Although advertising activity in the country began as early as 1805 when the first known advertisement appeared in the “Prince of Wales Island’s Gazette” newspaper on the island of Penang, real progress of the advertising industry began very much later. After the setting up of the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents (4As) in 1948 in Singapore (Anderson, 1984), then an island state of Malaya, various advertising activities and practices followed. The establishment of the Malayan Advertiser Association (MAA) in 1952 comprising among others, pioneer multinational marketing firms like the British Lever Brothers, the Swiss Nestle and the American Shell was an example of such accomplishments. This was then followed with the setting up of a number of multinational advertising agencies to fulfil the advertising requirements of the multinational firms. Starting in the mid-1970s until today of which the government’s economic policy is leaned towards a liberalised global economy which has resulted in the swift rise of foreign investments, the advertising industry in Malaysia had been experiencing rapid changes and progress, in tandem with the nation’s economic and technological developments.
Although the current trend in Malaysia’s advertising industry seems to show that many of the advertisements in the media are getting more Western-oriented than before, the industry is best articulated as a blend of Western and local components with a touch of religious concern. In a study involving 234 Malaysian television commercials in TV1, TV2 and TV3, Holden (2001) deduces that the advertisement contents in Malaysia generally display two opposing societal structures, that is
elements such as individual freedom, market solutions and a reception of global infiltration whilst it is considered autocratic because there are messages relating to law and order which justify local government control, monitored guidelines for execution of advertisements and the necessity for social supervision and guidance.
With regards to the latter, an example of advertising restrictions in the Malaysian media is the prohibition of certain images that are considered as offensive to the religion and society such as nudity or kissing scenes (ACTR , 1990).
Concurrent with the country’s economic development, Malaysia’s media advertising expenditure (ADEX) has been on the rise. Table 3 illustrates that between 1999 and 2005, the general growth in media advertising expenditure was highest in the year 2000, the same year Malaysia’s GDP growth went up to 8.3 percent (see Table 2) which expectedly is the highest rate recorded thus far after the 1997 and 1998 Asia’s financial crisis. For the year 2005, advertisers in Malaysia used RM4.56 billion to buy media space and airtime which is a nominal rise of three percent from 2004. This figure matches the marginal economic growth rate of 5.3 percent in the same year.
Table 3: Monitored Advertising Expenditure 1999-2005 YEAR ADEX Increase over
previous year 1999 RM2,474,043 15 % 2000 RM3,078,270 24 % 2001 RM3,157,050 3 % 2002 RM3,450,453 9 % 2003 RM3,717,281 8 % 2004 RM4,423,066 17 % 2005 RM4,555,500 3 % Source: Nielsen Media Research Adex
*Astro ADEX not included
Like in most parts of the developing countries, advertisement contents in the Malaysian media comprise the universally acknowledged four stages of advertisement strategy namely product information, product symbol, personalization, lifestyle (Leiss
et al., 1990). However, the findings from Holden’s study (2001) reveal that advertisements using the product symbols and product information formats are most frequent.
Based on the figures shown in Table 4, the major advertisers in Malaysia now can be categorised into three, namely the Malaysian telecommunications providers (Maxis, Digi and Celcom), global fast moving consumer goods (Proctor and Gamble, Nestle and Unilever) and also Malaysian government-linked companies (Telekom Malaysia and Petronas).
Table 4: Top Advertisers in Malaysia
Advertiser 2002
RM Million
2003 RM Million
2004 RM Million
2005 RM Million
Maxis 73 80 144 98
Proctor and Gamble 38 57 103 129
Celcom 32 62 90 123
Digi 36 45 80 81
Nestle 44 45 61 66
Unilever 50 55 60 81
KFC Holdings 27 38 41 45
Petronas 42 45 35 37
Telekom Malaysia 67 54 35 48
Source: Nielsen Media Research
* The figures above include expenditure in non-media advertising and promotion activities
a. Advertisement Restrictions
The advertising practices in Malaysia are constantly being monitored by the government to not only protect the consumer but also the industry from bad cultural values that may possibly be shown or seen in the media. Nevertheless, ever since the implementation of the 1998 Communications and Multimedia Act, government
policies in relation to advertising practices particularly in broadcast advertisements in Malaysia can be considered to be generally quite liberal. This 1998 Act which comes under the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications replaces the Information Act, Telecommunications Act and ICT Act is promulgated to encourage industry self-regulation to address the rapid changes in the technological development of the multimedia and broadcasting industry (Tariq, 2005).
