Weekly Brief
Campaigning harder and louder: Will the Leni Robredo's "grand rally" circuses translate to converted voters?
Dear GRP Insiders,
Only a bit more than a month to go. The Yellowtards are making a lot more noise than ever. But will this noise translate into votes? Election 2019 offers a lot of unheeded lessons.
Regards,
benign0
In review and in prospect
While the rest of the world tackled humanity’s big problems, the Philippines remained busyworking within its little thought bubble on account of this being the homestretch to the May national elections. So, yes, again, slow news week last week if it weren’t for those Opposition “grand rallies” being trumpeted by mainstream media and revelations surrounding the sorry state of the Commission on Elections’ (COMELEC’s) vote counting systems which mainstream media couldn’t be bothered to cover.
Partisans supporting the leading Yellowtard bloc within the Opposition headed by “vice president” Leni Robredo are convincing themselves that they are gaining ground. However, the only bases they draw from to arrive at such conclusions are attendance figures chalked up by these “grand rally” circuses.
So far there are no other reliable sources of data to measure the success or failure of the Opposition campaign outside the survey reports that have so far been published by reputable polling firms. Among these, figures are generally consistent. All of them show that Robredo and her “KakamPink” crew have an enormous gap to close. It is doubly difficult task for her considering she is not only competing against administration candidate Bongbong Marcos but also several other candidates for the presidency within the broader Opposition.
Nonetheless, Robredo continues to campaign hard. Over the remaining few weeks of the campaign she is going for broke packing her itinerary with at least nine more “grand rally” events.
Announce, rally, media frenzy, stir, repeat. One wonders if showing the same images over and over again actually works in terms of converting voters. Yes, we get it. This city is “pink” and that city is “pink”. We are pink, how about you? This is us, you are part of them. Join us. If you are not “pink” you are not one of us. More of the same messaging that had proven to be behind Robredo’s failed campaign obviously won’t work. The in-your-face drilling-in of a colour and attitude that signifies “us” will likely only reinforce in people’s heads that they are the “them” in an us-versus-them “fight” of the Yellowtards’ making.
Last week’s blog posts
March 7, 2022 by benign0
"Even if the entire complex grounds were filled to a density of three people per square metre, these grounds could have hosted only 36,900 people."