Singtel bills user SGD350,000 for data roaming
A Singtel mobile phone bill is spreading all over Facebook today because the user is being billed up to SGD350,000 for data roaming charge. This despite the user have paid SGD182 for the Singtel Bridge Data Roam service.
According the user, Singtel has agreed to wave all of Taiwan Mobile charges but insist that the user pay 12K Far EasTone.
The user may have resigned to fate the Singtel would sue him for bankruptcy..
December 20, 2011 1 Comment
Channel NewsAsia removes the SIN in Singapore
When SLUTS roam Hong Lim Park, Channel NewsAsia decided it was best to completely remove the SIN from Singapore.
5 Dec 2011 will the date when Singapore is known by Channel NewsAsia as Gapore – Sounds like a new Gap store.
December 5, 2011 Leave a comment
Singapore’s Most Iconic Photo of 2011
The most iconic photo of 2011 must be this photo below that represents the Singapore of today.
One Facebook user quipped that “Behind a Singapore Parliament stands the house of Gambling” referring to the popular quote “Behind a successful man is a woman”.
For those unaware of Singapore’s geography, the building in the foreground is Singapore’s Parliament House, while that behind is Marina Bay Sands, one of the integrated casino resorts in Singapore.
However, the three towers of Marina Bay Sands remind most Singaporeans of ”three giant joss sticks” being offered to the Chinese Gods.
Image from http://bayimages.net/photos/hong-kong/lantau-island/po-lin-monastery/
Singapore’s gaming revenue set to hit S$8.2 billion dollars this year (Source: Asiaone.com) as more “burn” their money at the Marina Bay Sands Casino to try their luck at achieving greater fortune.
November 27, 2011 Leave a comment
McDonald’s Singapore new curry sauce gets social media thumbs down
McDonald’s Singapore introduced their new curry sauce recently with a buy 1 for 1 Chicken McNugget, but the new sauce got a score of 1 McNugget out of 6.
Fans of McDonald’s Singapore complained that the curry sauce was too watery and some said it was too sweet.
Roger Pak commented “Your Made in USA curry taste diluted! How can Ang Mo make good curries?”
November 25, 2011 Leave a comment
SG PR Professionals caught not reading local publications
One of the duties of a Public Relations professional is to have an extensive knowledge of the local media scene.
However, those who have entered the public relation profession seem to be pitching to media and being caught not reading their intended publication.
One senior editor at a local IT publication was particularly dismay by how these young PR flacks are not reading their publication to know their media better.
She has caught, not once, but twice PR executives who somehow have admitted not reading her publication. She added that they just pitch blindly because her publication and her name is on the list.
Do the agency actually subscribe to their publication at all in the first place?
November 11, 2011 Leave a comment
Samsung gets its PC ports confused
Samsung Singapore was trying to engage fans to ask them which ports of a notebook can they not live with.
However, the consumer electronic company got its ports wrong, as noticed by fans.
Can you identify the wrong ports?
The designer might be using a Mac and we know that Apple users don’t get easily confused by the ports they need to use.
Would you believe in a notebook brand where they can’t identify and label the right ports?
November 10, 2011 Leave a comment
Signs – a temporary solution to a permanent problem
Suicide sometimes proceeds from cowardice, but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it; since as many live because they are afraid to die, as die because they are afraid to live.
~ Charles Caleb Colton
Six bodies in s ix months at Bedok Reservoir. The last body was found just hours before a blessing ceremony was planned to put the souls at rest.
The Public Utilities Board, PUB, hopes that “putting up signs with helpline numbers around the reservoir, which might help deter those thinking of taking their lives”.
One can only hope that the signs are luminous and glow in the dark as most suicides may occur at night too. Better still, let’s go high tech and put glowing QR-codes who are tempted to enter the reservoir will take out their smart phone and scan the code to get immediate access to the hotline.
Then there are those who blame the media for reporting on the bodies found in the reservoir. People who read about the deaths at the reservoir will copy the same suicide pattern and jump into the reservoir for their final destination.
