One of the things to look forward to during any festive season in Malaysia is the creative ways in which companies and brands manage to catch our attention with their adverts. Often, these ads are centred around family and friends, tugging at our heartstrings and reminding us of what’s important. But, a video published in conjunction with the upcoming Hari Raya celebrations has caused a massive stir on social media. Now, the main actor seen in the video has come forward with an apology.
The 24-year-old, Saifullah, clarified that the director of the ad hadn’t revealed much to him and only told him that he would be the main actor. However, he stated that upon arriving on set on the day of the shoot, he was told that he’d only be playing a side role.
“I’m so so disappointed, I couldn’t sleep thinking about this.”
In his apology, he explained that he had already completed 70% of his scenes when he was given the lyrics of the song to lip-sync to.
“I’m so sorry, I should’ve actually been more careful to see the details of the job. When we get a job, we should dig a bit to find out what company it is, what the storyline is about; everything about it should be known.”
The two-minute video starts off like any other typical Raya video, with the main character (in this case, a boy) seeming troubled. He’s looking at clothes and as he checks his wallet, he realises that it’s empty. However, before we realise what’s going on, we’re soon alerted to the fact that the advert is basically product placement for a betting company. If you think that sounds surreal, try watching it yourself.
In one part, the lyrics go “Menang banyak pasti happy (winning a lot will guarantee happiness),”. Further into the video, after he puts some money into his betting app, he watches it drastically increase and that’s when he immediately springs into joy as he can finally afford to beraya.
Netizens have erupted in anger and in complete disbelief over what they have just watched, reacting with:
Even local actor Ashraf Muslim has responded to the video, chiding,
” So rude! Openly inviting people to sin. The month of Ramadan, a good month, a month full of God’s grace. But the video here has ruined the holy month. Those involved in the making of this video are thoughtless. Don’t tell me you didn’t know what this video was about? Betting la!”
Since going viral, the original video uploaded onto YouTube has been taken down, but some tweets circulating the video have amassed up to 300k views at the time of writing. As such, it isn’t surprising that even the police have been alerted to the news.
Saif and his five other actor friends have since been called to the Dang Wangi police station to give a statement.
“I’m going to clear my name,”
*This article was originally published on the 16th of April but has since been updated to reflect recent developments.
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