By The Malketeer Over the weekend, the Swiss watchmaker issued a rare global apology after pulling campaign images featuring an Asian male model tugging at his eyes in the stereotypical “slanted eye” gesture. For Chinese consumers, the gesture isn’t just tone-deaf—it recalls decades of racial taunts. The backlash on Weibo
By The Malketeer When global audiences think of animation as cultural export, Japanese anime or Korean webtoons often come to mind. Yet quietly, and with growing confidence, Malaysia has been building its own animated universe—one rooted in village life, multicultural harmony, and universal values—now resonating across continents. According to a
By The Malketeer When beer and football meet, the chemistry is almost ritualistic. Guinness has tapped directly into that shared passion with its new global campaign, “Lovely Day for Guinness”, celebrating its flagship sponsorship of the Premier League. Crafted with London agency AMV BBDO, the campaign doesn’t romanticise football through
By The Malketeer For two decades, marketers have chased Google rankings, pouring budgets into SEO and SEM. But what happens when consumers stop searching and start asking AI? That’s the future Havas Media Network (HMN) UK is preparing for with the launch of Brand Insights AI, a new tool that
By The Malketeer Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) has moved quickly to shut down claims that it is spending RM20 million on a rebranding exercise, calling the allegation “untrue and slanderous.” In a statement, the pilgrimage fund clarified that its actual budget for the brand rejuvenation process is RM2 million per
By The Malketeer Malaysians are adopting artificial intelligence at record speed with daily usage jumping from 75% in 2024 to 89% this year, according to Telenor Asia’s Digital Lives Decoded 2025: Building Trust in Malaysia’s AI Future report. AI is no longer an occasional convenience for Malaysians. It’s part of
By The Malketeer Malaysia will play host to the largest celebration of Southeast Asian music, arts, and culture this October as Riuh X Asean 2025 takes over the city. Announced by Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil, the 10-day event will run from 17 to 26 October, coinciding with Malaysia’s Asean
By The Malketeer Merdeka campaigns have long been a mirror of the Malaysian condition. Hopeful, diverse, occasionally sentimental, but always looking for that emotional thread that binds a nation. This year, two brands have taken strikingly different creative routes to arrive at the same emotional destination: unity. On one side,
By The Malketeer When McDonald’s Japan announced its latest Happy Meal tie-in—a set of limited-edition Pokémon cards—it should have been the perfect recipe for a feel-good, family-friendly marketing win. Instead, it spiralled into queues, chaos, and a reputational bruise now dubbed online as the “Unhappy Meal” debacle. The Perfect Storm
By The Malketeer When 460 luxury goods, 58 gold bars, and properties worth $3 Billion become part of a national clean-up operation, the headlines naturally focus on the scandal. Yet, for the branding and marketing industry, Singapore’s largest money laundering case offers a cautionary masterclass on the fragility — and
