As stated in the article, Media Prima was forced to pull out a Ramadan commercial that is controversial with the public declaring that the commercial is racist. In all, the series of Ramadan commercial shows a Chinese girl being obnoxious, eating in public, and wearing revealing clothing's during the fasting month. The commercials urges non-Muslims to respect the Muslim fasting month.
The Banned Ramadan Advertisement
This commercial is viewed by public as a racist advertisement that does not respect other culture in nature and also trying to show the ‘bad side’ of other cultures. Different individuals with different cultures and belief may interpret the commercial differently. For a Muslim, they might not find the commercial offensive as they understand the commercial based on the culture and beliefs. However, for a non-muslim, they might find this commercial racist in nature because they do not understand the meaning behind this commercial as they have different cultures and beliefs. According to Schriver (1997) states that an individual values and beliefs is a part of how they interact and interpret words and visuals. Walsh (2006) added that a particular individual has the need to understand the social purpose of a text and the cultural context. As related to this case, by understanding other cultures, an individual might not misinterpret the meaning behind the commercial.
In my opinion, it is the responsibility of every advertising company to make sure and that they are aware of the materials and ideas that they are allowed to show or advertise in public. When not familiar with the culture, beliefs and values of a particular culture, the company should not continue with the idea and concepts of the advertising to avoid being misinterpreted by the public. Such mistakes will angered the public and result in the negative criticisms of the public therefore affecting the company reputation.
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Reference
Schriver, KA 1997, Chapter ^: Dynamics In Document Design, pp.361-441
Walsh, M 2006, ‘Textual Shift’: Examining The Reading Process With Print, Visual and Multimodal Texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1, pp.24-37
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