Paid advertisement

SOLANO, Nueva Vizcaya – This is a true story that happened not just once, twice but often during my nine years in broadcasting.

As we were about to start our talk show, the station manager walked into the booth, with an air of excitement and clearly meaning to be all business about what he was about to tell us. Making sure he had our attention he cleared his throat and said:

“The coming next two weeks will be “Survey Week” and this will be done among commuters on the drive time morning rush hour. So you have to make sure that you invite big names, celebrities and make all your shows in that period very exciting. Of course, we don’t know it’s a two-week survey week, but we will make sure that we get the highest rating across the board! OK?!”

It was a really strange moment for me since I already thought I was doing my best and consistently lining up the best topics and the best guests for my part-time radio morning show. Nonetheless it was quite an illuminating moment for me as I learned yet another trick that the broadcast industry practiced to out-gun and out-rank their competitors.

Years after “retirement” I can say that “pumping up the volume” was the least of their efforts. Some use contests, raffles, medical missions, campus tours and the most controversial of them all is when they give “appreciation parties” or thanksgiving events where the gift giving to advertiser representatives or big shots, far exceed what is raffled away even by the biggest TRAPOS in the country. All of which brings me to the real topic of conversation.

Even out here in the far north I am stopped by people. I’ve been getting phone calls as early as 6:30 a.m. asking me about the credibility of surveys and whether they are believable? I suppose it has to do with the claims of certain politicians and parties that their candidate is fast rising and beginning to lead in the surveys. So rather than give a “Yes” or “No” answer, I explain the process and cite specific examples that begin with “paid advertisements.”

We have all been hearing, reading and seeing “paid advertisements” featuring politicians or political wannabes starting from vice mayors, mayors, congressmen and congresswomen, as well as senators, Cabinet members, the Vice President, even the President who seems to have forgotten that he is already in office. All these “paid advertisements” fall under the realm of public introduction for those who honestly are not known nationally and have no significant role, performance or qualification to run for a national position because in the realm of national recognition they are nobodies. They may be recognizable or known in Metro Manila, but that’s it! Some are not even that well known or recognizable within Metro Manila but they are hoping or are deluded enough to believe they have a chance or could get lucky!

These paid advertisements in turn not only serve as public introduction but work as a double bladed tool for politicians. The primary reason is to generate name recall so that when TV-radio or print media hold their “blind” surveys where no names of candidates are given, the audience or listeners would automatically mention the names of the politicians who have paid advertisements in those very same stations or newspapers. A good example would be the paid advertisement featuring President Noynoy Aquino endorsing Mar Roxas. The advertisement runs almost every hour or even half hour in the major radio stations. In terms of “repetition equals recall,” it is a very effective formula to counter the public presence of Grace Poe and very negative to Vice President Jejomar Binay, who has been working quietly after being hammered to the ground by his enemies in the Senate.

The other side of the double blade is the presumption by politicians that the “media” believes in the teaching “one does not bite the hand that feeds you.” Many politicians are convinced that once they invest large sums of money in terms of advertising, they are automatically exempted from being called EPALs. The fact that no major media establishment has taken P-Noy to task for his paid advertisement supporting Mar Roxas, which is technically a form of premature campaigning, gives many the impression that the broadcast industry, the KBP and whatever media watchdog groups have conveniently looked the other way because of profit or political pragmatism.

So if certain candidates “surprisingly” or “shockingly” appear as front-runners in surveys, don’t automatically call the survey firms collaborators or paid pollsters or prostitutes. It is highly probable that the outcome of their surveys covering a very small population conveniently happened during a time when the candidates “pumped up the volume,” invested in “paid advertisements” and paid for a survey to be done within a certain area and age group. In other words, the whole thing was planned, scientifically undertaken and as they taught you in science, it must be observable, can be repeated with the same results again and again and again.

Now, why is all this necessary? Well to begin with, a candidate has to have “K” (karapatan) or what it takes to be in the game. When that candidate finds him or herself in a small pond with even better candidates, chances are he won’t get popular support, he would be hard pressed to convince political leaders and opinion leaders to back him and worst he will get very little funding from businesses and communities. Taipans and Tisoys alike have running tabs on the political horse race and those who don’t make it to position 1 or 2 in all  the surveys prior to start of the campaign period will most likely get the “pasensya na liit lang bigay ko kasi hirap negosyo” (sorry for the bread crumbs!).

The ultimate concern which applies to cheaters is that they have to be in a convincing position in the event that they have to manipulate the outcome of the elections. The candidate who is at # 4 cannot convince the supporters of losers #1 and #2 that it was a fair and clean elections. In the end that is what we all need to really worry about, not surveys. We need a clean and credible election, not a popularity race.