9 out of 10 ads feature westerners.
I just spent the weekend in Singapore. It took 31 hours to get there. Thankfully I’m taking a pit stop in London on the way back to Miami.
I can honestly say that I love Singapore and could imagine myself living there. It has all the western amenities that I’m familiar with but with a heavy dose Asia. The reason I say a heavy dose – is because the western influence was really surprising to me.
Everything is in English (with Mandarin subtitles in some places) – even the road signs have the same design style as US road signs (green with a white ring – same font). The first day I got there I walked out the front door of my hotel and I didn’t stop walking for about 3 hours. I walked all the way to Orchard Road: the primary shopping district for the city-state. Along the way I made a point of walking down all kinds of side alleys with rows of asian food stalls. The authentic local food smelled great, looked great (aside from one shop advertising “Pig Organ Soup” as the name of the place), and made me feel for a moment that I was truly abroad.
Once I got back onto any main thoroughfare things started to change. I started to notice a patern in their advertising. All the ads that featured photography typically featured westerners. This really perplexed me.
I considered all kinds of alternatives. Is it because the culture here holds western culture in high regard? Was it just because they love western celebrities or was it that brands just were not investing in local celebrities for budget reasons?
I ended up asking as many locals as I could. They varied in descent from Chinese, Malay, to Indonesian. I was surprised by their response. Some claimed they just thought westerners “looked better”, other said they loved the western celebrities, but when I pressed the issue further they agreed that they would like to see more of their own celebrities, athletes, and actors in these ads.
I think there is a missed opportunity there for marketers. Why is no one there catching on to this? Am I missing something – if anyone has any insight please post a comment.
-Freddie
December 29th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Wow what a topic… worthy of a heavy-duty thesis. While living there for several years as a marketer, the question of western vs local was naturally the most critical and emotional aspect of product marketing strategies, and I spent many hours talking about this very topic. Here are some personal observations and ramblings…
Of all the Asian countries, Singapore is the most “American,” and western lifestyle is heavily integrated (almost too much in my opinion). The country itself is the amalgamation of at least three nationalities and many faiths, and it’s accustomed to absorbing foreign influences. In other Asian countries, the balance of Western vs local images varies greatly. Political systems past and present, traditionalism, cultural identity, population homogeneity, and landscape of foreign/multinational businesses — all acutely affect advertising much more in Asia.
So, is this a missed opportunity in Singapore? I think it is, or at least more in-depth research is in order. The elusive goal to produce one campaign to appeal to the masses is always an overwhelming challenge throughout Asia, given its complexity region to region. Perhaps that’s why the Western image is chosen… it’s just “easier” on many levels. Having said all this, the single force that is still very powerful – the mystique of American movie stars… their awe factor remains strong.
October 12th, 2009 at 3:34 am
I’m actually writing my thesis on exactly this topic. Just returned from Singapore where I interviewed managers of advertising agencies.. So interesting! Funny that only now I see this blog..
November 13th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Hi, just to let you know why is Singapore highly westernize.
Let me go all the ways back to about a century ago….
we were ruled by British. Lee kuan Yew, the father of Singapore.
The one who is highly responsible for what we are today…
A little information about him.
When the british rules Singapore.. His grandpa, a wealthy buisness man, learnt to speak english due to the need to interact with the british for business reasons. Lee kuan yew, at a tender age learnt english…
Since then , Lee kuan yew always had difficulties picking up chinese. (this was around the 1920s)
he then went to cambridge university and came back to do law and eventually governed Singapore.
When he started governing Singapore… He felt that there has to be one language that everybody understands. During his days in cambridge, he learnt a lot and decided that English would do Singapore economic good. as he felt that that’s the only way we can interact with the westerners. Who then, ruled the economy.
Thus, here we are today. Everybody being able to interact with each other.
From then onwards, Singapore is highly westernized because that’s the only language that we all can understand. We don use much of our local artist is because, we , unlike other country.. Our market is small…
Local celebrity get paid peanuts = not glamourous = we don go gaga over them.
TADA!
February 16th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Hi there,
Just thought you may be interested in having a look at our blog – which takes a critical look at advertising in Singapore:
http://www.theviperpit-blog.com
Cheers,
TVP