Faculty of Arts and Social Science Department of Advertising lecturer Mohd Fauzi bin Harun and his team were awarded the Best Paper Award for their paper titled “Exploring Islamic Commodification as Symbolic Interactionism in Advertising” at Terengganu International Business and Economics Conference 2021 (TiBÉC VII).
The conference was organised by Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Terengganu on 30 and 31 March 2021 via Google Meet. The team walked away with a certificate and cash prize. A total of 99 papers were presented at the conference and their paper was selected as one of the six best papers among the 99 papers. The aim of the paper was to understand Islamic commodification signs on an advertisement and to investigate the effects of semantic noise interpretation of the message.
The co-authors were Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan (ASWARA) Dean Prof Madya Dr Abdul Halim Husain, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) Head of Art and Design Department Dr Harleny binti Abd Arif and UPSI Creative Multimedia Department senior lecturer Dr Nur Safinas binti Albakry.
Fauzi said, “I participated in this conference to share my point of view and expand my knowledge on a different field of expertise. This presentation has provided different insights into marketing background, especially on the techniques (religious approach) utilised by the advertisers, where the religious elements are infused in the advertisement for the benefits of the economy. I hope this will help people to understand the Islamic commodification signs on an advertisement and the effects of semantic noise interpretation of the message.”
According to Fauzi, advertisers would first select the right words, images, symbols, formats and tones to create a message, and later convert the elements into thoughts and ideas, before producing an advertisement. These nonverbal elements of ads are able to communicate the concept and complex meanings to viewers and consumers.
In addition, Fauzi said that the Islamic commodification in commercials would easily gain attention and trust from the public because the content is mainly persuasive, despite hardly having any truthful values. This could be due to the capitalist world where religion is commodified.
Themed ‘Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage through Business Model Transformation’, the conference also aimed to provide a platform for academicians to share knowledge in business and economic fields. The conference also provided a forum for the dissemination of information and idea exchanges among academicians, practitioners and policymakers on the contemporary issues in accounting, marketing, entrepreneurship, management and others.
The Terengganu International Business and Economics Conference (TiBÉC) was first launched in 2008. It is one of the conferences under the Terengganu Multidisciplinary International Conference (TeMIC). One of TiBÉC’s main objectives is to amass academicians, policymakers and practitioners with new findings in the field of finance, accounting, entrepreneurship, marketing, management, economics, operations management & logistics, hospitality, organisational development, Islamic finance and banking, office systems management, human resources, international trade and any field related to business and management.
