Telco Sentiments

Been busy with university registration and stuff...
One uncle had once told me to switch to Celcom because it's a malay company. A malay company. And Digi's a Jewish company. And Maxis and Ho'link (as pronounced by Siti) are Indian companies.
Sentiments.
True. Very true. But it's really very weird when we get down to business and the business I'm talking about is BigBucks Telco Commercialism. They're all about advertising their brand, positively everywhere to anyone. And woohoo-jolly-meat-slacker-slap-me, it's all good. What's not good is perhaps the contradicting reality of the much spoken sentiment.
Digi for starters had used its flat rate as its forte as they would charge our calls in a static price. This of course is a great move as we could plan our calls more ardently. The advertisment KuBersamaMu is rather yellow. Just Fat. And Yellow. And Chinese. No comment. I would love to see a fat yellow indian for a change. Its telly commercial is rather rooted and local. But still chinese. You know what? Chinese has always been the tell-tale example of quality spending. So I rest my case.
Hotlink's rate is amazingly confusing, confusingly fun. It's like a game by itself, except that you'll be spending a whole lot of money that revolves around edges and corners, and pitts. And when the month comes to the end, you'll sulk over how much you'd spent. Like a spiritually wounded otaku gamer. The advertisment is locally relatable and very TeenyBopish. Dekat KL free hair, dekat Terengganu pakai tudung. They don't really hit the spot when it comes to their telly commercial. All in all, you'll have no idea that it is runned by an Indian.
Celcom's is Bangbangboom (<--note that it's a song by the Moffats). Loud and expressive. Its call rates rockets and sinks. Boinkboink. Celcom is a wise choice for consumers who has no concern of their mobile phone expenditure because it has so many things to offer and it could possibly ease your life a bit but squeeze your pocket as you go along with it. Like a temple monkey. Its advertisment is extremely expensive. Good branding lah but take a better look at it and you'll realize that it's very orangputeh oriented. You know how malays just adore orangputeh lookalikes or orangputeh themselves. (otak masih dijajah) So yes, very malay. Very typical. You know how malay consumers are amiable suckers. So there you go.
Sentiments. Can't live without it.

9 comments:

syima said...

waaah afiq, good to have u back, posting ur thoughts here. my life was kinda dull when u went backpacking la.. hehe =P

mutalib saifuddin said...

hah. tan sri vincent tan used to own DiGi, through his major stake. (Heard now no longer...)

celcom is controlled by TM (Telekom), through major stake. So it's a 1/2 GLC, controlled by Shazalli Ramly, Dato' Seri.

too bad, TAK (Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan, the towkay) is taking up the WHOLE Maxis, and the man behind the success, Jamaludin Ibrahim, Dato', is leaving the company, wondering WHO is the 'next-of-kin'. Hotlink is the subsdiary of Maxis, and the 1st prepaid telco in M'sia.

Guess that if you call TM lines very often, it's only 15 sens/min, under 8pax plan. saving giler. (chesh, those days it was 10 cents, but when the subscriber's number increased, they increase it to 15. Shoot.)

In Kelantan, also, the models ARE with headscarves. Yes, must follow the Tok Guru's rules.

It's about money, in it?

Miss Aida said...

Whatever gets the best plan works.

Who cares, unless that money is being directly channeled for greater evil?

afiq said...

right?

Who cares. That uncle I mentioned earlier is Uncle Lee, Celcom CEO, mesti la dier pujuk masuk Celcom.

LOL

hanyhany said...

Wow. The conflict one must feel just to make a call on their mobiles.

Hmm,
5 cents for under a minute, 10 once a minute's up, yadayada....
Ah. Sod it.

Btw, i find the yellow-DIGI-person really disturbing. Bears an uncanny resemblance to Big Bird being stuffed in a giant condom.

mirul said...

subconsciously, you're stereotyping as you type.

weh biler nak datang trg lagi?

afiq said...

I am, I know...

Aput said...

I happen to like my Indian Maxis Hotlink which I've had since form 5...

As much as I'd like to argue the stereotype, I think it pretty much speaks not only for prepaid telco commercials, but all commercials alike.

afiq said...

very very true..

In conclusion.. It's all about the MuNNEYYYY