Saudi, Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh who have banned Facebook in their country. If one were to conduct a study on the effect of Facebook to humankind, I betcha it’s more cons than pros. I am willing to bet my life on it.
Just a few days ago our Police force announced the opening of a mock casino to train its personnel to be good at gambling, all in the name of crime fighting. This just doesn't make any sense to me. Must they waste taxpayers' money to build a mock casino? Perhaps next when they want to seriously fight prostitution they need to build a mock brothel with real prostitutes in it. Or build a mock drug-lab to fight drug trafficking. Could someone please enlighten me on this one? I just don't get it! Especially when gambling is prohibited in Islam and we know for a fact that most police personnel are Muslims! Menghalalkan yang haram in the name of fighting crimes? Hello!!!
This is the price of modernization we Malaysians have to pay indeed. I can't help but wonder whether next year, an Armani underwear ad showing a steamy David Beckham would be printed in The Star (sorry ahkak off track sikit, LOL!).
I say yesterday was another sad day for Malaysia. It’s a start of a new wave of change on the advertisement front. A sad sad day indeed...
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