The poster campaign, by DDB International Malaysia, targets the general public and foreign employers who hire low-paid workers from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines. The ad was also based on research that found that many migrant workers carry whitening creams. Among the reasons given by workers were ‘to look whiter, fairer and avoid racial insults. The whiter the better'
The poster headline, running above a pot of whitening cream, reads: ‘Blocks melanin build-up and, quite effectively, varying tones of racial slurs'.
The campaign broke this month, and was posted in popular shopping malls and the Filipino Workers Resource Center of the Philippine Embassy to boost attendance to its migrant worker skills training programme.
DDB ECD Roger Pe said: "We only see the surface, and we don't realise that this forgotten segment of society travels far away, leaving their families behind to be able to help them survive."
