Умер легендарный рекламный стратег Малайзии Стивен Бонг, прославившийся своим талантом открывать новые звезды индустрии

Stephen Bong, then the boss of a leading advertising agency, looked across the table at a young copywriter he was supposed to be interviewing. He wanted a headline for the lighter. It had to say the product was the best, the number one, the leader. And there was one condition. “One-word headline!” Bong thundered. According to his old friend Harmandar Singh, the young copywriter hesitated for about 23 seconds before replying: “Matchless.” The atmosphere at the Long Bar of the Royal Selangor Club changed instantly. “Everyone sobered instantly,” Harmandar or Ham recalled. “The copywriter left the bar, and the prospective employer raced after him.” That young copywriter was Ham himself, who would go on to become one of Malaysia’s leading advertising copywriters and marketing strategists. For Bong, it was a glimpse of what he did best: he recognised talent, and he knew how to give it a chance. Bong, who died on Sunday aged 82, was an elder statesman of Malaysian advertising whose career spanned three decades. But his influence went well beyond the campaigns and agencies that shaped his professional life. His son Jonathan said Bong died from aspiration pneumonia following a two-week hospitalisation after a stroke that affected his right side, including his speech and ability to swallow. For a man whose life had revolved around words, ideas and communication, it was a cruel final setback. Bong served as president of the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia in 1981 and 1982 and had a distinguished spell with Ogilvy Malaysia in the 1980s. He later became executive director of Associated Publicity, which after several transformations is today FCB Malaysia. But Bong’s greatest contribution may have come after he left agency life. He moved into education, becoming a senior lecturer at Limkokwing University College of Creative Technology, where he taught advertising, design and media. He was especially committed to helping students cross the bridge from classroom to industry, preparing them for internships and encouraging them to enter award shows. “He was a pillar,” Ham wrote in his tribute. “A mountain of hope and inspiration to his friends, family and most of all his students.” Ham said Bong understood that advertising was not simply about learning how to sell a product. “It was about learning how to think.” His Thursday gatherings at Rennie’s Pub on Jalan Gasing became informal classrooms of their own, where students heard his stories about the industry and absorbed lessons that could never be found in a textbook. He was also a founding lecturer at Institute Ilham, later Institute Sledgehammer, in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, where he ran its three-month account management programme. Ham knew that side of Bong well. He described him as a man whose “booming voice and towering stature” made him impossible to miss, but whose generosity with younger people made him equally difficult to forget. Their friendship had begun in an industry that was far less polished than today’s advertising world. Ham had entered copywriting almost by accident. McCann-Erickson had intended to hire his friend Malkeet Singh, but the two men both wore turbans and Ham found himself mistaken for Malkeet. Malkeet had encouraged him to leave his life as a bartender and occasional 12-string pub folk-rock singer and try copywriting. Then came the evening with Bong. Ham’s answer to the lighter challenge changed the course of his career. Bong’s instinct was immediate. It was the same instinct that later took him into education and mentorship. “He was always a source of stories, laughter, wisdom and inspiration,” Ham said. And perhaps that is the most enduring description of Bong: someone who understood that the best part of advertising was never simply the work, but the people who made it. He was a proud St John’s Institution alumnus and an excellent badminton player in his younger years. He was also a livewire at gatherings, with a personality as large as his physical presence. But beneath the roaring voice was a man who opened doors for others. That is why his legacy belongs not only to the advertising industry he helped build, but also to the many people who carried his lessons into it. For them, Bong will remain, in Ham’s words, “Matchless”. Bong’s wake is being held at Gereja Katolik St Ignatius, 2 Jalan SS 25/23, Petaling Jaya, Parlour 2, from 2pm to 6pm and 7.30pm to 10pm, with prayers at 8pm. The funeral mass will be held at 11am tomorrow followed by cremation at the MBPJ Crematorium.