A HEADSTRONG teenage girl tussles with her patient single father before realising that he means well in the latest pro-family television commercial put out by the Government.

There are no slogans, just the word 'family' at the end of this commercial shot by critically acclaimed Malaysian film-maker Yasmin Ahmad.

What happened to the beaming two-parent families and winsome little tykes that laughed and frolicked their way through previous commercials produced by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS)?

Singaporeans nowadays have less appetite for such overt messages, much less the didactic 'Girl or boy, two is enough' slogans of the 1970s family-planning advertisements, said a veteran of such campaigns.

'People are more sophisticated now through travel and the Internet and we thought we could take a leaf from how film-makers use storytelling to engage audiences,' said Mr Richard Tan, the ministry's director of communications and international relations.

So is the Government's new tack - a more reality- based soft-sell of the importance of family - working?

Going by responses on the Internet and interviews done by Insight Special, it would seem to be. Many found the commercial moving and not overly cloying.

Finance industry professional Daryl Wong, 33, said: 'I thought it was pretty sweet. The message seems to be that one does not have to provide the best materially to one's kids to have fulfilling family relationships - all that matters is love.'

Housewife Clara Kan, 30, found it 'a good reaction to how many families are structured today'.

'No more cookie-cutter, perfect family shots with 2.5 children and a dog,' she said.

However, she added: 'But I'd love it if they did one with a single mother. That'd be a real turning point.'

It was Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who suggested that the MCYS commission Ms Yasmin to produce a commercial. She won international awards not just for films such as Sepet (2004), but also for her ongoing series of television commercials for Malaysian oil company Petronas.

'Yasmin has pioneered the use of storytelling to communicate social issues in advertising. The PM saw her Petronas ads and found them very powerful,' said Mr Tan.

For example, a Chinese New Year commercial she did for the company shows a young boy unable to produce a drawing of his family reunion dinner during art class.

The viewer later discovers he is an orphan. The ad ends with a simple exhortation: 'Please go home for reunion dinner if you can.'

Ms Yasmin agreed to work with MCYS on the condition that they gave her complete creative control. It is the ministry's first time working with an independent film-maker.

Mr Tan admitted that her idea of portraying a widowed single father and his daughter caused them some uneasiness: 'Normally, the politically correct way of communicating a family is two parents and with grandparents around. But I thought to myself: This is not Yasmin's style.'

It was his boss, Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, who gave it the go-ahead.

'He said that if we have to communicate using a slice of life that we don't normally talk about, we should be brave about it,' said Mr Tan.

The commercial, which began airing on television on June 21, ended its run earlier this week. It will have a second run in the cinemas later this month.

The MCYS is also planning a second collaboration with Ms Yasmin to produce more family-themed commercials.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 12, 2008.