The headline of this post is the exact same message that is featured in a number of ads put forth by breathe.sg. I’d like you to first watch both videos, as they’re the focus of the rest of the post.
Keep on reading to find out where these ads came from and why they were made. I’ve broken the post up because it is a long one, and I know how much you guys hate massive stories on the front page.
The last time I posted an ad that featured a heavily modified person there was a healthy debate over the implications from the ad. This time though, the implications are pretty clear. These two people, who have great stories to tell about their modifications and the meanings behind them, should be looked at negatively as they’re on the same level as a binge drinker.
It took a little digging, but I discovered that the breathe.sg campaign began in 2008 as an initiative put forth by the Singapore government’s Heath Promotion Board (HPB). In a press release dated Oct 9th, 2008, the HPB announced the creation of the Breathe campaign.
NHLC 2008: “Breathe”
2 The theme for this year’s campaign is “Breathe”. It seeks to encourage youth to choose (breathe in) life, truth and self-expression and not succumb to (breathe out) insecurity, pessimism, pressure and judgement. “Breathe” will also brand health as exciting, vibrant and an asset youth should treasure to help them achieve their fullest potential and ambitions in life.3 “Breathe” is targeted at youth aged 12 to 23 and will be launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Padang on 7 November 2008.
“Breathe – Game for Life” – Launch Event
4 The campaign’s launch event, “Breathe – Game for Life”, aims to showcase non-conventional, youth-centric activities to encourage the young to cultivate healthy habits for lifelong health. These include Human Bowling, Human Table Soccer and remote control speed racing. Conventional games such as Captain’s Ball will also be given a new twist to demonstrate how these activities can be made more exciting to engage our young in an active lifestyle.5 Strong elements of music – a universal language among youth – will feature prominently at the launch event. In line with this, the event will feature an exhilarating new dance fitness routine, a hip-hop competition with a healthy lifestyle theme and a dance party under the stars. All these will encourage youth to keep active while grooving to their lively beats.
Launch of “Breathe” Portal
6 A new “Breathe” portal (www.breathe.sg) will be launched to engage youth on various health issues and provide them with information on events and activities held in conjunction with NHLC 2008.
In December of that year, todayonline.com wrote an article describing the efforts of the campaign, as well as it’s initial goals. The article has since been removed, but there there is a cached version of it available on a blog located here.
HE GOT drunk at a friend’s house and ended up taking off all his clothes in the bathroom. “The next thing I knew,” said :student Mervyn Lee, 19, “I woke up in my friend’s bed wearing a fresh pair of shorts.” Tales like this may raise a titter, but the dangers of excessive drinking are all too real. That is why the Health Promotion Board (HPB) will embark on its first nationwide campaign against binge drinkingnext year, aimed at 18- to 25-year-olds. Binge drinking — consuming five drinks or more for males, or four drinks or more for females, within two hours — is an “emerging issue in Singapore”, said HPB in a tender document posted on the GeBIZ website.
The HPB intends to create awareness through student-led projects and educational material targeted at tertiary students, among other things.
– Alicia Wong and Sufian Suderman, todayonline.com
Finally, as part of the 2008/2009 annual report, the chairman of the HPB, Lucas Chow, goes on to describe just how positive the campaign is meant to be. The entire report can be found here but it is a large .pdf file, so just be aware of that if you want to give it a read.
The annual National Healthy Lifestyle Campaign (NHLC) took on a youth focus for the first time, with the theme, “Breathe”. It encouraged young people to appreciate health as an asset for them to achieve their fullest potential and ambitions in life through an array of activities and events.
Now with the mandate of the campaign being intended to bring a positive outlook on their health and lifestyle, I find it interesting that their initial ad campaigns were so negative. To be fair, in addition to the ads, the Breathe campaign does sponsor a number of youth oriented events such as a hip-hop dance competition, as well as other youth themed events. But the question still remains, if the purpose of the campaign is “ to choose (breathe in) life, truth and self-expression and not succumb to not succumb to (breathe out) insecurity, pessimism, pressure and judgement”, aren’t these ads completely disingenuous? When I see the people in the videos I see two people who have chosen truth and self-expression, and aren’t showing any form of insecurity at all. The ads themselves even run counter to the notion of preventing pessimism, pressure, and especially judgement. If anything these commercials are huge examples of judgments being passed on young people in order to put them down and discourage them.
While the 2009 programs seem to be targeted towards reducing the number of teen smokers, the binge drinking campaign is still being promoted on the site’s YouTube channel.
