Sales, Social and Tech

It is amazing how we are quick to forget that a single wrong comment on social media can make one the most hated person in Singapore. Back in 2012, we had Amy Cheong . Her comments on Facebook about a Malay wedding under her HDB void deck resulted in an online CSI that cost her her job. Fast forward to 2017 and we have Thomas Chua Poh Heng and whose name will forever live in Internet infamy. Thomas reposted a video of the funeral of a Traffic Policeman who died while on duty. Thomas then commented that his death was well deserve as Thomas was once given a traffic ticket by the same Traffic Policeman. Even the Home Minister for Singapore, who is responsible for the Police Force, was offended by Thomas' statement. The screenshot showed that post was marked global by the Globe image next to the Singapore tag which could hint that this post was meant for all to see. As such, the argument of a "private"post does not hold any weight here. Just as expected, aft...

Chope seats, swear words and a deliberate hard shove from behind. Nope, it isn't a script for a movie, but a video recording that went viral over social media over the weekend. The video showed a lady arguing with a senior citizen over choped, or reserved seats, at a local kopitiam, or known as coffee shop. The incident was compounded when the lady's male companion made a deliberate hard shove against the old man from behind. it was later reported that the guy pushed the plates to the ground in a fit of anger. As the video continued its viral non-viscosity, many commenters were looking to the Internet to CSI the identity of the couple - to “make them famous”. One alleged that it was a lady from a local bank and shared her photo. Some online sites picked it immediately and it was quickly shared online. However, the alleged lady responded to say she was overseas and could not have been part of the video. Singapore Police Force investigated the issue and the latest...

Looks like Google.com.sg has gone voting. I wonder who did L vote for?

Advertisers and marketers are often tasked to take advantage of festive holidays to bring in the crowd with catchy taglines and creative advertisements. As most festive holidays in Singapore center around religious tradition and culture, it is important that the advertisement does not offend or against them. For IKEA Singapore, their "Bling Glamour Home" Raya advertisement has come under fire on their Facebook Page on how IKEA Singapore's creative definition as a total misinterpretation of the Muslim community. Even though I am not a Muslim, I found this IKEA advertisement to be a display of ignorance on the creative team on how Hari Raya Aidilfitri is celebrated. If the creative team took just ten minutes to Google and understand the real meaning of the Hari Raya Aidilfitri festival, it would have same them from the backlash of fans, especially those from the Muslim community. Hari Raya Aidilftri is the"festival of breaking of the fast". A quick Goog...

GrabTaxi has stolen ComfortDelgro Taxi's booking thunder since the app came into Singapore around April 2014. Comfort Taxi has launched a new app and will make this new app the de factor app by early March 2015. Can a new design alone help ComfortDelgro Taxi kick GrabTaxi off its pedestal and regain its number one spot? Comfort Taxi new app, ComfortDelgro Taxi Booking App, has a major design improvement from its predecessor. After you signed in, you will see the skyline of the Marina Bay area with different positions of the sun to show the various time of the day. Though the booking feature is quite standard, it is an improvement from the previous design. If you do decide to cancel, there is an option to feedback to ComfortDelgro the reason for the cancellation. The new ComforDelgro Taxi app also has a menu button to select several options and the one that I liked most is the e-receipt option. This eReceipt breaks down the various components of the taxi fare and...

Started a Facebook Page? Singapore Courts had ruled that that Facebook Page does not belong to you and Facebook has full ownership of it. This issue was raised when Mr Lee Kien Meng, who owns Senatus , sued one of its previous clients, Mr Frank Cintamini, after Mr Cintami removed Senatus' administrator rights. Mr Cintamini removed Senatus after a fall out and suspecting the company of two hacking incidents. Wrote AsiaOne , He asked the court to declare him the owner and sole administrator of the two pages and to order Mr Cintamani to give up all rights to the pages to him. - See more at: http://digital.asiaone.com/digital/news/who-owns-facebook-page#sthash.xgx6V2uc.dpuf He asked the court to declare him the owner and sole administrator of the two pages and to order Mr Cintamani to give up all rights to the pages to him. Justice Chan Seng Onn on Tuesday upheld the lower court's decision, pointing out there are no terms in Facebook's service agreement which...

