BFM and Fishermen team up to give Netflix a taste of the Malaysian street food they ignored
BFM 89.9 and independent Malaysian advertising agency Fishermen have joined forces to launch Unite for Food in conjunction with the upcoming National Day and Malaysia Day celebrations.
The campaign #BersatuForMakan is a call to all Malaysians to unite for the love of our food, in response to Netflix’s decision to exclude Malaysia from its documentary series Street Food, while featuring neighbouring countries Singapore and Indonesia.
In an attempt to correct the glaring mistake in the series that began streaming on 26 April 2019, BFM and Fishermen are self-producing its own Malaysian Street Food video, which will roll out on 16 September 2019. They have also started an online petition to get Netflix to run the video as part of its Street Food series.
If there’s one thing we can always count on to unite Malaysians, it’s definitely food. So far, the petition has garnered close to 8,000 signatures and counting since it started on 23 August 2019.
BFM General Manager, Meera Sivasothy said, “BFM is known to encourage discourse and push boundaries. So, when this came up, it was important for us to not take it lying down. We need, for once, to take the initiative to shout about our culturally rich and diverse food that reflects who we are as a nation. So, let us #BersatuforMakan, while staying true to our love for food.”
Andrew Tan, Executive Creative Director of Fishermen said the video being produced will be in the same format and style as Netflix’s show. “We’re making it convenient for Netflix. They can in fact run our video immediately as an episode in their Street Food series.”
He added that this campaign is also an opportunity for the team to do something different for this year’s National Day and Malaysia Day. “Instead of producing another web film to pull heartstrings, we decided on something unique: A longer format 30-minute film that’s also ready-made for Netflix. It was the right opportunity to work on an idea like this, so we seized it.”
Mark Darren Lee, Managing Director of Fishermen added, “We’re glad to have a partner like BFM who believes in such a daring idea and wants to bring all Malaysians together for the things that truly matter – our unity and our identity. We’re happy to see the great response and support from Malaysians and from other brands. We hope Netflix responds positively too by agreeing to feature our video in their series. We believe it’s a win-win situation for them, us and the people of Malaysia.”
The #BersatuForMakan campaign is also supported by Ittify as the social media influencer marketing partner and Rantau Golin as the public relations partner.