Political Ads

In today’s modern world where technology seems to creep in almost all aspect of human lives, it is not far from happening that technology could be one of the greatest factors to determine the over all well-being of humanity.

In a country like ours, where our leaders are chosen through the votes of the people where the majority are dull or apathetic to what is going on around us, then fame and charisma becomes the primary qualities that a candidate aspires to have more than anything else. It is here where technology comes in, in the form of media, which becomes a conspirator for us electorate, to become conspirators ourselves for the plot of exploiting our own resources for the benefit of some few.

Through the media, political candidates are able to portray themselves the way they want to be perceived by other people. It does not count anymore, whether that candidate is really what he portrays to be in the media, but what counts today are good production, right exposure and play of words. These three things for me constitute the ammunition for a good deception through the use of media as the cannon for shooting.

Good production and right exposure are two things that are difficult to question because of the difficulty to decipher it into words where one could scrutinize, argue and start a discussion about it. No one can question the messages that are conveyed in a good production because messages in this kind of media are usually unspoken. The campaign ad of Noynoy Aquino as seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W16OSkUNNd8&feature=related is an example of this where the message is address through the song and the script.

Right exposure is also another thing that’s hard to question, and by “right exposure” I mean the strategy of politicians to go to places or attend gathering where they know would give them public attention. An example of this was when Manny Villar visited the noon time show “Wowowee” as seen in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lvvOGWaUn4 to show to the public his help to the OFWs in the country. No one can question his appearance in that show because everyone is welcome there and no one could also question his extension of help because no one also is prohibited from helping his fellowmen. In this kind of media strategy he need not say anything about himself because the act itself is already speaking in his behalf.

But the third kind of strategy in using media, which is the campaign through addressing the public directly, usually entails a lot of “play of words” where the politician carefully chooses his words and builds up his sentences in such a way that it is succinct and understandable. It is here where most candidates are being scrutinized well and questioned by everyone. It is also here where most candidates expose some fallacies in their assertions.

In one political ad of Noynoy Aquino (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrAn14NYSAY) where he compared the Philippines to a beautiful house where he says that;

“Ang ating bayan ay parang isang magandang bahay
Na unti unting nasisira
Kasi nadaya tayo sa materyales

Nakurakot ang pondo
Ganyan din and epekto nang korupsyon
Dumadami ang mahirap
Marami ang naapi dahil sa korupsyon

Dati na tayong masipag
Dati na tayong matiyaga
Pero lageh tayong dinadaya
Korupsyon ang problema
Kahirapan and resulta

Hindi pa tapos ang laban
Ipag papatuloy ko”

It is clear that this is a statement of preference where the speaker is declaring his obligation in his last statements, saying that the fight against corruption is not yet finished and it is he who would continue the fight that he thinks everyone presumes his parents started. It is also a statement of preference because the speaker is interpreting an event in his own view point. Here the speaker interprets our country as how he sees it to be; as a beautiful house that is slowly depreciating. According to him, this is because we were cheated on the materials used to construct the house because of the corruption of the budget allocation. This same assertion also is “oversimplified” in that the speaker pays too little heed to the intricacies of the “depreciation” and instead focused only on the aspect of corruption and nothing else. The speaker failed to acknowledge other factors such as the carpentry of the house, the care that the inhabitants give to the house, the atmosphere of the location of the house and other such aspects.

Electorates should be very careful in chosing their candidates and should not allow themselves to be fooled and used by dirty politicians. Instead of focusing too much on media to choose a candidate, voters should pay more attention on their track record. And media ads and other forms of political ads should be examined very well for they may speak a something of the candidate, his perceptions, his personality and his mental ability. Hear their words but listen beyond those words. VOTE WISELY!!! 