SingTel’s marketing video promoting an overseas remittance service for money transfers to the Philippines has been slammed after local news and lifestyle site Mothership.sg posted it on Wednesday.
The video titled “The Bare Facts of SingTel mRemit” has garnered over 16,000 views since being posted on the telco’s YouTube channel on 25 March, with many viewers slamming it for its poor quality since being shared by the news site.
The video showed two topless salesmen, with bodies covered in body paint, pitching the mobile service to a Filipino woman. Many viewers were particularly bothered by a close-up shot of a chest seen in the video at the 58-second mark. The zoomed in shot illustrated how the service was available to users for 24 hours.
“This is so B-grade. Talents are so fake, script is cheesy. What’s with the focus on the guy’s nipple at 0:58?” said Ben Koh.
“Wonder which advertising company handles this…How can the idea even pass the pitching stage?” said Michael Ambious Tan.
However, there were others who supported the video for being “micro-targeted”.
A Joel Koh said, “This is actually a clever piece of micro-targeted advertising. You’ve probably realised that the average Singaporean isn’t the target audience for this ad.”
Andrew Cm said, “Whoever did this must have been following a brief to the letter. It’s very targeted to a certain kind of audience. Anyway, on the bright saide, just look at it as a parody. I did not need to see male nipples though.”
SingTel reportedly said on Thursday, in a statement to Mothership.sg, that the video was “part of a campaign that ended in March” and have noted the comments about it online.
The clip surfaced just three days after Singapore Tourism Board’s cheesy video was shared by the same site and subsequently slammed by many viewers. The video showed a couple on a romantic getaway to Singapore.
STB took the video down from its YouTube channel on Monday as “it was not resonating well with audiences”, according to a spokesperson.
Will there be a parody for SingTel’s video?
Don’t be surprised if a parody of SingTel’s video emerges on the Internet in the coming days. A video parodying STB’s clip is already being viewed by over 25,000 people since being posted on Wednesday.
Titled, “Honey, Look! (Parody)”, the one minute 16 second clip features local radio deejays Joakim Gomez and Sonia Chew.
The parody was made to promote their radio show on 987fm called “The Radio Show”, which goes on air on weekdays from 6am to 10am.
In the funny parody, the duo ridiculed the popular phrase “honey, look!”, which was used frequently in STB’s clip.
Yahoo Singapore has approached SingTel for comments.
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