It must be reiterated that the introduction of the government’s open sky policy after which the internet media was launched in the early 1990s has resulted in more and more Malaysians exposing themselves to a lot of foreign contents. Following this, when the Malaysian satellite pay television, Astro was launched in 1999, it gave further access to Malaysian viewers to expose themselves to foreign material. As it is, the latest figures show that internet penetration and Astro viewership recorded a very high increase amongst Malaysians compared to free-to-air television. In 2005, there was a 14 percent reach in the internet media and 25 percent reach for Astro compared to only five percent and four percent respectively in 1999 (AGB NMR Media Index, 2006). Due to the steady penetration of these new Malaysian media, the reach of free-to-air television which was almost 90 percent in 1999 went down to 70 percent in 2005 (ibid). It is important to note that the marked reduction in penetration of free-to-air television which now comprises six channels and which together carry more than 50 percent foreign programmes, was never experienced before. This situation clearly demonstrates that globalisation of the media has left the government with very little choice except to relax the advertising regulations imposed on global advertisements.
Herein lies the government’s predicament. While there is unease on the impact of
“foreign” Western values, the implementation of the 1998 advertising regulations is also prompted by concerns about reconciling the need for advertising to boost consumption and the economy.
With this 1998 Act in place, the role of the Ministry of Information which since 1971 was the main regulator of Malaysian advertisements broadcast over radio and television has been limited to the government channels of TV1 and TV2 and its 32 radio stations (http://www.rtm.net.my/radio). As such, the privatized television stations that include TV3, NTV 7, Channel 8, Channel 9 and Astro satellite pay television which has more than 15 channels and the other privatized radio stations are
no longer bound by the Ministry of Information’s 1990 Advertising Code for Radio and Television. This explains why there are now many foreign produced advertisements being screened in the private television stations.
Notwithstanding the more tolerant approach used, the 1998 Act also takes into account that not all Malaysian citizens are prepared to fully accept all aspects of Western culture. As such, using the 1990 Advertising Code as a basis, aspects of the Western way of life that are considered a social taboo and an infringement of a citizen’s religious faith remain prohibited. Besides nude images which most Malaysians would refer to as an epitome of Western moral degradation, other examples of images that continue to be banned on the television screen include scenes of an amorous, intimate or suggestive nature. In addition, the use of indecent language is also not allowed (ACTR, 1990). This situation illustrates that as an Asian country, Malaysia is distinguished from the international and Western markets by its cultural environment.
b. Cultural Infiltration in Malaysian Advertising
The growth of the global economy has, as explained earlier, inevitably led to the intensification of the multinational advertising agencies in Malaysia. The obvious foreign elements in advertisements seen in the Malaysian media nowadays can be traced to the early seventies when these agencies started gaining grounds due to the flourishing economy which encouraged the setting up of more multinational and local firms. It cannot be denied that these agencies, due to their proven track record and experience in managing big multinational advertising accounts are understandably more professional and efficient in their management of the accounts than the local ones. This is because the established local agencies although headed by Malaysians who have had a few years experience working with the multinational agencies, do not have the financial strength compared to their multinational counterparts (Mussadikh, 2005).
It is therefore quite predictable that advertising agencies that operate in Malaysia have always been dominated by Western firms. Names of American based agencies that
and Mather, McCann- Erickson , Leo Burnett, Saatchi and Saatchi, Grey and JWT.
Most of these agencies which were set up with local partners to fulfil the requirements by the Malaysian government, have established their footholds in this country more than 40 years ago (see Adnan, 1994). Thus, it is not surprising that these Western firms along with one or two Asian based agencies such as Dentsu, Young and Rubicam, and Hakuhodo, have always been in Malaysia’s list of top ten advertising agencies (Mussadikh, 2005). The multimillion global accounts that these multinationals manage, which normally encompass more than 70 percent of the advertising expenditure annually (Tariq, 2005; Khairuddin, 2005), are primarily the result of the policy of international alignment wherein global advertisers use the services of the same multinational agencies throughout the world. For instance, if Levi Strauss New York uses the services of McKann Erickson, then McKann Erickson Malaysia automatically acquires the Levis Strauss Malaysia advertising account.
