| In Creative Minds, we ask APAC creatives a long list of questions, from serious to silly, and ask them to pick 11 to answer. (Why 11? Just because.) Want to be featured? |
Name: Peh Xin Ying
Origin: Penang, Malaysia
Places lived/worked: Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore
Pronouns: She/her
CV:
- Senior Copywriter, MullenLowe Singapore, Singapore (2021-present)
- Copywriter, Reprise Digital, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2021)
- Copywriter, Naga DDB Tribal, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2020-2021)
- Creative Hybrid, Merdeka LHS, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2017-2020)
1. How did you end up being a creative?
Initially, advertising wasn’t really on my radar. I toyed with the idea of making my parents happy by considering engineering, medicine, and law, but ultimately knew I wanted to do something creative. I met my first boss, Hwa, during a sharing session at my college. He came in, guns blazing, with this insane arsenal of work for a men’s personal care brand. It was unlike anything I’d seen before, and all I could think was, “I want to do stuff like THAT.” So, I had my heart set on working for him someday. Once internship season rolled around, I called Hwa up and asked him for one.
2. What's your favourite piece of work in your portfolio?
Audioboobs for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Our team at MullenLowe Singapore collaborated with Smile Makers, a sexual wellness brand, to create a series of long-form erotic audiobooks that incorporate self-examination instructions into the plots.
I love this piece of work because the fact that it got made is so subversive and challenged a lot of industry perceptions. First, that audio/radio is dead, and second, that we should never venture into anything sex/porn related. The idea of writing audio erotica as part of your day-to-day is mind-blowing. Getting it proofread by my male bosses was also an interesting experience, haha.
3. What's your favourite piece of work created by someone else?
A piece I really loved from my home country is Heidden in Plain Sight by Leo Burnett Malaysia. As someone who once worked in KL, I know how restricting it can be when creatives have to navigate heightened cultural sensitivity. So mad props to the folks who worked on it.
4. What kind of student were you?
Honestly, I was kind of a nerd who got bullied a lot. I did well in school, sat on the board of prefects, and when I could, got my hands dirty on anything and everything that was remotely creative. In high school, I made two short films (with the help of my friends) that I hope will never see the light of day. For fun, I would also write novels that I sometimes shared with my classmates. It was an interesting time.
5. Do you work best under pressure, or when things are calm?
If you ask my colleagues and bosses, they’ll tell you that I create my own pressure (haha).
It does come in handy sometimes, such as when my partner, Kyara, and I participated in Singapore's NexGen 2025 advertising competition. We were given 48 hours to crack a brief for Lazada, and I believe our shared sense of urgency and decisiveness lent a hand in us winning the competition.
TL;DR: I prefer having a clear deadline, but I find that it’s better for my sanity when things are calm.
6. Tell us about the worst job you ever had.
When I was 18, I worked at Kidzania, an indoor theme park that resembles a replica of a town. Every few hours, the staff had to perform a song and dance, which I can remember word-for-word to this very day. I also got peed on a lot in those eight months. My boyfriend teases me about it all the time.
7. What advice would you give to a 10-year-old you, if you could?
Be nice to your brother. He won’t be around forever. In that same vein, be nice to mum and dad. You are not everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s okay. The right people will see value in you and celebrate you. Everything else is just background noise. Your life is going to be really, really hard. Don’t make it any harder for yourself.
8. Do you have any secret or odd talents?
It’s not really a secret, but I pole dance as a hobby. I tend to pick up hobbies out of sheer boredom, so pole is the one that has outlasted everything else. Last year, I took up scuba diving and earned both my Open Water license and advanced certification in a year. I’m very all-or-nothing, for better or for worse.
9. What's your guilty pleasure?
People always take a step away from me when I say this: I love horror movies and serial killer documentaries.
10. Tell us about your tattoo(s).
I have five. My favourite is one kept out of sight: the coordinates of Penang and KL tattooed on my ribs in my parents’ handwriting. I got it right before I moved to Singapore. I’ll probably add a third line of coordinates when I finally settle down.
11. What makes you really angry?
In people: bullies. I’ve met too many. In general: entitlement and a lack of accountability. I have very strong feelings about any injustice, and I’m not shy about expressing them, which means I often receive a lot of criticism from people. To me, a simple maxim is, until you’ve done absolutely everything you could, you don’t get to complain or criticise.
