Recently, local fashion designer Leeyanarahman held a fashion show for her Hari Raya collection but instead of sparking joy, she sparked anger among netizens.
Apparently, photos from the event clearly show that many guests were not abiding by the SOPs, such as wearing a facemask or practising social distancing.
Marketing strategy to go viral?
What’s even more shocking is that one of the co-founders of the label admitted that no SOPs were practised during the event in a video clip.
They even joked that there would be a ‘Leeyanarahman Glorious Raya’ cluster following their non-compliance fashion show.
This enraged netizens even more, saying that they were very irresponsible to hold such event and even had the audacity to blatantly say that there were no SOPs.
Some even claimed that this was a cheap marketing tactic to gain more publicity.
Founder sendiri cakap tak follow SOP. Huhu pic.twitter.com/Z79n5AfkOu
— Ainnnnnn (@ain_nasar) March 25, 2021
Dua ni mock the law and the authorities macam tu je eh? Macam "oh we can definitely afford to pay the fine so you peasants sashay away!" https://t.co/hCTLbvcOYx
— Ikhwan (@JatIkhwan) March 25, 2021
Joking around about a new cluster like Covid isn’t real, like people who died because of Covid don’t mean anything. https://t.co/KV9QolDXhj
— ????? ??????? (@ayshardzn) March 25, 2021
Frontliners2 semua berusaha sedaya upaya untuk tangani kes. Sampai ada yang tak cukup masa dengan family, ada juga yang dah penat mentally.
— bangman (@aimansalim_) March 25, 2021
Tapi still ada manusia benak macamni. Kecik-kecik taknak mati, dah besar susahkan orang. Bangang. https://t.co/2QEPTZNo1K
@PDRMsia @IsmailSabri60 @KKMPutrajaya @DGHisham Admission of non-compliance to SOP here and very proud of it. We support 10k compound in this case. Please fine them. @leeyanarahman https://t.co/lhku3cik2I
— Iman ?? (@ringardehyuna) March 25, 2021
leeyanarahman ni ada je issue every year for their marketing ? guess bad publicity is still publicity https://t.co/OLJGagTcal
— meeza (@mijatira) March 25, 2021
ni komen.... nampak semuanya feeling takde covid kot...... pic.twitter.com/e5pw9rRT1K
— kuyaaaa (@tiulakitum) March 25, 2021
the audacity. elite people are always the problem. covid19 widespread in msia was also from elitist and funny how after a year elitist are still the problem and most of them would get vaccinated first ? https://t.co/xmeSdrHL2V
— efy (@efffyheppi) March 25, 2021
However, the brand’s founder, Yaana Lee, have responded to the allegations and refuted claims that they did not practice the SOPs.
She said they have taken strict measures to ensure compliance by reducing the hall’s capacity, providing facemasks, making sure that guests have scanned the MySejahtera app and had their temperatures taken.
However, she admitted that a lot of guests took off their facemasks right after they entered the hall to take pictures.
She then apologised for being negligent despite all the preventive steps taken.
We hope everyone can take this as a lesson and always be vigilant as our war against COVID-19 is far from over.