Discuss five ethical approaches to copywriting for Malaysian ads.
Copywriting in Malaysia has to be taken cautiously because we are living in a society with a variety of religion and race. Therefore, at all times, copywriter should avoid writing anything that may stir up any issue related to that. Even if it is a joke, it may be very sensitive to the society as most of the people here are still very conservative.
As mentioned above, our country is still very conservative, therefore advertisements should not be printed with any contents that contain any offensive visuals or any forms of vulgarity. This may be a very common method used by the western countries but Malaysia is an Islamic country, therefore all advertisements should be respecting the local culture.
Honesty in advertising. This should not be an ethical approach in Malaysia only but worldwide. Fake advertising may cause a lot of consequences. It may lead to lawsuits if the product/services are far from the promises made in the advertisement. This may be a form of deception to the users.
Comparisons are common, however, a copywriter should be able to differentiate the items that they are comparing. For example, it is ridiculous to compare a Mercedes to a Proton car. Mercedes, known to be a luxurious and high-priced car, it is only fair to compare Mercedes with an equally high-end car such as BMW or Audi.
The content of the copywriting should not be related to fear, superstition, violence or illegality without a justifiable reason as there is no absolute way to filter your readers. You cannot constrict people for not looking at your advertisement if they are below the age of 18 years old. The advertisement may indirectly promote unnecessary illegal acts for readers who do not know how to interpret the message of the advertisement.
There are more than just 5 of these as mentioned above, as a copywriter, there are a lot to consider as you want to produce a creative and not offensive advertisement. Hence, always look through the guidelines to make sure that you are not creating an advertisement which may be against the law.
Not much I can say about this one, it is true that Malaysia's very conservative in its advertisment scene, with the lack of nudity like in france and stiff ad competitions like in the US, it can be said that the ad culture here in Malaysia plays a safe role as we do not wish to offend any of the local cultures do to our mix country
ReplyDeleteAfter staying here for 2 years, i could see how conservative Malaysia is. But also in my country, it will be the best if we didn't touch anything regarding ethics, customs, races and religions as that the most sensitive topics everywhere. It will be better if the copywriter read and understand more about the law before they put it in to their advertisement.
ReplyDeleteIn Malaysia, the safest way to do an ad is not being a racist, or even criticizing any minister. because it can be a serious offense in future. Agreed with Ahmad, sex appealing ads are strictly forbidden in our country. Kids advertisements should always have a phrase "ask your parents first" to avoid danger. advertisements such as Plasticine set, cooking set.
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