Looking back at the ads, the question arises if the individuals in the ads knew exactly what the campaign was about. I find it hard to believe that two people with such high self-esteem would allow themselves to be used as a metaphor for an unhealthy activity. What I also find interesting is that the 2009 campaign against smoking had a fashion show event where you can obtain temporary tattoos that you’re encouraged to show off, as well as receive discounts at stores for wearing the tattoo. So while in 2008 having a lot of tattoos is equivelant to binge drinking, in 2009 suddenly it’s cool to show off a tattoo, even if it is temporary.
If the comments for the videos on YouTube are any indication, I’m not the only one who finds these ads offensive in they way they portray heavily modified people. It’s a shame that they took this approach because they may not receive the results they intended.
So ModBlog readers, what are your thoughts on this campaign? Is there a big enough cultural difference between how we see these ads, and the target audience would, that our perception of it is skewed? Or did the HPB completely miss the mark, and put out a campaign that will infuriate more people than it could help?
Comments
81 responses to ““Some people don’t know when to stop””
again another example of how society is ever so more lost in what they want to believe as “strange” and “weird” since they dont know and relating it to mental and physical issues people have….
i guess next will be something along the lines of us and metal illness or mental retardation. the sad and pathetic thing…. i feel the best way we can be portrayed is by a narcissistic “guido” on a tv show that really has no real value other than drama and promiscuity. do us well Pauly D
@mike
Haha uhm… the unfortunate stigma that follows modified people is in no way comparable to the civil rights movement.
I really didn’t feel as strongly as some of the people on here about those ads. I certainly didn’t like them, and yes, they are somewhat degrading especially to the actual interviewees, but I think I kind of just feel sorry for the people that made them and the ones targeted by it that get sucked into thinking all modded people have a problem. I mean really, how ignorant. I have quite a few large peices and are pretty visible, and yet *somehow* I manage to hold down a job, have a house, a lovely fiance, a dog a cat, and a pretty awesome extended family. I’ve never had a drug or alcohol issue, infact I barely drink these days — and I bet plenty if not all of you guys are in the same boat. And yet somehow we’re compared to binge drinkers? Pretty uncool.
What are they drinking that 4 drinks for women in 2 hours is considered binge drinking is what I want to know!
wow. this is upsetting to me. there are SO many other things that people excessively do that would make more sense to a young person. and to take something that can be dangerous to ones health and well being and compare it to a conscious personal choice about how you look makes no sense to me.
Off base, but @Jens “So I think you people shouldn’t be offended”
I honestly find the phrase “you people” to be more offensive than these commercials lol
There is a cultural difference, no one is trying to deny that, the debate here, is not about whether we should be sensitive to their ignorance, its about how ignorant and insensitive they are.
I say the tattoo’s are fake, they look unnatural , and it kind of looks like he’s wearing one of those shirts with the tattoos printed all over it.
@mike
ummm….. i’m pretty sure that comparing the modified community to blacks before civil rights is just a TAD outrageous. i’m not sure about you, but i don’t remember being murdered in the town square for giggles or having separate water fountains or going to a separate school (etc).
with the kind of discrimination we face, banding together and making a stink over the videos isn’t really going to change how people view us. the only thing that is going to change their opinions is for them to experience us as relatable to themselves.
and might i point out that your bitching about people bitching is just as obnoxious as the original bitching, so get off your high horse.
If binge drinking is having 5 drinks in 2 hours then these people should just start selling bigger cups. Problem solved.
@Tia: I didn’t mean any offence with writing ‘you people’, I’m not a native English speaker, and I didn’t know it comes across as offensive. I wanted to write ‘you guys’, but it sounded a bit corny to me. I just wanted to refer to the people who posted here, that’s all, sorry if it rubbed you the wrong way. Plus I meant to say ‘not be offended too much’ for the reasons I stated in my original post.
I didnt read any previous comments as im pressed for time. But i thought it odd that we were claiming to be hurt over the negative protrayal of our lifestyle by being compared to… THOSE BINGE DRINKERS!!!
We turn around and bash another group of people considering them lower then we are, just because it was done to us?
Just saying.
Its like they said “fuck that modified peoples, n all what they say about self… they r freaks, n everyone hates em”
its really shity…where they get this ideas for ads? fuck em, n fuck all that campaign if that…hard drinking r bad(i CAN tell u it i live in russia, its really hard problem here), but its not belittle that crap what they meaned about modified persons…
Obviously the people making these ads are ignorant, how can one put a positive way of selfexpression in such a bullshit context.
they should make a cookie ad with tattooed martha stewart and a tattooed president. that is what tattooed people are really like, martha stewart and the president (could be a republican president if you guys are offended by tattooed people being used to represent democrats).
