Assignment 1

For this assignment, we are assign to choose an advertisement, artwork, photograph, film still, film scene, or computer image and analyze it using the language and theories of semiotics. So, we have have decided to choose a commercial directed by a famous independent film director, writer and scriptwriter from Malaysia and was also the executive creative director at Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur, the late Yasmin Ahmad. Most of you know it already as it was several times gold awarded in different competitions, but it’s so expressive and touching that it’s worth to see it over and over again.The advertisement that we have chosen entitled Tan Hong Ming In Love.

This commercial was made in 2007 for Malaysia’s 50th Independent Day and produced by Petronas. Most of the people might know it already, as it was several times gold awarded in different competitions,the commercial have meaningful expresive towards the people in Malaysia and the feeling that she’s trying to interpreted is so worth to click the button replay over and over again.

The main message that she want to deliver from this 1 minute and 33 seconds tv commercial is “UNITY. This advertising was made for Malaysia 50^th Anniversary. This advertisement audience is for the people who have a thought or tendency of racism for people in Malaysia. The target audience for this television advertisement are for all the Malaysian.

On this anti-racial public advertising, the Chinese boy; Tan Hong Ming, the main character, is the signifier. He stands as the symbol of child’s purity of overlooking their own daily matters. He answered the question of why he loves this sweetheart of him, the Malay girl. He answered the question that asked to him with upmost purity and simplicity of a young boy, liking or loving something without any pretenses or social consideration. This series of question is a device to reveal this boy attitude towards the girl that he likes. However, this idea can’t stand alone to show the actual message of this ad, which is the anti-racial call. The last message of this ad; “Our children is color blind, shouldn’t we keep them that way?” is the hook or mainline to this ad. Now all the things will make sense for the anti-racial message. The Chinese boy who loves the Malay girl is just a simple sweet little love story. But with the last message of “color Blindness” it starts to make sense that this ad is actually have more value to tell. And vice versa, this little boy story is also a strong example to emphasize the color blindness towards racialism message. It is such a simple case, but it hooks to the point of how can a Chinese boy loves this girl from a different race. It’s an observation of how children can neglect racialism totally if there is no negative idea being given to them by adults Without thus story, The last text “Our children is color blind, shouldn’t we keep them that way?” will not make any sense

The assumption of cultural that called upon to read this text is maybe color blind. The director use color blind as the metaphore to say that this child not do the choice of who will the stay as regardless their issue. This color meaning is not for blind eyes but people are blind to see one another. Sometimes, people don’t think that if they have a thought of racism, just remember we don’t live alone in this world.

However, to understand this ad, there are several cultural and social issues one needs to know to understand this ad. This ad is intended for Malaysians, which is still had major issues of racism between Chinese, Malay, and Indian as the major race of the country. So this ad might not be as meaningful as how Malaysians felt. The word “color blind” might not be a clear statement to some people. The term color blind in this context is not a literal meaning of color blind; which an illness that cannot differentiate colors. But more to a metaphorical meaning suggesting a child that didn’t differs people merely by their skin tones. And as the line continues “shouldn’t we keep them that way?” is refereeing to this skin differentiation, not the color blind illness.

The alternate reading that we can see from this commercial, there are a number of layers of meaning. The commercial means that two school kids which is from difference races (chinese and malay)like each other. From this short commercial we have understood that the kids are still in primary school, still young and aspiring who did not know anything about racism .

Furthermore, we can see that the message the director wants to deliver is why must be racist in our own country and as if there are some of us who is still racist, why must we spoiled our children too? They are our future,if we want to remain peace and harmony let our kids be ‘colour blind’ which means they did not care what races or religion you came from, they did not have they hatred towards other races because we are all live in the same country. From my point of view, this text have been been extensively outside the intended audience because context can influence meaning.The context of this commercial at some stage had open some of the eyes of the viewer because literary racism is the belief that there are inherent differences in people's traits and capacities that are entirely due to their race. So, by teaching our kids from the start is one of the starting point to reduce the hatred or racism feelings inside our people to ensure a harmonious and stable society

At the end of this ad, there is a phrase saying that “our children are color blind” saying that they regardless of races. But the meaning of the text could change overtime because of different people have reflected their own time and the values and they all have different meaning on their own. In semiotic, we will recall the importance of signifier/signified, langue/parole and myth, and how the marking of difference and binary oppositions are crucial for meaning. But the meaning would turn into either good or bad just depends on how they interpret the meaning.

Perspectives on the meaning of the text are constantly influenced by the people from the past. But in semiotic analysis, it looks at structure of text and generation of meaning. The selectivity of any medium leads to its use having influences of which the user may not always be conscious. The unity in diversity can be seen in the celebration of various festivals by all races in Malaysia and this could be the influence

In conclusion, this TV Commercial ad uses a very good usage of icon, sign and symbol to create this meaningful ad. It uses a very effective sign which is the boy and the girl and the message at the end of it. It was clearly saying that they don’t care what race are they and this value should be sown in young ages to gain such unity. In Malaysia we see how different races have formed a part of the culture. This ad tells us how important unity is to gain independence in a country or even in our self. It is important for me to gain unity between us, for us to be one. Living in Malaysia is one big opportunity because it is a multicultural country, having all races in one country. It is a chance for me to learn and adapt other’s culture.