Kitsui X Ruhainies But With An “Everything’s So Blurry” Kinda Twist
Reshooting an ad campaign is not easy, so they did the next best thing…
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One thing none of us can do is predict the future.
When it comes to brand’s appointing celebrity ambassadors and shooting advertisement campaigns for festive celebrations, this is usually done months in advance.
A lot can happen between the time a campaign is shot and its release date. However, this is not something the brand can control.
In a rather funny display of “damage control”, a local beauty products brand turned their Ramadan advertisement into what looked like a news footage of a crime.
Let us be clear first, the brand is not being faulted because as mentioned, who can predict the future.
Kitsui Malaysia
In a statement, Kitsui Malaysia explained that their 2024 Ramadan advertisement was shot in December 2023.
At the time, they appointed three celebrities for the campaign; singer Wany Hasrita, actor Hisyam Hamid and actress Ruhainies Zainul Ilyas.
“The selection of these three for the Kitsui Ramadan Greetings and Kitsui Raya were made after careful consideration in October 2023,” they said in a statement.
With shooting having completed in December 2023 involving 100 production crew members, Kitsui Malaysia expressed hope that what transpired recently involving the private life of one of the celebrities would not affect the airing of their advertisement.
So what happened?
If you have no idea what’s going on, we will break it down for you in a sweet and short way.
Ruhainies was recently embroiled in a controversy of an alleged khalwat case involving fellow actor Aliff Aziz.
The press initially reported that her house was raided by the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) and the police.
At the time, the suspicion was that she was home alone with Aliff, who is a married man.
Ruhainies later provided her side of the story, saying that she had invited Aliff over to her house to have dinner with her siblings and friends.
She said Aliff knew her family and it had been quite some time since he last saw them so he accepted the invitation.
Her sibling Nur Risteena Munim however took awhile to arrive due to traffic and in the period before Risteena arrived, Jawi and the police came knocking.
Ruhainies said she was reluctant to open the door for safety reasons upon hearing a male voice outside.
She called her sister and when Nur Risteena arrived, she confirmed it was Jawi and the police.
The press and Bella Astillah were also apparently outside her unit.
To cut a long story short, Jawi is investigating the khalwat case, Bella has apparently filed for divorce and Ruhainies explained that she and Aliff were just friends.
Ruhainies expressed hope that Aliff and Bella would not part ways.
Aliff meanwhile claimed the enforcement officer’s arrest report was exaggerated and too speculative compared to what actually happened.
Everything’s so blurry..
Back to Kitsui, they released their Ramadan ad on TikTok but with a slight edit.
@kitsuimalaysia KENYATAAN RASMI Sempena bulan ramadhan al mubarak ini, KITSUI dengan rendah diri 🙏🏻🙏🏻 ingin memohon ampun dan maaf diatas segala kesulitan dan kekeliruan yang berlaku terutama posting kami yang melibatkan seorang artis terkenal tanah air. Penggambaran iklan produk KITSUI ini menggabungkan tiga artis terkenal tanah air iaitu Wany Hasrita, Hisyam Hamid dan Ruhainies. Pemilihan mereka bertiga untuk menjayakan rakaman Kitsui Ramadan Greetings dan Kitsui Raya itu dibuat setelah penelitian rapi dilakukan pada october 2023 Berhubung dakwaan ditangkap khalwat yang dihadapi oleh salah seorang pelakonnya, KITSUI berharap ia tidak memberi kesan kepada tayangan iklan itu kerana rakaman tersebut sudah siap dirakamkan pada Disember 2023 dan seramai 100 krew produksi yang terlibat dalam menjayakan iklan ini. ⛔️⛔️ KITSUI TIDAK MENYOKONG MANA-MANA PIHAK, KELAKUAN BURUK ATAU KONTROVERSI ⛔️⛔️ Di kesempatan ini bersempena bulan mulia, pihak kitsui berbesar hati ingin menginfaqkan sebahagian keuntungan kami kepada pihak² yang memerlukan terutama rumah anak² yatim. Semoga dengan setiap ringgit pembelian mendapat rahmat dan berkat dariNya. Terima kasih atas segala sokongan dan keprihatinan anda terhadap Kitsui. KITSUI mengucapkan selamat menjalani ibadah Ramadan kepada semua umat Islam. #kitsuiprotectwoman#womanprotectwoman#kitsui @Wany Hasrita ♬ original sound – Kitsui Malaysia
While Wany and Hisyam remained as is, Ruhainies’ face however was pixelated, much like how news outlets would pixelate the faces of suspects or victims.
Kitsui added a disclaimer on their video that they were not taking sides and that they don’t support bad behaviour or controversies.
The newly uploaded video tickled many, with one TikTok user laughing and saying they would continue using Kitsui’s products.
“Hahahaha okay this is funny, but logical, very good,” said Ammar Desa.
Another user said they would have never thought the face would get censored.
User Farishaaa asked Kitsui to ensure that this is the version they use on television, or instead they could put their logo over the artist’s face.
“If you can, just crop it,” Farishaaa said.
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