The purpose of getting participants to remember an advertisement that came to their mind was to inspect their degree of awareness towards advertisements they have frequently been exposed to. The brand names mentioned would indicate the leaning they have towards either global or local brands.
In general, the urban middle class sub-segment seemed to be more evoked by commercials than their provincial counterparts. Although the discrepancy was not big, more global brands were mentioned than local brands. In all, there were 16 global brand names compared to 11 local ones cited. Among the global brands, only two brand names were cited by more than one participant. They were Sunsilk shampoo which was mentioned by four participants and Marlboro cigarettes which was quoted by two participants. The rest of the global brands that were quoted were:
Pantene, Rejoice, New and Trendy, Citibank Plus, Levi’s, McDonalds, Nokia, Twisties, Vanilla Coke, Visa, HSBC, Dunhill, KFC, and Fresh and White. With regard to the local brands that were recalled, interestingly, a majority of the 11 advertisements were corporate rather than product advertisements. The Petronas corporate advertisement was mentioned by three participants and the Telekom corporate advertisement was remembered by two participants. The rest of the corporate advertisements were Merdeka Day Celebration, TV 3, Akademi Fantasia, Cuti-Cuti Malaysia and Bumiputra Commerce Bank. There were only four local consumer product brand names that came to the minds of the participants and these were Maxis, MAA Insurance, Baba’s and Kao Attack.
Additionally, most participants showed that they were not only aware of the brand names they were exposed to but were also familiar with the more specific aspects of the commercials such as the advertisement categories, appeals and message. Also, in most cases there seemed to be a correlation among the provincial middle class and the folk urbanites in that both middle class types preferred local corporate advertisements which depicted local culture. This situation indicates an inclination or concern towards the Malaysian lifestyle portrayed in the advertisement commercials.
Unlike the urban middle class set, there were very few among the provincial middle class participants who could recall any advertisement. The reason for this lack of recollection could possibly be due to the heavy advertising emphasis in the market centres. In short, the provincial middle class lacked the advertising exposure compared to their urban counterparts who were not only exposed to the same advertisements in television but also on outdoor boards and in shopping complexes around the city.
Among the participants, most of the older urban affluent members could not only recollect the brand names and the advertisement scenes, they could also remember the message in the advertisement commercials.
The ad for “Broadband” internet showing a funny guy performing and singing. I find it very interesting for both the Chinese and Malay versions. I believe I can remember the commercial because of its humourous element. (Urban Older Affluent – Married Female Chinese Businesswoman {2})
As a person who has migraine, I cannot stand cigarette smoking. I find the ad against cigarette smoking, the Tak Nak ad campaign as relevant to me. Also there are three or four more ads showing smokes in the lungs that strike me. (Urban Older Affluent – Single Female Chinese Associate Professor {1})
There are two types of ad I can recall, one is because of the humour and another is because the educational aspect. The humorous one is the “Visa” credit card ad, not so much on the product but because I like to remember the funny stunt of the main talent Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. The other ad is a “Pantene” shampoo ad which claims it can prevent hair loss and to me this is revolutionary. But when I went to the shop to check out, the product package stated “hair loss due to breakage”. This means the commercial was not really telling the truth but my point here is, it provokes me to go and check on the product. (Urban Older Affluent – Married Male Malay Human Resource Director)
It’s an ad for HSBC that I like. It is humorous but has a strong message. It tells about cultural diversity, the importance of understanding people’s culture to win their
hearts. From the business point of view, this is important particularly for HSBC whose tagline is “the world’s local bank”. Being local, you have to understand the local culture. (Urban Older Affluent – Married Male Malay Marketing Manager) The few provincial middle class members who could retain information on the advertisement could relate scenes in the commercials they had seen very well. The following narrative from a government clerk illustrates a possible influence among some Malaysians on a local public service commercial which depicts Malaysian unity as its theme.
I saw an advertisement for Merdeka Day. It shows three young friends, Chinese, Indian and Malay. They were playing together happily under a tree but soon after, a group of hornets came buzzing towards them. They ran as fast as they could and jumped into an old mining pool. The hornets then turned and attacked a group of people accompanying a bride and bridegroom in a marriage ceremony. Everyone then jumped into the mining pool. In the next scene, the Malay friend had a circumcision and the Chinese and Indian friend made a visit to their Malay friend’s house. In the following scene, they became grown ups, if I’m not mistaken, it was at a hospital, the Malay asked the Indian what happened to their Chinese friend, and the Indian answered that he had passed away. In this ad, it is trying to show the importance of the spirit of unity among the races to achieve independence. This means, there will not be war if this kind of spirit prevails. I am attracted because the message is about living together peacefully. (Provincial Young Lower Middle Class – Married Male Malay Clerk {3})
Although she could remember only some parts of the commercial, the following participant, a provincial Chinese middle class woman was also positive about the same local corporate advertisement as mentioned by the participant above.
The Petronas ad showing a group of boys running from the hornets, they jumped into the river, applied medication on their face because of the sting from the hornets. This ad looks quite interesting to me. (Provincial Young Lower Middle Class – Single Female Chinese School Counsellor)
As mentioned earlier, the folk urbanites seemed to share the same liking with their provincial counterparts with regards to local corporate commercials which portray a Malaysian cultural lifestyle. Among them, public service and corporate commercials aired during the festive seasons of Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Christmas or Deepavali were the ones most remembered.
I like the corporate ads like the ones for Petronas and Telekom shown during the festive seasons. I can still remember one such ad shown in conjunction with Deepavali about three years ago. They did it so well, it had an impact on me till now.
The message was about harmony among races in Malaysia. The ads for consumer
products that I see have no impact on me at all and I cannot recall any of them. (Older Upper Level Folk Urbanite – Married Male Malay Businessman {4})
I always ignore the ads on TV and I change channel when I see an ad. I am a bit conservative as I choose things based on what I need rather than what people tell me.
Because I know that an ad break on TV will take about two minutes, so for two minutes I switch channel to watch something else. The only ad that catches my eyes is the series of festive ads sponsored by Petronas. These are classic ads that are done very well and are very impactful because the message is very strong. (Older Upper Level Folk Urbanite – Married Male Malay Businessman {5})
I can only recall the festive ads. For the other consumer product ads, I don’t really pay attention to because I don’t find them interesting. (Older Upper Level Folk Urbanite – Married Female Self-employed {6})
A corporate ad for TV3 appeals to me. I like the character of the small boy who hurts his forefinger because it got hooked to his fishing rod. I find it creative. And the most interesting part is when the Indian neighbour accidentally sprayed water on the face of his Malay lady neighbour. It is humourous when you see the lady gets angry.
Also , the Malay folk song “ikan di laut asam di darat” in the commercial is quite nice to hear, it reminds me of my younger days. (Young Middle Level Folk Urbanite – Married Male Malay Lecturer {5})