Youths leveraging on pop culture
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian youths have been leveraging on pop culture to voice their choice for their country’s future in the recent weeks leading up to the 2013 general election.
The widely successful Peace, Stability and Progress T-shirt initiative, which was created by the youth but picked up by 1M4U in conjunction with the election, has now amassed a huge following to become a nationwide phenomenon.
The demand for the T-shirts struck a chord after 1M4U youth volunteers were spotted around town donning these contemporary, pop-art inspired designs with messages of Peace, Stability and Progress – the clarion call of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
This sparked an avalanche of phone calls, emails, Instagram photos, Facebook messages and Twitter messages requesting for the T-shirts across the country.
Due to this tremendous feedback from the public, the youth empowerment agency decided to respond with a nine-day Peace, Stability and Progress tour around the country.
The tour, which started on April 25 began in Alor Setar travelling southbound to Johor and will end up in the East Coast towards Kota Bahru and Kuantan this week.
As many as 100,000 Peace, Stability and Progress Tshirts have been snapped up nationwide.
Aside from the offline buzz, the initiative, which was tagged to the # najibmypm designated hashtag, has picked up steam online too, registering close to 100,000 posts per day on various platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Facebook.
The #najibmypm Twitter hashtag has received 500 million positive impressions to date.
The 1M4U Peace, Stability and Progress tour has been making stops in major cities and at various Rest and Relax (R& R) locations along the way, where the crew received great response with thousands of people gathering in large crowds and long lines to collect their T-shirts for themselves and their friends.
Apart from these daily road tour stops, the 1M4U crew organised four tour showcases to thank the Malaysian public for their resounding response to the Peace, Stability and Progress T-shirt initiative, held at various hot spots around Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Kota Bahru, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Kuantan.
These showcases, which attracted up to 30,000 people in some locations, included distribution of T-shirts, performances and appearances by various local celebrities.
In the spirit of volunteerism, celebrities in Malaysia also came out in full force for the tour including television personality Datuk Aznil Nawawi, rock singer Amy Search, songstress Erra Fazira, singer and rapper Altimet, singers Awi Rafael and Hafiz Hamidun, host Iqram Dinzly, and actresses Erma Fatimah and Ziela Jalil.
The tour travelled southbound along the North-South highway, Kota Bahru and Kuantan making its last stop at Kuantan Parade on May 4.
For more information about 1M4U’s programmes and latest news or to register as a member, go to www.1m4youth. com.my.