I think some people are to sensitive sometimes.. I have no problem with the ads. Clearly the marketing campaign took what ever was hip and trendy, as a means of capturing youths short attention spans, to get a message across to quit boozing it up..
Occasionally people should look around and realize not everyone is heavily modded nor interested, or attracted to it what so ever. Thus in common society, the message works just fine.
Cere, I think the reason that so many people are upset and offended is because the videos are portraying modified people as excessive drinkers or substance abusers. It’s not about bashing the alcoholics. I feel that being modified gives us a better understanding of other lifestyles, like it makes us more open minded. That being said, I think the real issue here is not so much being tied to binge drinking as it is being tied to an unhealthy way of life. Alcoholism is bad. I’m not saying having a few drinks is bad, or being drunk is bad. I’m saying that waking up at 7am, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and not putting it down until 11pm is bad. It’s unhealthy. I don’t think that any of us want to be seen that way. Sure, there’s probably modified alcoholics out there, but lets be honest here, these videos were putting body modification on the same level as alcoholism. That’s a TAD bit ridiculous if you ask me.
Just my two cents.
I thought the piercing interview was very good, and I really agree with her on the, “feeling naked without my modifications” bit. Shame that was used for this ad campaign.
@47
Yes because the left wing fuckheads are so much more sane.
:/
makes me thirsty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIeLvfgsLWM works better for me
That video has been posted to ModBlog before Kendall.
compare bodyart / lifestyle with alcoholism and drugs abuse…demand that agency!!
the concept its so ignorant.
Meh… as a non-Singaporean living in Singapore for 10 years and working in advertising (but no association at all with this campaign) I’m not finding this offensive, or particularly belittling to people with mods.
I don’t get the feeling that the ads are associating body modification with substance abuse at all. It’s just saying “know when to stop” to many who’d find these two to be far more OTT than they’d ever want to be.
Both of these ads are also studio-shot print ad campaigns in bus shelters and magazines, so we can assume that the talent knew what they were signing up for.
I see them as slightly humorous, and probably incredibly effective at drawing the attention of their (hard to reach and influence) target market. If it helps to stop some fights in clubs, domestic abuse and all the other stupidity that goes with alcohol abuse then more power to it, I say.
I didn’t claim to have created it or say it was a new idea that no one had ever seen…I just posted it as contrast since I think its much less offensive because it toys with stereotypes that people deal with but in a way that makes modification all the more tempting…It pokes fun at itself, its not a blatantly insulting thing like the other videos…
I live in Singapore. I am pretty heavily modded with a full sleeve, and as much as I am extremely offended by the ad (funny how I never recalled seeing this? I think it had a very short air time) but I must admit, it is relevant… or at least to me and my social circle, where binge drinking is the norm amongst us — however, they have failed to notice that 92% of binge drinkers have NO mods at all?
I find no link between binge drinking and a love for mods; if they are trying to tap on the whole “addicted to modding self” idea, they have certainly failed to convey the message. Had I not read the article before watching the video I think I’d have a hard time understanding it was a campaign against binge drinking.
Marc: If it was meaned in that harmless way at all (what I doubt, more comments to it see #47), the result does not sound that harmless = ad failed.
This is the problem with society.
period
” When I see the people in the videos I see two people who have chosen truth and self-expression, and aren’t showing any form of insecurity at all.”
Exactly. I agree and it makes the message of the ad pretty unclear. True, they are drawing parallels to body mods and binge drinking, but I think in the long run the ads will have a positive effect on kids where body mods are concerned because the people in the ads are so unapologetic, confident, and quite beautiful.
It’s kind of like a mini-documentary I saw on straight edge hardcore when I was a kid that explored the violence and intensity of the culture but it was also the catalyst that got me into both straight edge and hardcore for the entirety of my adolescence into my adult life.
oh dear, why do i have to live in singapore with such campaign. narrow minded singapore/ans.
i used to have that girl on msn and facebook
the adds she was aware what they were for…… the adds were also put on bus stops and billboards,
she was quite happy to do this,
maybe she is against drinking herself, so the campain was right for her
and as for the guy, i dunt no anything about him
That is in fact satanycandle, but she is wearing some fake jewelry. All those hoops in her upper lip are fake, easy to tell, they arent CBRs, and its just painfully obvious. The eyelid ones are also very very fake. I paused the video during a few close ups, easy to tell.
That guys tattoos also look pretty fake, I must agree.
I too am also offended by these ads. I wonder what she was thinking agreeing to it? Maybe “Hey Im going to be on TV!” and thats about it.. :/