Let us talk honestly about the marketing industry in Sri Lanka without dressing it up or pretending everything is fine. Somewhere along the way we began confusing noise with creativity and spectacle with strategy. Today we are surrounded by commercials filled with aliens eating marmite, animals dancing to electronic music, and visuals so disconnected from reality that when the advertisement ends you remember the joke but not the brand, not the product, and certainly not the problem it was meant to solve. So, the question needs to be asked clearly.
What exactly are we communicating?
Marketing was never meant to be strange for the sake of being strange. It was not created to impress a room full of marketers who already understand the inside jokes of advertising. It was not meant to win internal awards or earn praise for being clever. Marketing exists for one reason. The user. The customer. The human being on the other side of the screen. Every piece of communication should answer a few basic questions. What problem are you solving for them? Why should they care about it? And why should they choose you over everything else competing for their attention? If your advertisement cannot answer these questions clearly then what you have created is not marketing. It is entertainment. And entertainment without intent does not build brands.
We are now living in the era of purposeless content. Content is being produced at a speed that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. Brands are posting daily because they feel obligated to post. Campaigns are launched because budgets need to be justified. Visuals are approved because they look cool or trendy. But cool without context is meaningless. Attention today is expensive. People are overwhelmed. They are distracted, overstimulated, and scrolling faster than ever. You do not earn attention by being loud or bizarre. You earn attention by being relevant. If your content does not immediately make sense to someone scrolling past it, you have already lost them. There is no second chance waiting politely for your message to land.
The old textbook marketing models are no longer reliable. The neat journey from awareness to interest to desire to action rarely exists in a clean sequence anymore. You have a couple of seconds to make someone feel understood. If your content does not connect instantly, there is no later stage where they will come back to figure it out. People move on. Now let us talk about the real issue that keeps being ignored.
What happened to using Sri Lankans in our clothing brands?
This is one of the most uncomfortable yet important questions in local marketing today. Scroll through fashion campaigns from Sri Lankan brands and what do you see repeatedly? Foreign models. White faces. European looking bodies. Features that do not reflect the people who are actually buying the clothes.
Why is this still happening? Sri Lankans look good. That is not a controversial statement. Our skin tones are rich and diverse. Our body types are real. Our hair, features, and expressions carry identity and character. None of this needs to be hidden or replaced. It needs to be represented. People want to see themselves in your brand. They want to imagine how the clothing would look on their own bodies, in their own lives, in their own environments. They do not want to imagine a version of themselves that looks nothing like them. When a local brand consistently uses foreign models, it sends a subtle but powerful message. This is not really for you. That message is dangerous in a market driven by identity, pride, and relatability. It creates distance instead of connection. It tells the consumer that beauty, aspiration, and desirability exist somewhere else. Not here. Not with you.
Representation is not a trend. It is not a social media buzzword. It is basic marketing sense. People connect with what feels familiar and authentic. They trust brands that reflect their reality. When they see someone who looks like them wearing a product, it removes friction. It answers questions without words. It makes the product feel attainable. This is especially critical in fashion. Clothing is personal. It sits on the body. It interacts with skin tone, body shape, posture, and confidence. Showing a garment only on foreign bodies strips away context. It forces the consumer to do extra mental work to imagine how it might look on them. Most people will not bother. They will scroll past.
Marketing needs to come back to meaning.
We do not need more dancing animals. We do not need more abstract visuals that exist only to look artistic. We do not need content created just to fill a calendar or satisfy an algorithm. What we need is clarity. Good marketing today is not complicated. It understands the user deeply. It respects their time. It communicates value quickly. And it feels real. Real does not mean boring. It means grounded. It means intentional. It means human. If your content needs an explanation to make sense, it has already failed. People are not waiting to be educated about your creative concept. They want to know what you are offering and why it matters to them. The best campaigns often feel obvious in hindsight because they are rooted in truth. Sri Lankan marketing does not lack talent. That needs to be said clearly. There are incredible creatives, strategists, designers, photographers, and storytellers in this country. The issue is not skill. It is direction. Somewhere along the way we started prioritising cleverness over clarity and novelty over relevance. We also need to address the insecurity that quietly drives many brand decisions. There is still a belief that foreign faces elevate a brand. That looking international automatically means looking premium. That aspiration must come from outside. This mindset is outdated and damaging.
Global brands are moving in the opposite direction. They are hyper local. They celebrate regional identities. They adapt to culture instead of erasing it. Meanwhile we are still chasing a version of beauty and aspiration that does not belong to us. True aspiration does not come from pretending to be something else. It comes from showing people the best version of themselves. When Sri Lankan brands use Sri Lankan faces authentically, they do not lower their value. They strengthen it. Marketing is not about impressing your peers. It is about connecting with your audience. It is about solving real problems and communicating real value. It is about respect. Respect for the consumer’s intelligence, time, and identity. If we want Sri Lankan brands to grow, to travel, and to compete globally, they must first belong here. They must speak to the people who support them. They must reflect the faces, stories, and realities of this country. The way forward is not louder campaigns or stranger visuals. It is better thinking. Clearer intent. Stronger empathy. When marketing comes from understanding instead of ego, it works. It is time we stopped hiding behind noise and started standing confidently in our own identity. It lacks intent. Until we stop creating for algorithms, awards, and approval, and start creating for people, we will keep shouting loudly while saying absolutely nothing.
