I’ve not lived in Asia that long, but in the time I have been here, I’ve fallen in love with the place.
That doesn’t mean there’s not parts that are frustrating … but in a weird kinda-way, that’s half the reason I like it so much – especially from a professional perspective – because there’s beliefs, philosophies and activities that, from a Western perspective, make no bloody sense at all so it’s forced me to re-think and re-learn ‘stuff’ so I can actually get an appreciation of where these decisions and choices come from.
Of course the standards of creativity have a lot to be desired … or should I say, that standard of creativity that clients tend to buy, has a lot to be desired … but as I‘ve said in the past, whilst it might be harder to get great [traditional] advertising through the fear-driven, boss-appeasing marketing department, they are very open to big ideas as long as you can express it as a business opportunity rather than a creative one.
Saying that, there’s a whole heap of shit talked about the differences between Asian and Western attitudes – as I highlighted with the Halibut Fisher spoof research blog – but what pisses me off most is when a company comes out with statements that are so generalistic and/or simplistic that they are both meaningless and offensive to the extreme.
The reason I bring this up is because I have just been sent something that I find offensive in almost every way possible, however before I start to bitch about it, have a look for yourself …
Well done GREY … that couldn’t of been more offensively written if you’d got BNP to do it.
Why?
Well let’s start with the condescending headline, “How Do You Connect With Asians”.
Jesus, talk about making billions of people feel like they’re sub-human.
Who wrote this bollocks?
2/1 it wasn’t someone from this region … and in the unlikely event it was, then I can only assume they’ve spent too much time away from the place and developed the sort-of elitist attitude you tend to get with many an ex-pat.
Either way, here’s hoping they get hung up and whipped repeatedly for degrading a whole culture in 6 words – even though I do admit that is quite an impressive feat.
And then there’s this whole ‘Asian’s like short and simple’ declaration.
Now that just pisses me off.
If I look at that statement in a positive light, I would say all people – to a certain extent – like less clutter and confusion in their lives so how GREY can claim this is some sort of phenomenon is beyond me.
However if I look at their declaration with a more cynical eye, then I would suggest they’re saying Asian’s like simplistic rather than simple and if anything is guaranteed to make me angry, it’s that kind of bollocks.
To be fair, GREY aren’t the first company to make that sort of claim [which sort of devalues the value and quality of their proprietary research] because ever since I’ve been here, I’ve had people say “they don’t get complicated.”
Let’s get something straight, this is a region that has one the richest, most layered and complex cultures on the planet … where everything has some sort of meaning and implication … so to say billions of people only respond to the sort of Neanderthal grunts churned out by drunk, horny Australian men is pretty fucking offensive when you think about it.
OK … OK … so there is evidence that where advertising is concerned, the communication that is embraced and understood the most effectively is the stuff that has a single, clear message running through it … but again, isn’t that similar to most cultures and markets?
But let’s imagine that is not the case.
Is that the fault of the people – billions of people who let us remember, see importance in the slightest of subtleties – or the ad industry for boring them so badly with their inane communication, that no one really cares about the ad?
I know I am being over-the-top here … and I do know there are definitely some issues interms of how messages are understood in Asia versus the West … but it’s not because the people here are stupid, it’s because of things like frame-of-reference, education policy and their countries values and culture.
Alright … alright … GREY aren’t claiming this region is full of ‘thicko’s’, but the way the whole thing was written doesn’t exactly smack of a company acknowledging many of the amazing aspects of this region … plus I can’t work out how/why they have placed New Zealand in their list of countries covered by the research given they’re not exactly part of the ‘core region’.
I assume some cheeky Aussie thought it would be funny to put them in the list given they think [1] all Kiwi’s are a bunch of sheep fucking, half wits and [2] Aussies are the most brilliant, clever, beautiful people in the region, World, Universe and certainly don’t have anything to do with those ‘Asian’ folk who reside above their sun scorched island.
I should point out that I am not saying I am any sort of expert of the region … how could I be, I’m a bald bastard from Nottingham … however whilst I haven’t interviewed 33,000 people from all over the region, I would say my methodology for understanding – which includes continual conversations and interactions with journalists from Lonely Planet, teachers, taxi drivers and Police Officers – has led to insights where I wouldn’t have the nerve to claim “Asian’s prefer family orientated brands” is big – or new – news.
However all things considered, I think the thing that upsets me most about this is that the EYE ON ASIA study is usually pretty good … pretty good indeed … so I just hope the only thing that has gone downmarket is the ‘ad’ for the study.