If you think Singaporeans are straight faced and can't make a joke, guess again. Singapore Twitterers have launch their own #SG50ShadesOfGrey hashtag. What has made this hashtag ironic was that Singapore is also celebrating its 50th anniversary with the SG50 slogan. 50 Shades of Grey have given the perfect comic relief  to those who have been jaded with SG50 celebrations though we are only into only the second month of 2015. Here are some of my contributions. She tried to breath but gagged. The strong haze in Feb affected her tremendously. #sg50shadesofgrey — socialpr (@socialpr) February 16, 2015 "Sir! Whip me. Hard." scream the school bully as the discipline master prepared his public caning for stealing. #sg50shadesofgrey — socialpr (@socialpr) February 16, 2015 She torn it open n it was huge. But she can only see but cannot touch. She sighed as she tossed away her CPF statement. #SG50ShadesOfGrey — socialpr (@socialpr) February 16, 2015 Here are ...

This Mars be a world first. Post by SGAG . Is this the Singapore spaceport that was announced earlier? If the Sun was installed on the Yishun Flat, will the children or HDB resale value there be brighter? Most important question that HDB has to answer - Is Pluto a planet?

Thanks to AirAsiaSingapore Facebook Page contest, I won a pair of tickets to witness the first football match at the new National Stadium. The biggest satisfaction was to do the Kallang Wave again, after so many years, and it was even better as I waved with son for the first time. The last I did the Kallang Wave was probably during the Malaysia Cup days were the grand old dame saw many glorious goals. Who can forget Sundaram bicycle kick vs Brunei? Then, the stands were slightly further from the field because of the track. The new stands at the new National Stadium can be moved so that when it comes to football matches, you can get a closer view to the pitch. Unfortunately, the pitch looked rather patchy, especially from the brown spots. More work has to be done for the pitch to provide more quality football entertainment. The match, in general, was as predicted to be one sided with Juventus scoring the first goal with a cheeky free kick. The Singapore defensive wall, as...

During my Army days, one of the unwritten rule we were told was that you could do what you want, but don't get caught. SMRT's response to the woman defecating publicly at their Holland Village station seems to support the unwritten rule above and this poses a danger to transport security. SMRT wrote , in a reply to Temasek Review's query, Please be assured that should any of our staff spot a member of the public committing such unlawful acts, they will most certainly approach the person and put a stop to it. He/ she is also likely to be issued with a Notice of Offence (NOO) and a summon from the National Environmental Agency (NEA). However, this incident had occurred away from our staff’s line of sight. Whilst our staff would endeavour to ensure that our stations are looked after properly, they would also need to attend to other duties and passengers as well. Hence, constantly focusing on CCTV would be counterproductive for them. On that note, we seek the pu...

Many Singaporeans on Facebook was shocked to see a photo of a lady defecating in public at the Holland Village MRT Station. Such act of public "bombing" is extremely rare in the clean and green garden city that the initial reaction by some was that the image was photoshopped to add fuel to the argument that Singapore has one too many foreigners. However, a query by a concerned Facebook fan of the SMRT (Official) which resulted in a reply proved that the incident was real and not edited. Wrote SMRT , Hi 林漢文, SMRT cleaned the area at 4pm, after a passenger notified station staff of the woman's behaviour at 3:50pm. Interestingly, the photo originated from here where it was shared almost 2000+ times. The incident was photographed slightly before 2pm. Were there 2 hours of stink before it was cleared? Reaction to shock is sometimes denial. This is seen in reactions when some patients are first told they can cancer. In this case, the denial came in the form of t...

I registered my son for a primary school in an area under 1km from our house under the Phase 2C, which is for the children who do not fall under the earlier phases. After the first day of Phase 2C registration, there are more children registered than vacancies. Immediately, I reacted that my son will have to do through the balloting process. However, it seems not all applications will have to go through the balloting. Hidden in the Ministry of Education (MOE) FAQ website on balloting, there are two examples of how balloting is done. From the MOE FAQ , If School A has 80 vacancies for a particular phase and 90 applicants (see table below), how will the places be allocated? Home-School Distance Singapore Citizen (SC) Singapore Permanent Resident (SPR) < 1km 60 10 Between 1km and 2km 10 5 > 2km 5 0 Total 75 15 All the 75 Singapore Citizen (SC) children will be admitted first. The remaining five vacancies will then be allocat...

The decision by the Prime Minister of Singapore, who is also the chairman of one of the world's largest sovereign fund, to sue blogger, Sexispider of The Heart Truths, has raised the argument of the lack of the right of free speech. However, if you were to read the offending article, it seemed that this Sexispider did make himself an open target. Sexispider, or otherwise known as Roy Ngern, was served papers by the Prime Minister's lawyers for defamation. The entire papers can be found at  http://thehearttruths.com/2014/05/19/i-have-just-been-sued-by-the-singapore-prime-minister-lee-hsien-loong/ . The main issue which the PM with the offensive articles was of Roy linking the role of the PM managing the CPF as similar to that of City Harvest Church. The founder for City Harvest and other five accused is on trial of misusing the church's fund. As such, I am not surprised that the PM has taken to legal means for Roy to take down the offensive article. You have the Singap...

