Of offensive email, Oktoberfest and ‘religious’ hedonism
Last week a family member of mine received a personal advertisement email inviting her to join in the Kuala Lumpur Oktoberfest 2014 to be held in a hotel. To those uninformed, Oktoberfest is basically a traditional beer festival held grandly every year in Munich, Germany.
So yes, she received an invitation to a beer drinking imitative event here in our capital.
Of course there was a disclaimer at the end of the email stating that she received the email because she has stayed in one of the organizer’s hotels before and agreed to be contacted about their upcoming events – essentially to mean that this is a blanket notification to all past clients and you can just ignore it if you are not interested.
Most people would suggest so too, but should we really just ignore this ‘kind’ of advertisement? There are two reasons why I think we should not and this is not simply just an issue of advertisement set on auto mode.
Offering a mugful of beer to Muslims– literally or otherwise – might be tolerable, to an extent, in countries where drinking is generally a form of culture. During my undergrad years in New Zealand, beers were often offered as rewards during tutorial classes especially those held on Fridays. Field trips to local breweries were not unusual especially in my line of study and I had the chance to participate in one such trip.
But this is Malaysia that we are talking about – an Islamic country, with the majority of its people being Muslims who are mostly and easily recognized by their names. Here, alcohols advertising in television as well as print media that are in Bahasa Melayu are prohibited by law.
The organizer should take heed of the intent of this ruling and exercised more caution when carrying out promotions at individual level such as through private emails.
Any reputable marketer will tread carefully on the religious and cultural boundaries of its target audience. Based on the Malaysian Code of Advertising Practice published by the Advertising Standards Authority Malaysia, it is clearly stipulated that “advertisers should take all necessary steps to ensure that advertisement are suitable to those targeted”.
In this case, the organizer obviously came across as being indecent and insensitive towards a segment of its clients. Either that or it was just another irresponsible capitalistic strategy of tapping into a larger market base (in this case, the Muslims).
Secondly, it is about the event itself. There is just no reason to justify the introduction of Oktoberfest in this country. Well, maybe except for the wanton promotion of a hedonistic lifestyle it comes with – desired by a tiny section of our population – which undoubtedly needs to be halted from spreading further.
The carnival was purely originating from the Bavarian culture, something that our country and people has zero historical connection to. Drinking culture notwithstanding, blatant imitation of foreign heritage would still appear distinctly artificial and senseless, no matter how hard one tries.
And unfortunately we are witnessing an increasing trend of ‘localization’ of these kind of traditions, some of them are said to be of religious origin, but actually just hedonism in disguise.
Take Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day as examples. Judging at how they are celebrated here, with the mindless alcohol consumption and all, one would wonder if Christians would still consider that as religious festivities.
So there are two things that we need to address here. The first one may look a bit technical but the authority really needs to tighten up the regulation, and enforcement, further with regard to alcohols marketing.
It is an issue that concerns not just the Muslims (to the keyboard warriors who readily jump to attack Islamic governing bodies and NGOs in this country, just hold your horses). Vietnam, for instance, has also introduced strict regulations on this after realizing the impacts of alcohol-related problems bring to its people especially the younger generation.
And as a nation, we also need to stem this liberal and unnecessary inflow of foreign traditions and events especially those hiding behind religious pretexts and with no value addition to our already rich and diverse society. This must not be limited to just the elements of religion and culture, but also encompasses the aspects of ideologies, philosophies and values.
Umar Hakim Mohd Tajuddin
ISMA Activist
Kalau tegas sangat nanti dia orang kata macam nak tarik pelancung.nanti pelancung tak mai.pertama sekali apa perlunya pemimpin melayu buka kilang arak kat negara ni.
KKM campaigns, following WHO’s initiative is also aimed towards zero alcohol.