ASIA-PACIFIC – MALAYSIA, AUGUST 30, 2013 – In time of the upcoming Merdeka Day, TBA\Kuala Lumpur has created the ‘Road to Merdeka’, an initiative for 1 Malaysia for Youth (1M4U) inspiring young Malaysians to discover more about the country’s history, specifically about how it became a free nation.
The campaign underscores the sacrifices, fears and musings – some real, some imagined – of Tunku Abdul Rahman and other founding fathers.
Using the two most common mediums of the youth – Twitter and Facebook, the campaign retells the story of how a group of men came together, united in their belief that Malaysia was ready for self-governance and freedom.
The first tweets were released on August 5 and will continue ‘til Merdeka Day. The four-week campaign will focus on events that happened from 1954 all the way to the declaration of Merdeka. A Facebook page was also created to house all the tweets, images and video links in one easy-to-follow page.
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The contents for the campaign have been researched and sourced from various books and websites, as well as Arkib Negara and Memorial Tunku Abdul Rahman.
The idea came about after a discussion regarding the ubiquitous image of Tunku Abdul Rahman declaring ‘Merdeka’ at Stadium Merdeka.
“We imagined what it was like to be in their shoes. The tweets not only recount the events, but they serve as their inner voice, letting followers know what went through their mind as things unfolded,” said Sa’ad Hussein, TBWA\Kuala Lumpur chief creative officer.
“We wanted to show that The Tunku and the other founding fathers were just like you and me, and we tried our best to reveal little gems that people may not necessarily know – like how the Merdeka delegation stopped negotiations so that they could all go to Wembley to catch a football game,” added Hussein.
The campaign comes with a video showing guerrilla wall tagging, as well as covering a part of the Sungai Klang wall with a Road to Merdeka graffiti. This graffiti is part of the unconventional methods to promote the campaign aside from relying on word-of-mouth.
For those interested to know more about Road to Merdeka, follow Tunku and the other founding fathers onTwitter via @TunkuMerdeka, @RazakMerdeka @THTanMerdeka, TanCLMerdeka, HSLeeMerdeka, DrIsmailMerdeka and VTSamMerdeka.
