Deepavali television advert tackles misjudgement of Malaysia’s Tamil youth

Since 1996, Petronas, the national oil company of Malaysia have produced heart-warming and thought-provoking television adverts to mark major religious & cultural festivals celebrated by the country’s Malay, Chinese & Tamil communities. The first of these ads was released for Deepavali two decades ago. This year’s ad tackles misjudgement.

The most memorable of these was this humorous TVC for Deepavali 2003.

The commercial featured two hip-hop influenced Indian boys being reprimanded by an elderly relative for trying to act cool. One of the main characters in the TVC changed his name from Muthusamy Karrupiah to, simply, Sam, and this can be seen as an exaggerated metaphor of the great length to which some people would go to deny their past and embrace the present, newfound affluence.

We like to wish all our readers who are celebrating, a very happy Deepavali. We leave you with this heartwarming commercial from 2014, titled “The Light within”, in which a young boy reminds an old man that the light within us shines brightest when shared.