by Boboy Consunji
Let’s try to make sense of what happened in the last months leading to the May 10th elections.
1. Maybe it’s not wise to overspend on advertising. Erap didn’t even spend half of what Villar spent and yet he’s running second to Noy. At a certain point, the massive war chest becomes suspect. You must be gunning for a high ROI since everyone knows that the presidency would make you richer than working in real estate. If you say you’re doing it out of altruism, out of the kindness of your heart, you better look the part of a caring person. Pinoys, a skeptical lot, could see through the fakery. They may be humming the jingle, but not necessarily loving the man.
2. The message may be consistent, but is it genuine, unassailable and own-able? In the first few months of the campaign, Noy’s messaging was all over the place. That was worrisome because it violated one key rule in communications: singlemindedness. Villar’s I-was-poor-like-you-and-I-can-help-you-out-of-your-misery was enviably coherent across all media channels. Even his spokesman would end up with the same theme when asked what his favorite color was. Yet, it made him vulnerable with the road project and stock exchange scams hounding him. It took the original and still-popular pro-poor politician Erap to nullify all that.
3. When things are not going your way, shift the messaging, and go on the offensive. Villar stuck to a message that became increasingly doubtful. And he spent the last weeks of the campaign defending it, and looking cranky with every attack on his supposed philanthropy. Di ba ang pikon, talo? And must you bring in your blind, ailing mother to fight your battle? That did him in and made him all the more look like a beaten crybaby.
4. Villar shouldn’t shift his eyes too much during interviews. Again, he was not looking sincere.
5. Trust the surveys. Pulse Asia and SWS are reputable research firms. The people running these firms are men of integrity, contrary to what you read in your spam folder. They employ scientifically proven polling methods, patterned after the best in the world. Noy’s camp took their cue from Pulse where corruption was found to be the issue foremost in the voters’ minds. It was the most relevant. Incorruptibility was an Aquino equity. So he played it up with much success.
6. Chiz Escudero will be a force to reckon with in 2016. He was the most influential endorser, making Binay happy in the process. By the way, who did Binay’s “Ang bise-presidente ko may B” campaign? That was one stroke of genius. Sadly, Mar was awfully quiet in the last two weeks of the campaign, and didn’t have anything as catchy to say.
7. Oh, Gibo. Poor Gibo. He had potential. He looked great, spoke well and drew a lot of fans. I thought his campaign lacked groundwork, especially in terms of consumer research. If he’d like to win next time, his messaging should be sexier than “galing” at “talino”. In the surveys, those attributes didn’t really matter to the majority. His green army was potentially as formidable as the yellow one but it happened too late to attract people who didn’t have Facebook accounts. Should he choose to run next time, he should consider dropping the “I’m keeping it clean, sans negativity” for that won’t win him votes amongst voters who embrace the imperfect (like Noy’s legislative record and Erap’s drunkenness). Besides, that was actually untrue because his followers did the mudslinging for him. The “I think therefore I’m for Gibo” smacked of intellectual arrogance. Mustn’t do that again, Gibo.
8. Now, it’s my turn to be arrogant. What were my provincemates thinking?! The Kampampangans are a strange lot. We elected the most unpopular president in our nation’s history to a Congressional seat We stink like our famous buru. Macabebe Troops redux. We badly need more active participation from the Pampanga civil society.
9. We really are getting older. The young are clueless about the sins of the now-victorious Marcoses.
10. Automation worked. The Philippines has finally entered the 21st century. Everyone’s sure to be excited about how much more hi-tech (and organized) the next elections will be.
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