Manulife Removed FB Post That ‘Looks Down on’ & Offends Musicians

Compared to Western families, parents in Asia have been known to decide their child’s career on their behalf.

By default, choices are often limited to prestigious such as a doctor or lawyer.

(NEVER A WRITER, I AM 101% CERTAIN)

Through a Korean show I watched a few years back, I learnt that Koreans have a traditional practice during a child’s 1st birthday celebration called Doljabi. This ritual is similar to the Chinese practice, Zhuazhou.

During which, six to eight items reflecting various career options are placed before the child. The kid has to choose at least one item, providing an insight into the future career the child would lean towards to in time to come.

CC: Mum. Clearly, I didn’t waste my time watching Korean shows.

Traditional Asian Parents

Traditional Asian parents tend to pre-determine their children’s future because they want the best for them; unconventional career paths often translate to unstable income. Unless of course, you’re good at your craft.

I’ll admit it. The thought of becoming a musician did cross my mind back when I was learning the piano.

But of course, it’s just another dream collecting dust in the back of my mind.

Thankfully, people are becoming more open to the idea of having non-mainstream jobs which don’t entail sitting in front of a computer from 9 to 5 on weekdays.

Or so we thought.

Manulife Singapore offended local Musicians

According to Stomp, Insurance company Manulife received backlash in one of their advertisement posted on Facebook on 22 April, Monday. The ad which has since been removed was a video which had monetary values assigned to different professions.

Along with the video was the following caption:

“Being a parent can be challenging and a nerve-wracking process – let our fortune cards light your way to a smoother journey in parenthood. Pick your card now to catch a glimpse of your future: http://bit.ly/KnowledgeattheCrossroads.”

At first glance, nothing seems to be wrong but on a closer look, musicians were assigned a mere “S$5,000”.

Musicians Triggered

This enraged many local musicians who left their inputs in the comment section of the same post.

One of which was Eugene Seow who according to STOMP, had been “studying music since he was six years old, broke down how much it would require to become a professional full-time musician and estimated the cost to be about $60,000.”

In an interview with STOMP, Seow shared: “We are human beings, contributing to society and making an honest living, and we are tired of stereotypes perpetuated all so subtly.”

Sad but true. There’s always talk about how we should support local talent, but with occurrences like this, isn’t it ironic?

Having worked briefly in a PR and Marketing Agency, creatives usually undergo stringent checks before going up online, and worst-case scenarios are well thought out beforehand.

And as a publisher, we’ve seen first-hand on how careful our clients can be: so careful, our first draft is usually 101% different from the final draft.

But anyways.

Manulife apologizes for the mistake

Regardless of what happened internally, Manulife Singapore has issued an apology on Facebook which states: “Education is an important journey and every path is a different one that requires significant sacrifices.

“In an earlier video, we made the mistake of assigning a monetary value to different professions and we realise that this is not right. We sincerely apologise for the mistake and have taken down the video.”

Mistakes are inevitable but what’s important is that we learn from it.

As Arya Stark from Game of Thrones would say, “A bruise is a lesson, and each lesson makes us better”.

Well, at least now we know why our clients are always so careful and are always rejecting 101% of our ideas.