Sock scandal: Out to make a quick buck

 

In Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 dystopian sci-fi action film “Robocop”, a sleazy character who appears in an advertisement on TV screens is seen repeating a good deal by saying, mantra-like, “I’ll buy that for a dollar!”.

For someone my generation - a Generation X’er - this film (not the disappointing third sequel, the forgettable 2014 remake, and the preceding lowbrow TV series) remains a cornerstone of my childhood memories for its dark humour and satirical yet stark presentation of the future.

But of course, as a kid, I was initially enamoured by the presence of Robocop as this cool cyborg - I mimicked his moves and speech so much I actually made a decent impression of it - but as I a grew older, I began to appreciate the nuances of this artwork further.

Since we tend to forget that film is an art form - the youngest of art forms that combine music, literature, theatre, and the visual arts - the test of its relevance is how long the artwork remains in popular consciousness to reveal how current, contemporary, and evergreen its message actually is.

While it’s easy to write off this modern Hollywood classic as just an entertaining sci-fi film, the film is rich in subtext and at its core, it is a critique of modern free-market capitalism in a dystopian Detroit, Michigan - which was once the industrial automotive capital of the US - and how politics and institutions are inherently equally corrupted in such a dystopian ecosystem.

Variety and growth - often celebrated as the redeeming qualities of free-market capitalism - have gone haywire in this film’s world and for dramatic effect - this is a Hollywood film after all - so has law and order too.

Root of scandal

Fast forward to Malaysia during the first two weeks of Ramadan in 2024 and it’s easy to forget how we actually are mired in a similar dystopia, minus a redeeming Christ-like figure of Robocop.

There are no “saviours” in the real world of a modern, free-market, capitalist society - there are only “customers”. Being a “citizen” is secondary now, if you listen closely to the language of corporate and political stakeholders. You can’t separate the market from politics.

While I was observing from the margins of X and Facebook, I saw clearly the roots of the fracas of KK Mart’s sock scandal.

The intent of whoever copied and pasted the design - which I am very sure of since nobody pays designers fair wages or stands up for them anymore - was just to capitalise, albeit in sheer ignorance and possibly laziness, on a common symbol (but ignorant to the sensitivity of Muslims) in hopes of cashing in.

How wrong and far off the mark this irresponsible wannabe capitalist was.

Capitalistic opportunists

The narrative we’re told is that consumers now have “freedom of choice” to purchase whatever they want, wherever, whenever and however they want.

Of course, this is not enough for opportunists - to get ahead in a free market, one has to be novel and ahead of the curve. The only problem is that this wannabe went off-road and rogue without realising it, most probably steeped in cultural ignorance and blinded by his or her hypothetical cash-in.

On the flip side, there is also the adage that the “customer is king” and oh boy, have the customers spoken.

One cannot and should not, ever, be culturally illiterate if one wants to be an effective capitalist. This wannabe is of the “longkang” (gutter) variety - scraping the grimy bottom of the proverbial drain for a quick buck with a low and most probably plagiarised overhead.

The consequence of course is already apparent - the political class will of course use and ride this for their own political expediency (that’s their job, why are you still surprised in Bolehland?), KK Mart is reeling from its oversight, and then some are trying their best to diffuse it with care and reason.

Peel the layers of this noise further and the virtues and sloganeering of a free market are actually to blame.

The noisier it gets, the more it appears for what it is: a charade of hype and propaganda clothed in seemingly neutral concepts like “marketing” and “branding” while trampling upon sensitivities that opportunists will swallow whole for their own benefits in fanning the flames for hollow political currency.

Or maybe it was just a well-planned sabotage. - Mkini

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AZMYL YUNOR is an underground recording artist and academic in media, film, and cultural studies.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.