Figure 1. Air Asia online ad – Pay peanuts, get Malaysia.
Earlier this afternoon, a friend brought this to my attention – an Air Asia X online advertisement circulating around an Australian online new site.
If you are familiar with the idiom ‘If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”, it implies that only stupid people will work for you if you do not pay very much. Quite a negative statement to begin with.
Unsure whether it is the result of a careless copywriter or an attempt to insult(?) Malaysia, the above ad contains these exact words: ‘Pay peanuts, get Malaysia’. A statement many might find offensive and insulting.
Harmless or offensive? What do you think?
3 Comments
Sometime
i guess it’s the aussie’s way.
i remember they have their tourism tagline sth like…. “so where the bloody hell are you”
which i posted in my blog too http://atanck.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-to-sell-your-country.html
and nice sabahan blog! detour here from Corny’s blog
Sometime
@cktan - I have to agree that if you are selling something on an international stage, the wrong words can carry a different meaning to the original.
Sometime
You’re kidding me? I’m a copywriter and communications consultant - no idea what Tony Fernandez was thinking!