Wrote one blogger,
That reports of deaths in Bedok Reservoir have led to copycat tragedies is crystal clear, and the media should bear part of the blame. It should exercise greater responsibility in refraining from publicising such cases for really it serves no purpose at all except to encourage those on the brink of taking their lives to take that final fatal step.
A self censorship request at its extreme stupsidity. Please, might as well say we ban advertisements in newspapers as they prevent people from spending and thus increase savings.
Or that the media should not write about the Greek crisis as we might tempt the current or would be Singapore government to also borrow to spend.
As per the quote above, suicide is the choice those who are afraid to live take as their only path. Afraid to live, afraid to open their eyes in the morning to face problems, big or small.
Prayers might blessed the dead and put their souls at ease, but it is the living that we should be focusing on.
As much the media report on the death, the media should also provide stories to look at how individuals overcome problems, even when they are at their lowest point.
For the blogger who call for the media blackout, why don’t you play a part to encourage life rather then discourage media openness.
Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
William James
November 8, 2011 Leave a comment
Bad advertising is bad advertising, period. Not a PR stunt.
The article today, by Elizabeth Low of Marketing-Interactive.com, titled “Ads Gone Wild: PR Stunt Or Genuine Mistake?” has generated the wrath of the PR community.
Wrote Elizabeth Low,
A recent string of ad gaffes by brands such as London Weight Management, Nivea and A&F has left many asking: what in the world were they thinking? Were these genuine misjudgments on the part of their creators, or just a PR stunt?
A PR director on Facebook described the article as an example of “stunted journalism”.
Wrote the PR director on Facebook,
I mean WTF? These are just dumb ideas turned into crap ads. All of a sudden they’re positioned as “PR stunts”.
A journalist writing for the marketing industry not knowing the difference between Public Relations and Advertising is bad. It is worst when a director for a MNC Public Agency decided to agree with her.
Wrote Elizabeth Low,
Christina Cheang, regional MD, Southeast Asia, Golin Harris thinks these were likely PR stunts. “They succeeded in capturing public attention which was their primary objective.”
If it is a PR stunt, is Elizabeth Low suggesting that London Weight Management hired the blogger to write her negative post about the advertising so as to gain attention of the public?
A PR stunt gone wrong is when you hired bloggers to be case study for weight lost and tell the bloggers who gained weight not to blogged about the engagement.
Now, that is a bad PR stunt.
October 19, 2011 Leave a comment
A new Friday the 13th movie set at Bedok Reservoir?
As more bodies are found at Bedok Reservoir, the scene is set for the next Friday the 13th Movie.
As we all know, Friday the 13th Movie is about Jason who goes around killing people near a camp by Crystal Lake.
Jason was supposed to have drowned due to neglect by the camp counsellors and whose Mother went around the lake killing the counsellors. The last survivor then killed Jason’s mother but Jason returned a few years killing people.
However, officials from the utilities board were rumoured to be upset that the producers have rumoured intention to use the reservoir in the east as the backdrop for this new installation.
To reduce the number of bodies to be found at Bedok Reservoir, authorities are said to consider putting Piranhas in Bedok Reservoir.
“Piranhas will eat up the bodies and no one can find it. No bodies no crime,” says an unofficial source.
“We will also be putting up signs to warn people of Piranhas in the Reservoir and that their body will be eaten by Piranhas. This will deter the number of people trying to end their life here.”
October 12, 2011 Leave a comment
Singapore Police Force takes another step to solve POLIEC car problem
According to mrbrown, the photo of a police car on the roads of Singapore spelt POLIEC has been solved.
Wrote mrbrown,
Update: The SPF tweeted me to inform me that the police car in question had its spelling error corrected in early September. (So this photo WAS real and was taken by someone earlier last month then.)
The Singapore Police has taken it one step further to ensure such spelling errors never happen again – by launching unmarked patrol cars.
Wrote Channel NewsAsia,
Traffic police will use unmarked patrol cars in addition to their normal fleet of marked cars to conduct enforcement patrols.
October 9, 2011 Leave a comment