Sit back, and brace yourselves for four minutes of video advertising that will have you questioning life as we know it, and the people around us that are living it.
You can’t seem to open a laptop without brands and their creative minstrels (Hi, agencies) implying that if you were whiter, and slimmer, your dirt-bag paramour would love you for reals.
Certainly, this must have been the crux of the creative sesh that transpired when video makers Kokom were tasked with making a campaign for Slimme White, a little bottle that promises to be a drank so powerful that it will make you both whiter, and skinnier.
According to the video, the power of Slimme White can do anything. It will give the drinker a totally different face and body (like legit, it’s a different actress). It can also make their ex-husband suddenly miss a face they had never seen before, whilst at the same time, still recognizing it as their ex-wife. Liminal. This is some strong gummy bear juice right here.
How do you think that client/agency brainstorm, before the sh*t storm went?
Macam mana kita nak buat video yang like… emotional, tapi also viral! (the ever popular: how are we going to make a video with emotion … but also viral).
Cue: An emotionally and physically abused wife is told repeatedly by her husband that she is not good enough, pretty enough etc and is kicked out of the house by him. She goes to stay with her older, wiser, friend who instead of giving her a lesson in self-worth, tells her to shut up and drink some Slimme White.
Fast forward a month, and she is a different person. Like – actually a different person, played by a different actress, and her husband is begging for her to come back, to no avail.
END SCENE.
Cue cards:
“CHERISH THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE, BEFORE YOU LOSE THEM FOREVER”
“IT’S NOT THAT OUR WIVES AREN’T PRETTY, THEY ARE JUST TOO BUSY TAKING CARE OF US (HUSBANDS), OUR CHILDREN AND DOING HOUSEWORK”
…and…
“HELPS TO BRIGHTEN SKIN AND FOR WEIGHT-LOSS”
Oh, you just did NOT say that.
What we end up with is a trope that’s been around so long, you start to wonder if ancient Egyptian women also fixed their problems by taking off their glasses and getting a sassy new haircut. Eat it, sphinx.
In this ad, we are literally, and I mean LITERALLY, led to believe that Slimme White will impart the kind of transformation that will turn you physically into a different person. Your life magically falls into place, despite the fact that you have unsupportive relatives who just tell you to drink some juice they’re selling as part of their Herbalife, MLM dreams (PM sis utk harga).
There is no mention of the actual abuse that is rampant in relationships. The destitution that women face after being abandoned by their husbands, nor anything that addresses the deep running scars that permeate through our society that perpetuate the notion to our women and girls that if you are whiter, life is better.
It’s not. It just means you are more susceptible to most skin cancers.
How we keep creating such tone-deaf pieces of advertising is beyond belief. When a Watson’s ad was pulled in less than 24 hours after they tried to push that black is bad, we still have half-wits like Kokom, giving us a broke-a**ed, watered-down version telling us that while black is not necessarily bad bad, it’s not great.
The Facebook response is equally confusing, as many users are focusing on the quality of the video, and not the content. Uh, yeah – it wasn’t shot on a mobile phone, but its messaging is the topical equivalent of a flip-phone video circa 2004. Grainy, lagging, and ultimately, dated af.
Wake up viewers. Aside from the fact that no drink will make you whiter, or slimmer (ask your girl Dato’ Vida, who just got fined for such extraneous claims), neither of those qualities will fix your life or society in general.
Invest in self-worth. Create content that promotes self-esteem. Teach abused women how to actually move their lives forward, without their shitty husbands.
And for the love of all things good in this world, stop pretending that a drink can fix your life and teach you about mascara.
It is 2017, and we are way too woke for this crap.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified K&A Creatives as the ad house behind the advertisement. They were not involved in the production of this ad. Coconuts apologizes for any misunderstanding this may have caused.
