Dear GRP Insiders,
Apologies for this late weekly brief. Even the wicked need to rest!
Regards,
benign0
In review and in prospect
This last week was a bittersweet one with holiday festivities given a dark backdrop by the devastation left by Typhoon Rai (local codename “Odette”). As much as Big Corporate Media attempted to milk the disaster and, at the same time, serve up “praise releases” for their respective preferred election candidates, there really was not much to work with.
As far as the Philippine setting is concerned, Rai was just another garden-variety typhoon that left just another garden-variety wake. The scenes of flattened island towns with disheveled coconut trees left standing are almost indistinguishable from images of typhoon devastation past. Photos of chi chi resort island Siargao used to banner news reports may as well have been rehashed photos of Tacloban after Haiyan (local codename “Yolanda”) flattened it in 2013.
Even more humdrum was the way politicians tried to capitalise on all the misery porn. There is practically no significant brand differentiation that could be harvested from what is essentially commoditised media fodder. Showing up in disaster areas seems to deliver negative impact on PR and election campaigns these days and perhaps this is no thanks to its perverse overuse particularly over the period former Liberal Party personality Mar Roxas was active in politics when many of his PR stunts provided a lot of material for the now iconic memes featuring his hilarious antics that proliferated.
With the New Year just around the corner and several popularity surveys conducted by reputable polling firms consistently yielding grim numbers for the Leni Robredo campaign (and extremely promising ones for the Bongbong Marcos - Sara Duterte tandem) the onus is on the earlier to up the quality of their pitch to Filipino voters. The Marcos-Duterte pair rest on a solid foundation laid over several years while Robredo and her sidekick Kiko Pangilinan bob atop a toxic brew of bickering supporters desperately trying to stitch together an eleventh-hour platform. Democracy is certainly “evil” when the “good guys” aren't winning. Perhaps right there is the card the Yellowtards will be playing next over the coming weeks.
Last week's blog posts
Dec 1 to 6 2021 Pulse Asia Survey affirms grim prospects for Leni Robredo campaign
December 22, 2021 by benign0
"Yellowtard 'thought leaders' like Nery seem to tiptoe around the elephant in the room — that Robredo’s campaign suffers from a lack of strong leadership. This, by itself, speaks of Robredo herself..."
Is Leni Robredo really SINGLE-HANDEDLY on top of the Typhoon Odette relief effort?
December 21, 2021 by benign0
"Considering that much of this 'relief effort' will ultimately serve as fodder for Leni Robredo’s desperate campaign, it could well be that hers is very likely Philippine history’s most dishonest election campaign."
December 20, 2021 by benign0
"Not surprising, is the meeting of the two minds to exploit this opportunity to perform for the cameras. Both, after all, run the two most intellectually-bankrupt campaigns in these national elections."
Media
December 25, 2021 by benign0
"The Philippine Opposition have turned into a chi chi fashion statement the blaming of all their troubles on social media and the bits of 'disinformation' (along with 'legit' information) that live, breed, and die within its ecosystem."