We know the cause of  unhappy Singaporeans as shared in a Gallup survey declaring Singaporeans as the most unhappy group of people in the world – the Internet. To read more, click here .

It seems like there are folks receiving emails from "IRAS" that the Singapore Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore is giving out cash rewards for tax payers. Don't believe it as it is a email scam. Wrote TodayOnline ,  The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has made a police report against a scam email with the subject title “IRAS Reward”. Cautioning members of the public, IRAS said today (Aug 20) that the email — which asks recipients to click on an attached link to fill in a form to claim cash rewards — and its associated website are scams. ”Members of the public should not respond to the email, click on its hyperlink or provide their particulars,” said IRAS. Sample of email from "IRAS" Source:  http://www.todayonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/photo_gallery_image/public/16034782.JPG?itok=Gkkf9sbW Fake IRAS website Source:  http://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/784018/1376991643000/large16x9/768/432/iras.png There ar...

Marketing drill gets wrong command Image Source :https://www.facebook.com/yahoosingaporenewsroom National Geographic Singapore decision to give passerby the opportunity to command a platoon of "army boys" have drawn flak from the public as being "disrespectful to the uniform". Ironically, the stunt above was to promote the upcoming documentary on the life of Singapore boys serving National Service.  Wrote a Facebook user on Yahoo Singapore Newsroom Facebook Page ,  " Whats tbe purpose of this? Mocking our NS boys? Ive seen many parents shed tears sending and welcome their Boys to/from NS. And now Any tom dick and harry can command our NS boys? NOT FUNNY or AMUSING! " Wrote Smiththankyou ,  "Pride and glory aside, are we even allowed to use Property of SAF for such "showmanship"? And I remember my Encik telling me we can't even book out in "Vest Slack" cause it is not a proper Army uniform like our "Long ...

A Facebook acquaintance have highlighted in a Facebook post that the OPT OUT option of Starhub's SMS ad maybe not be working as intended. It seems OPT OUT only works when one complains to the Starhub twitter account. Wrote on Facebook, I have received one SMS dated 27 Jun 2013, and if you look at my opt out at 76333 dated 27 June 2013. By right, I should not be receiving any more unsolicited SMSes from Starhub. However, I have just received another unsolicited SMS from Starhub today, despite I have already sent them an OPTOUT. Either they are lying about their optout option, or they are just continuously spamming me with their offers by paying lip service to a customer's complaint of opting out.  If you are seriously going to implement "Do not call" registry, please get something like this as simple to be enforced.   It was only after a complain was made and tag to Starhub Facebook account was the user removed from the Starhub SMS marketing database. H...

I am not ashamed to say I support Mr Tan Kin Lian as a presidential candidate because I believed in what he stood for. And when Mr Tan posted his "misadventure" with a thermometer app, I did shake my head in disbelief that he did that. Source:   http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2013/07/we-could-have-had-him-for-president.html Thinking twice, there could be a possibility that Mr Tan misunderstood how this app work. Most  thermometer app take data from various weather stations to display the temperature on it. Yes, the technology savvy will do a #facepalm when they read the post and mrbrown's post demonstrated it perfectly. Wrote mrbrown , "Maybe the former Presidential-hopeful didn't realize he needed to upgrade to the Pro version of the app. Then his iPhone would not only measure temperature, it would also measure current PSI (PM2.5 included), tell you if you are having your period, and cook instant noodles. Good thing he didn't try to measure boil...

In every pageant, the appointed judges will choose the winner. The winner takes all, even the media coverage. For Miss Singapore Global 2013, the public who will have a large say in selecting the winner. To get the public vote, the contestants will have to reach out to the public on social media. The brain child of the pageant is Ms Vanessa Tan, Mrs Singapore 2011, a franchise of Miss Global International which originated from Jamaica. Singapore is the third Asian country other than Philippines and Malaysia to send delegates to compete internationally. Said Ms Vanessa Tan, "Miss Singapore Global is a platform to empower young women and build future women leaders. The mission of Miss Singapore Global is to transform an ordinary girl with big dreams to a beauty queen whose main responsibility is to give back to society. "The ideals behind this pageant are Purpose, Inner Beauty and Transformation, in that order. This pageant is different from traditional pageants in ...