.jpg)
By Mihar Dias October 2025
Somewhere in a plush meeting room, armed with PowerPoint slides and delusions of creativity, a group of very serious people must have nodded in approval when someone proudly declared, “Let’s call it I LITE U!”
But not one soul in that expensive room — not the consultant, not the civil servant, not even the guy who printed the banner — thought to say, “Wait… what on earth does that mean?”
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the latest international embarrassment from the land of endless committees and bottomless budgets: I LITE U. BERNAMA
A slogan so confused it makes “Malaysia Boleh” sound like Shakespeare.
Supposedly, it’s meant to project Kuala Lumpur as the “City of Lights” — our version of Paris, except with more traffic jams and fewer functioning drains. But instead of illuminating the world, “I LITE U” makes us look like we failed an English spelling test and decided to celebrate it with fireworks. BERNAMA
“I light you up”? “I love you”? “I’m about to set you on fire”? Nobody knows. It sounds less like a tourism campaign and more like a text message from a pyromaniac.
Tourism slogans are supposed to inspire. “I ❤️ NY” works because it’s clear and timeless. “Amazing Thailand” works because it actually is. But “I LITE U”? That sounds like something you’d find on the back of a fake perfume bottle in Petaling Street.
Yet, someone somewhere in the ministry signed off on it — likely after months of brainstorming sessions, coffee breaks, and “consultant engagement exercises” costing more than the average kampung house.
One can imagine the final presentation: dimmed lights, dramatic music, and the PowerPoint slide glowing, “I LITE U.”
Everyone clapped. Probably because the meeting was finally over.
Let’s be honest — if Kuala Lumpur truly wants to be known as the city of lights, it might help if half the streetlights actually worked. We don’t need another slogan.
We need fewer potholes, cleaner sidewalks, and an airport train that doesn’t break down every other week.
Instead, we’ve got a slogan that sounds like a budget airline safety warning. “I LITE U — please fasten your seatbelts in case of sudden embarrassment.”
Malaysia’s tourism industry deserves better than this LED-level laziness. While other nations craft narratives that reflect pride and authenticity, we seem obsessed with coming up with slogans that sound like rejected WhatsApp stickers.
How did we go from “Truly Asia” — a classic that actually meant something — to this linguistic car crash?
Who are these self-appointed branding “geniuses” who think English grammar is an optional feature?
If “I LITE U” was meant to make the world laugh with us, congratulations — they’re laughing at us instead.
So, to those responsible: maybe next time, instead of hiring another overpriced consultant, just ask any Standard 3 English teacher. They’d have saved the nation a heap of money — and a global eye-roll.
Until then, Kuala Lumpur remains a city of contradictions: a skyline that glows, but ideas that flicker.
Because really — “I LITE U”? That’s not love. That’s a blackout.
Kuala Lumpur: Where even our love comes in LED — and our brilliance burns out at the slogan stage.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