Because the product is a global brand, the concept of the advertisement would understandably be global in nature. More importantly, the presence of foreign elements in these advertisements would be hard to evade because the key personnel in the multinational agencies particularly the creative people who create and adapt the advertisements are by and large foreigners who do not practice local tradition, values and culture (Mohamad, 1993: 56). In consequence, the meanings and interpretation communicated by the advertisements to the local audiences mirror a culture which is normally not local in character.
Evidently, the flow of foreign actors, popular culture, icons or locales in global advertisements in the Malaysian media is becoming more common now. The continuous influx of Western brands and the continued dominance of Western advertising agencies have undoubtedly moulded and shaped the direction of the advertising industry in Malaysia. In fact, the seepage of the America and European influence in advertisements can be described as heading towards pervasiveness. For example, besides the normal global influence of Malaysian youths patronising American fast foods like the KFC to have their regular meals, it is also becoming more common nowadays for them to adopt an identical Western behaviour in the way they socialise such as greeting one another with “hey dude, what’s happening!” as portrayed in a Pepsi commercial in Malaysia a few years back.
Holden and Azrina (1998) in detecting the dominance of Western content in the advertisements confirm that “the look, feel and sound of Malaysian advertisements are very much influenced by those found in the North American media”. Holden (2001) further elaborates that aspects on the intense sensitivity, the music selection and coloration of the advertisements and the lack of “semiotic literacy” in them have made these Malaysian advertisements similar to the American advertisements. To him (ibid), like the ones in America, foreign products in Malaysian advertisements use the utilitarian approach which is simply put, a rational and straightforward technique wherein a wide number of local situations and uses are adapted. In other words, akin to Barber’s (1996) concept of “McWorld” as mentioned in Chapter Two, the seepage of Western influence in Malaysian advertisements mostly come in the form of the local consumer culture positioning, referred earlier as LCCP . This leads me to the following question: Can values and lifestyles identified as the Malaysian culture oppose this influence?
Additionally, subsequent to the implementation of the 1998 Communications and Multimedia Act and the relaxation of government restrictions on foreign advertisements, global brands portraying overt culture of the West have started appearing in the non-government stations. These types of advertisements, referred to and elaborated in Chapter Two as Foreign Consumer Culture Positioning (FCCP) started appearing in the private television stations and Astro satellite pay channel since the past four years. They include the Visa Card advertisement which features Pierce Brosnan in his usual James Bond role, the Toyota Corolla advertisement which features Brad Pitt as the main character and also the Pepsi advertisement which portrays Britney Spears and Beyonce Knowles as female gladiators in “revealing” two piece outfits. In consequence, these advertisements were allowed because they were within the guidelines of the 1998 Act which was in compliance with the government’s open sky policy on foreign culture. Unlike the earlier 1990 Advertising Code, the 1998 Act is not only more flexible with the costumes of the actors but is also silent on the earlier imposition of the “Made in Malaysia” requirement which allowed only a maximum of 20 percent of the foreign contents to be on air. In fact, the government’s TV 1 and TV 2 permitted the airing of a 100 percent UK made product, McVite (Adilah, 2005).
On the same note, it must be pointed out that the consistent barrage of global advertisements which align themselves with the multinational advertising agencies have spurred a buoyant local economy which encourages more local brands into the market. For instance, over the past five years Malaysia’s telecommunications providers and government linked companies have been investing vast amounts of their expenditure on advertising and promoting their products and images. In fact, as Table 4 illustrates, their advertising expenditure is on a par with or sometimes higher than their counterparts from among the major global advertisers.
In line with this trend, while the global messages of consumption which use the LCCP and FCCP still dominate the industry, there has been a marked increase in local advertisements that truly depict the Malaysian culture. Advertisement contents for the Petronas corporate advertisement or the Telekom corporate advertisement are two examples that show the plural nature of tolerant Malaysians living life within the confines of national boundaries. These advertisements and a few others promote the notion of a united Malaysian nation in spite of the onslaught of Western brands and ideas. This situation proves that there are a substantial number of Malaysian commercials which carry a social agenda in disseminating its advertisement message.
