Faves Asia responds to 'commotion' over recruitment ad: 'It was meant to be exaggerated'

Social media marketing company Faves Asia has responded to the controversy that their recruitment advertisement video caused, as well as apologised "for any unintended misrepresentation".

The clip, which shows a girl rising to influencer status in six months, had been largely slammed by netizens for painting the industry as materialistic and shallow.

It was later taken down from Faves Asia's Facebook page.

Stomper Kai Zen also alerted Stomp to how the startup was founded by 23-year-old Sky Vayden Lim, who made headlines in 2013 for for bragging about getting the lowest physical employment status (PES) for National Service (NS).

Faves Asia has since responded to the criticism surrounding the video on Facebook and clarified the message it was intended to portray.

Here is their statement in full, with the grammar and language edited (in italics) by Stomp for clarity (P.S. You are welcome):

"Our Response to the Commotion around:

"This video was a pet project created by the team alongside many great friends that chipped in to help. The creation of this video was meant to be a fun project for the team and our talents to work on something together.

"It was never our intention for the video to paint an inaccurate representation of the industry. While we admit the team did attempt to exaggerate the storyline to make it more humourous, we would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any unintended misrepresentation.

"The video content, like [the] sports car and fans waiting outside, were purely meant to be exaggerated, funny and catch attention attention-catching for everyone to laugh it off.

"The whole video was scripted, everyone were was just acting their roles out and none of them are materialistic in real life.

"We noticed that some people viewed the video differently from our original intention, and they took the exaggerated content as something serious, misunderstanding that was the exact image FavesAsia's trying to portray.

"We did not want to continue creating the wrong impression among the public, hence we took down the video.

"Faves Asia aims to provide a simple way for Instagrammers to fully leverage on their social reach to enjoy experiences and earn extra income while increasing awareness for brands.

"Over the past months, we’ve worked with multiple brands to roll out multiple successful marketing campaigns. 

"Micro-Influencers Marketing is indeed coming of age where the advertisement blindness is much lower, [and it has] a more diverse and genuine reach.

"Here’s something that we would like to take this chance to stand up for as well.

"Micro-Influencers are not wannabes, they’re sincere people who wants to grow.

"Acting and singing are two huge dreams that’s are out of reach for many people.

"Gaining popularity on Instagram is something within reach, a smaller success that we can work hard towards. We should not put down the hopes of our friends who wants to grow and shine on Instagram.

"Faves Asia provides the platform for Instagrammers who wish to gain such opportunities.

"Great thanks to those who have been understanding. Cheers!"

Read the original and unedited post here or see it in the gallery.