AV students promote the diversity of local cultures through exhibition

UTAR Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FAS) Department of Advertising organised an exhibition titled January 2022 Advertising Student’s Final Year Design Campaign Exhibition on 26 April 2022 at Dewan Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik of Kampar Campus.

Organised by 41 Bachelor of Communication (Honours) Advertising (AV) students, the exhibition provided a platform for January 2022 trimester UAMA3106 Design Research students to showcase 10 different creative proposals for their campaign as a pre-requisite subject for the UAMA3116 Design Campaign.

The exhibition also aimed to provide opportunities for students to revive and promote the local cultural element that has a potential for development or needs an awareness campaign to acknowledge the significance of the cultural tradition.

In line with the objective, the exhibition saw a total of 10 different booths showcasing eight different cultural aspects, namely the Chinese Lion Dance, Wau, 24 Festive Drum Performance, traditional games in Malaysia, Ketupat Daun Palas, traditional handicrafts, Peranakan electric architectures, and Chinese New Year Celebration.

The booths showcased the different varieties of cultural elements in Malaysia. The exhibition also featured interactive and entertaining traditional games for students and visitors.

The advisors of UAMA3106 Design Research and UAMA3116 Design Campaign Subjects C. Cheryl and Dr M. Pragash enthused, “This course provided an avenue for the students to explore their ideas from the proposal stage. It also taught them how to shape and form those ideas into a real-life campaign. This course was previously offered as the usual final year project, but now the syllabus has been revised to execute an advertising campaign to better reflect the programme outcome. This is the first batch of students taking the course, nevertheless, they did very well and they have definitely set a very high benchmark for the future batches.”

They added, “Although the students faced some challenges and difficulties in materialising their campaign, they were excited and pleased with the outcome of the exhibition. Conversing with the students, they revealed that they enjoyed the ‘learning curve’ in executing their respective campaigns. It is hoped that the outcome of this semester’s Design Campaign Exhibition will set precedence for other student campaigns in the future.”

The participants thoroughly enjoyed the games and exhibition booths designed for them as they progressed from one station to another, acquiring new knowledge and reinforcing existing ones in the process.

Also present at the exhibition were FAS Dean Dr Lee Lai Meng, FAS staff and students.

The lion dance group attempted to promote and enhance people’s awareness of traditional Chinese Lion Dance

The Wau (traditional Malay kite) group worked on creating awareness and sharing the uniqueness of Wau among Malaysians. This campaign also aimed to give a new look to the Wau by introducing costumes resembling the Wau design

The group that worked on raising awareness of the importance of the 24 Festive Drums

PITOW - Play It the Old Way attempted to pass the knowledge of the forgotten traditional Malaysian games to the younger generation to enhance their understanding of the games. Four traditional games were introduced in the campaign, namely galah panjang, gasing, congkak and guli

This group’s campaign aimed to reposition and rebrand the traditional ketupat daun palas, which was primarily served during Hari Raya Puasa, as a convenient and contemporary food targeted at the younger generation

One of the exhibition booths among others. Their campaign was to promote the diminishing cultural heritage of Wau, a traditional Malay game, with virtual or physical activities to university students in Malaysia by organising wau-related events

This group focused on promoting ecotourism sites in Pahang and educating Malaysians about the ecotourism concepts by sharing information on sustainable and responsible tourism. The group also promoted indigenous people’s handicrafts on their campaign’s social media page to increase the exposure of these handicrafts. The handicrafts include handcrafted woven bags, keychains, etc

This campaign called “The Eclectic Generation” included physical and virtual exhibitions to introduce the origins, components and conservation efforts of Peranakan eclectic architectures in George Town, Penang. It focused on the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, Chinahouse and Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

The purpose of this campaign was to educate and increase awareness of Chinese New Year by conveying the Chinese New Year’s customs and culture to the new generation