Expedia’s attempts to appeal to the average Singaporean is not boding well with the Media Development Authority (MDA).
The travel-booking brand peppered a generous volume of local patois with phrases like “wah lao”, “leh”, “yah lah” and more in one of their commercials starring Ah Boys To Men star Wang Weiliang and influencer Nina Tan. Singlish is used to humorous effect — or what passes as funny to corporate marketing teams these days.
What MDA found problematic with the ad wasn’t the lack of laughs, but the overabundance of Singlish. Yes, there exists a code that forbids advertisements from using “Singlish and ungrammatical English” — in fact, commercials containing dialect are not allowed to be broadcast.
“All advertisements should maintain a good standard of language,” according to MDA’s TV Advertising Code.
According to a report on Marketing Interactive, a “sizeable proportion” of the public thought that the usage of Singlish in Expedia’s ad were a tad excessive. In fact, they called it “crude” and “inappropriate”. Lah.
But it doesn’t seem like the “sizeable proportion” of the public thought that there was too much Singlish — they were more offended about the ad portraying folks speaking Singlish unnaturally.
“So unrepresentative of Singaporeans”, said one YouTube commenter. “EVEN MY WIFE DON’T TALK SINGLISH LIKE THAT,” wrote another.
Once again, MDA’s chiding of the dialect-heavy ad should raise the matter of the Government vs Singlish among the public. It’s an issue raised even before the government forced Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd to switch to proper English, during a time when previous prime ministers Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong advocated strongly against the usage of the unofficial language.
“Singlish is seen as a national treasure or a detriment and danger – depending on whom you ask,” wrote BBC’s James Harbeck in his recently published investigative piece on the suppressed patois.
