Was it an honest mistake?

                       Figure 1: Media Prima

Media Prima is arguably one of the biggest players in the media industry. And don’t tell me that being in the industry for so long, you don’t know what is or what is not suppose to be broadcasted. A series of advertisements that were aired on television during the Ramadan period was being criticised heavily for being racist in nature. But what was more surprising is that the ads have been aired for a couple of days before it was asked to be pulled out. So, it simply means that, when the ads were given the green light to be aired, it simply passed the authorities and advertising experts? It couldn’t be right? I’m sure there’s something wrong here. According to Phillips (1997), most of advertisements that are aired on television, must surpassed a panel of judges and must also be approved by the local ministry before viewers can actually see it. This is not a rare case, it has happened before, but aren’t we supposed to learn from mistakes and not repeat it? I supposed this might indeed be a so call “honest mistake” whereby a broadcast company intentionally creates a series of advertisements and broadcast it for a short period of time to gained attention or rather to sprout tension from the public. Because if you have asked me, this does not really involved races at all but rather the religion. A Chinese man may as well be Chinese by race but he could be a Muslim by religion.

Having that said, I’m sure there’s a reason why the ads were made and aired. I believe there were mentions of inappropriate behaviour in past seasons Ramadan or Chinese New Year or Deepavali. So, something needs to be done and also in a proper way so that no one will be hurt for long. According to Spence (2005), he mentioned that people tend react harshly towards inappropriate advertisements but reconsider that thought after a period of time. So, to be honest, I really hope that was what Media Prima was trying to do here. Which is an “honest mistake” to make people to consider.

References

Phillips, M, J., (1997). Ethics and manipulation in advertising: answering a flawed indictment. CT: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc.

Spence, E., (2005). Advertising Ethics. NY: Prentice Hall.