Radio Ads...

Ever notice how many of the radio ads you hear in Malaysia seem similar? Noticed this today when I was listening to Mix FM online. Do that a lot, especially when I'm yearning to hear the local accent, and when I'm just sick of speaking American English (for crying out loud, 'can't' is pronounced 'Kah-nt', not 'Keh-nt'. And it's antibiotics, not an-tie-biotics!).

Anyway, I digress.

Notice how many of local radio ads have the same theme?

Ah Beng talking to Ah Lian, complaining about how pathetic his life is.

Ah Lian tells him about some wonderful miracle tongkat Ali/ginseng drink that would improve his mood.

End with Ah Beng exclaiming, "Oh, I must get some too!"

Variant 1:

Guy with fake Brit accent talking to friend. Friend tells him about some My Wan-lar! homeloan or something to that effect.

Guy goes, "Oh, I must get some too!"

Variant 2:

Girl 1 talking to friend Girl 2 about some miracle facial creme made of Mongolian lamb placenta and wild Antarctic zebra hemorrhoids*, guaranteed to make her Everest-like zits melt away (not unlike hydrochloric acid). Never mind that that leads to deformed, very ugly decendants.

Girl 2: "Oh, I must get some too!"

*Okay, fine. There are no zebras in Antarctica. But if there were zebras there, I'd bet that with the lack of fiber in their diets, they'd get humongous hemorrhoids.

Variant 3:

Woman talking to her friend about some once-in-a-lifetime super-mega-colossal-gigantisaurus sale going on in Gaya Gusto departmental store.

Her friend: "Oh, we must go now!"

(Then again, maybe she had too much to eat at lunch, and meant that she had to go to the toilet to do a number 2?)

Okay, so I took some creative liberties to modify the examples so that people don't sue my pants and polka-dot Gap boxers off. But really, the next time you're caught in the usual 32-hour rush hour traffic in KL, have a post-it handy, and mark down the number of ads you hear in that one trip resembling the above.

Kinda makes you wonder. Are we not capable to trying something different?

Then again, I'm probably being hypocritical; after all when I was home recently, all I kept having for breakfast every day was lor-mai-kai.