A common approach used in these advertisements is to feature the main actors as identifiable with all the major ethnic groups, that is they cannot be easily tagged as Indian, Chinese or Malay. This technique of selecting actors with the “Pan-Asian look” is meant to remind the audience that they are a Malaysian first and an Indian, Malay or Chinese second. At this juncture, it is pertinent to illustrate an example of a global advertisement which, although employing a slightly different approach than the local advertisements in selecting its actors yet gives the same attention at communicating similarity, that is telling the audience that the product is suitable for everyone. It is a 2003 McDonald’s “Prosperity Burger” advertisement which was exclusively created for the Asian market and produced in Malaysia (Fowler, 2005).
Launched to coincide with the Chinese New Year, this advertisement integrates Chinese music, Malay narration and shots of the product. The final scene depicts a Malay man enjoying the meal, accompanied by an elder Chinese man and a younger Indian woman (ibid). Clearly, this advertisement tries to portray the three ethnic
groups as one equally urban, middle class, prosperous and happy consumption community.
Other than communicating ethnic harmony in the advertisement scenes and imposing the use of Malay language taglines in local advertisements that use English, Cantonese or Tamil, Holden (2001) in his study observes that there are also elements of Malay traditional values in the form of costumes, depiction of rural life and occasional references to Islam.
Conversely, although these type of advertisements are quite visible in the Malaysian television, it would still be quite impossible to compete and counter the flow of Western cultural elements that are now continuously penetrating the Malaysian media.
It is anticipated that in the next few years, more Western advertisements carrying totally Western consumer culture will keep flowing into the Malaysian media. As indicated in the earlier pages, the impact of globalisation, new technology and open sky policy is too tough for the government to effectively curb “negative” Western influence from penetrating the minds of Malaysians.
3.6 Concluding Remarks
The purpose of this chapter was to explore the politics, economy and socio-cultural domain of Malaysia and their relationship to its middle class and the advertising scene. The most obvious piece of evidence to emerge from this chapter is that Malaysia is a nation with an intriguing mix of divergent political, economic, social and cultural forces. Its political system is a puzzling blend of Western democracy and
“guided Malaysian style democracy” which is jumbled with elements of authoritarianism. Also, its economic policies and programmes are mergers of various periods while socio-culturally, it is a picture of ethnic divisions with varied tongues, creeds, colours, customs and religious beliefs. Nevertheless, despite these complications and the problem of socio-economic barriers within the population, Malaysia is a stable, restrained and expedient nation. Compared to its Asian counterparts, its political system is fairly secured, its economic development is quite
consistent and its multi-cultural society is generally peaceful. In fact, Malaysia can be considered a model for a “successful” Asian nation.
Its middle class community which is growing and comprises almost half of the total working population, forms the backbone of the country as they are not only politically-conscious but are also culturally resilient. More importantly, as they are well-exposed to the Western media and are comparatively secured in financial standing, the middle class group in Malaysia is unsurprisingly an important target market for a wide variety of consumer products and brands from the multinational companies, mainly from America and Europe. In fact they are ingenuously coaxed by various media tools into becoming first-rate contemporary consumers that buy Western products and brands meant to identify them with varying classes and social status.
This chapter has also given an account of the effortless penetration of Western culture into Malaysian advertising to convince the middle class population via the implicit and explicit messages in the advertisements. Taken together, Malaysia’s political, economic and cultural representations of East and West, traditional and modern which has been comprehensively elaborated in the chapter is clearly reflected in the way of life of its population, in particular its middle class public.
The literary evidences laid out in the chapter suggest that the cultural norms relating to the use of English language, Western-influenced costume and mainly Asian-influenced food are fundamental aspects of Malaysian culture that are uniformly practiced and common within Malaysia’s middle class culture. In fact, these enriching customs, regardless of their Western or non-Western origin are regarded as a universal
The literary evidences laid out in the chapter suggest that the cultural norms relating to the use of English language, Western-influenced costume and mainly Asian-influenced food are fundamental aspects of Malaysian culture that are uniformly practiced and common within Malaysia’s middle class culture. In fact, these enriching customs, regardless of their Western or non-Western origin are regarded as a universal