Beijing-based streaming site iQIYI caused quite a stir recently over an embarrassing promotional poster which went viral on social media.
For those curious, the poster went up last week as part of their “Anak Malaysia” campaign which showcases local TV shows and movies featuring our homegrown talents on its platform, in conjunction with Malaysia Day this Wednesday (16th September).
https://twitter.com/nahdahsudah/status/1305111034043068416?
Anal Malaysia? What? ? pic.twitter.com/FkXFhfyZ4t
— sadiqasyraf (@sadiqasyraf) September 12, 2020
When you’re patriotic but also gay ? pic.twitter.com/UtCWfElODK
— Afiq Deen (@AfiqDeen) September 12, 2020
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Ha! Malaysia, land of my childhood. I was an “Anak Malaysia.” Never noticed the asshole part. ??? https://t.co/VU3X9PyfP5
— RaviWatch.com (@RaviScam) September 13, 2020
However, many netizens (especially on Twitter) pointed out that the “Anak Malaysia” logo looked like a different word instead. In particular, some argued that the tagline was widely misinterpreted as “Anal Malaysia” and not “Anak Malaysia” (Child of Malaysia)!
After facing immense backlash among Malaysians, the Chinese company has since apologised for sparking fury among locals over the design of the poster. They took to their official social media pages by posting a light-hearted statement to clear the air on the issue. The statement opened, “Hey everyone, we saw your reactions on our campaign logo. We wanted to confirm that it’s ‘Anak Malaysia’ and nothing else!
They added, “We’re sorry if our logo design created any confusion. Next time we will check (the errors) at least 50 times a day okay. We did not intend to offend any parties,” they further clarified in the post. In the statement, iQIYI also cheekily reminded others not to misread the caption out loud “in front of the kids”.
The poster is no longer available on the company’s official social media accounts and website at the time of writing (Monday, 14th September).
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