KK Mart sentiments remain exceedingly low across social platforms: Here's a breakdown

KK Mart's overall brand sentiments between 21st February to 31st March 202 have plummeted to 96.3% negative and only 0.1% positive, according to digital marketing agency Webqlo after it put socks featuring the word “Allah” printed on them for sale in its outlet in Bandar Sunway.

Images of the socks went viral online on March 13 and quickly began drawing criticism from users. 

In response to the incident, KK Super Mart issued a statement on Facebook apologising for selling the offensive socks. It said that it regretted the incident and that it has since been in touch with its vendor for further clarification. 

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KK Super Mart founder Datuk Seri Dr KK Chai also reportedly issued a verbal apology at a press conference over the weekend. He said that product management of the socks were done by a vendor through a space rental system at its convenience stores and without the supervision of KK Super Mart employees.

Datuk Dr Mohd Na’im Mokhtar, Malaysia's Religious Affairs minister, has since said that KK Mart and its vendors must learn from this and that this is a very sensitive issue particularly because it happened in the month of Ramadan, according to The Star. 

He added that he was "saddened and disappointed" by what happened and that it was a matter that couldn't be ignored. 

He reportedly said that Allah is "our creator" and that the act of putting Allah on people's feet is a "huge insult" that Muslims cannot ignore. 

Webqlo explains the timeline of events below:

However, despite intervention by government officials and calls for calm, public sentiment continues to remain low with sentiments on Facebook standing at 95.2% negative, Instagram at 98.2% negative and TikTok at 96.4% negative, according to Webqlo.

Webqlo also shared the top posts that were most interacted with depending on the platform below:

Since the incident, the news has also been heavily covered in the media, causing spikes in mentions for KK Mart online to remain high even though it has been weeks since the incident. 

The latest spike was a result of UMNO youth chief Akmal Saleh condeming the molotov cocktail attacks on KK Mart outlets that are ongoing. In a short statement posted on Facebook, Akmal called for an investigation into the attacks. 

He said that he strongly condemns acts of violence and hopes that an immediate investigation can be conducted, and the perpetrators be heavily punished regardless of their affiliations.

He added that an investigation should be done first before blaming any parties for the incident that took place.

That said, Akmal continued by insisting that the boycott of KK Mart should go on and that they should persist with it. 

Thus far, there have been three molotov cocktail attacks at KK Mart outlets across the country. The first was at the convenience store's Bidor, Perak branch on the 27 March while the second was at a Sungai Isap, Kuantan, Padang branch on 30 March. The third attack occured on 31 March at the store's Kuching outlet. 

Speaking to reporters at the Simpang Tiga mosque in March, Akmal reportedly said that the call to boycott has nothing to do with gaining political mileage but was to defend Islam against insult. 

He reportedly added that KK Mart's apology was insufficient and that no party should get away with a single apology for insulting religion. 

"This is not a political question, this is a much more important question which is to defend the purity of our religion, race and homeland," said Akmal in a Facebook post. "This is our time to defend our religion together."

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