Dealing with the 'pig' in the room, how brands market CNY in a sensitive Malaysia


IT MUST be a stressful time to be in advertising right now. You spend months and thousands of ringgit to come up with brand ideas, produce billboards and newspaper ads, make videos that will be skipped after five seconds on YouTube - only to have all of that work undone by one Facebook post from some guy who mistook wagyu beef for pork.

Even when brands are not going out of their way to market non-halal imagery, the case of Malaysia Airlines' Going Places magazine - which came under fire last week when social media users thought that a beef dish in one of its pages was pork - is an example of how hyper-sensitive Malaysians can be when it comes to this subject.

Win a prize this Mother's Day by subscribing to our annual plan now! T&C applies.

Monthly Plan

RM13.90/month

Annual Plan

RM12.33/month

Billed as RM148.00/year

1 month

Free Trial

For new subscribers only


Cancel anytime. No ads. Auto-renewal. Unlimited access to the web and app. Personalised features. Members rewards.
Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!
   

Next In Columnists

The Premiership run-in - a football saga of glory and drama
Why do we let others measure us?
Empowering Futures: Malaysia-China GDI collaboration for human capital growth
‘Twisted’ fate of manhood
The Indian factor
Not worth the gamble
Safeguarding media freedom vital to counter misinformation
Chance for Malaysia to produce a template for future SEA Games
Accusations start to fly in KKB
Cash cannot be king in polls

Others Also Read