Giving ads a local twist

Dear Singaporean Cow,

Is advertising in Asia, particularly in Singapore, still very much influenced by Western Culture?


A country without much heritage or distinct culture will stand to lose out while trying to etch its identity on a global scale. Singapore, as young as she happens to be, is in that spot of trouble. While other countries can boast of several USPs (unique selling points) in terms of culture; think South Africa with the wildlife safari and its many tribes, France with the arts and renaissance, the Singapore culture or the lack thereof plays no part in forging out an identity succinct enough for ad agencies to tap on. Therefore, advertising in Singapore do tend to bleed off the western culture.

Where one looks for local flavor in a Singaporean-made ad, he might find something so skewed with western culture that it is actually hard to distinguish the former and the later. The 'lahs' and the 'lors' notwithstanding, according to Mr Farrokh Madon, winner of the first Effie Singapore Grand Prix Prize for the 'Raffles Place Ghost' advertising campaign stresses that not only does adding a 'lah' to an advertisement fail to 'localize' an ad, it even comes across as being condescending and prudish, something that the Singaporean Cow fully agrees on.

In the end, the limitations of being a small country proves to be a bane in more ways than one, until one local advertisement burst out from the rest, the tag of being heavily influenced by western culture will indefinitely stay on.


The above question was taken from the article on the Asian perspectives regarding advertising in Singapore. It was directed to Mr Farrokh Madon, the executive creative director of McCann Erickson Singapore. However, the Cow had tried his best to answer the question from a Communication student's perspective.

For Mr Farrokh's responses and more details, please refer to the article by Shermaine Wong in the Today newspaper 27 October Page B5.