NTUC Income on Rebecca Lim's 'retirement' stunt: We did not set out to mislead anyone

SINGAPORE - Since news of actress Rebecca Lim's "retirement" broke, netizens have been quick to call her out for bad publicity.

The 29-year-old actress had announced her retirement on her Instagram page last Friday (Feb 12), much to the disappointment of hundreds of fans.

The announcement turned out to be part of a publicity stunt with NTUC Income, to encourage young Singaporeans to plan for retirement early.

At a press conference held on Monday morning, NTUC Income's chief marketing officer Marcus Chew said that there had not been any intention to mislead the public.

"We did not set out to mislead anyone. We regret upsetting anyone over the weekend. Our intention for the post was really to draw attention to retirement planning, and retiring as a journey," The Straits Times quoted him as saying.

In her post on Friday, the actress wrote: "Hi everyone. I've decided to do something that will change my life. I have been thinking about it for a while now as I know it has to be done.

"I'm retiring. I know you may have questions for me and I will answer them real soon. Meanwhile, be happy for me."

However, Ms Lim's Facebook post that same Friday night clarified that it was merely a stunt.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/RebeccaLimHuiLing/videos/1282671655080210/[/embed]

Afterward, instant backlash ensued.

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/BBsOsxogpXn/?taken-by=limrebecca[/embed]

Instagram user Nattjoa said: "As a role model, you have broken your credibility & trust with your fans. Is it worth it for the money you gained promoting NTUC?"

Other users even said they would stop following NTUC Income and the actress on social media.

Not all netizens were unforgiving though.

Instagram user Peelthepill, wrote: "Yes, some of you may feel cheated or whatsoever based on her caption stating that she's retiring but turns out to be part of an advertisement.

"Yet this doesn't mean that you need to go to the extent of saying mean stuff on this social media platform. It's crazy how people can even link this to her wanting to get all the attention before Star Awards; as if she expected the outcome of it to be this big and negative."

According to The Straits Times, the actress' Instagram post was a collaboration with NTUC Income. Lim was not present at the press conference on Monday.

NTUC Income's head of strategic communications, Ms Shannen Fong, said: "We wanted to introduce the concept of retiring as a journey. Therefore that word was used. If you notice, we didn't say 'retiring' to what. It was very generic."

"The real intention was to draw attention, and we were hoping for the opportunity like in this instance to be able to articulate what was the real concept of 'retiring'," she added.

debwong@sph.com.sg