The Philippine Online Chronicles

If past elections were won with television ads that made certain candidates become more memorable to voters around election time, the 2010 elections certainly added a new dimension to the whole idea of selling a candidate’s identity, character, and image to the electorate. While there were still a lot of television ads that were run during the campaign–and billions of pesos were spent making them and airing the ads in primetime slots on the most popular channels--candidates were definitely more savvy in their approach to building their personal brand and making sure that their message got retained far longer than the usual thirty-second ad placement.

Colors

The use of signature colors was taken to the hilt for the 2010 campaign. Noynoy Aquino claimed the color yellow since it had been used by his mother for over 20 years. Eddie Villanueva earlier used the color for his 2004 campaign, but clearly Noynoy had first dibs. Aquino even took it further by wearing the now-popular C2 Collezione shirt with the Philippine archipelago insignia. His running mate Mar Roxas would wear a similar shirt in blue and yellow to reflect his own campaign colors.

The Manny Villar campaign was unabashed in its use of orange. This color was the same one used by Erap Estrada back in 1998, but Erap didn’t really wear orange much during that campaign. He was more into wearing a blue track jacket along with his signature orange wrist band. Villar made all his public appearances in an orange polo shirt, which probably left you wondering if Villar had a truck load of orange polo shirts in his house.

Gilbert Teodoro used the color green for his presidential campaign. Green was used by Loren Legarda in the past to highlight her packaging as the environmentally-aware candidate, but Legarda has shied away from using it this year since her running mate (Villar) was using a different color.

Richard Gordon used the color red for his campaign – a color that is strongly connected with the Marcos brand. While red is undoubtedly a Marcos signature, the family of the deposed dictator has been out of the spotlight in terms of the national scene for over two decades now. Prior to Bongbong Marcos’ victory as a senatorial candidate this year, any attempts by the Marcoses to return to power at the national level have been rebuked by the electorate.

Hand signs

The use of hand signals has long been a part of the political milieu of the Philippines. During the most contentious of times between the Marcoses and the Aquinos, the “V” sign that was used by the Marcos camp along with “laban” sign used by those supporting Ninoy and/or Cory Aquino became very ubiquitous expressions of people’s political leanings. Ironically, the “laban” sign has a very negative connotation in the Western culture. The “laban” or “L” sign can be easily misconstrued as the hand sign for “loser” – most Americans would actually put their “L” signs in front of their foreheads while saying the word “loser” with much snark.

The “laban” sign would make a comeback in 2010 as Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III ran for the chief executive’s office. The hand signal was also heavily used during the funeral of former president Corazon Aquino during the lead up to Noynoy’s candidacy. Given how dramatically the whirlwind of events resolved during those very pivotal moments in August and September, it just made sense for the “new” Aquino campaign to co-opt the hand sign that was affiliated with the elder Aquinos.

Former presidential front runner Manny Villar also invested heavily in making his hand sign known to the public. In advertisements that were being ran even months before the official filing of candidacy, Villar used a variation of the “laban” sign and skewed it a bit to make it look like a “check” mark. This same shape was also reminiscent of the letter “V”. The hand was usually placed just as the same level of the collar bone. Back in the 90s, this move would have been closely connected with “Mr. Pogi” male beauty pageants hosted by the noontime show Eat Bulaga.

Hand signs don’t really always fly with voters. In 2004, Raul Roco tried to use a very familiar hand sign for his campaign. It was executed by folding the third and fourth fingers into one’s palm and showing the hand (palm side) to the person you want to show the sign to. The thumb, index finger and pinkie were left to stick out. This sign was well known as the “break to commercial” sign and was usually done in the 1980s and 1990s by talk show hosts when they go into breaks. A lot of Filipinos also knew this as “I love you” sign since the letters “I”, “L” and “U” could be seen along the contours of the sign provided that you have a little imagination.

While Roco did use this a lot in his television ads and his public appearances, it never really did catch on and it wasn’t as iconic as his toothy smile and polo shirts. The sign was even criticized by some religious sectors for being too similar to the “cornu” – a hand sign that is used by Satanists.

Roco would leave the country during the most critical part of the campaign and would fall in the standings in the end game. Despite being a favorite one year prior to the polls, Roco would end up placing fourth in a field of five.

Jamby Madrigal tried using a hand signal of a clenched fist in her ads but it never really caught on.

Logos and caricatures

The 2010 campaign was also big in terms of logos. Again, Villar was absolutely adamant in using the orange “check” mark as a branding tool for his campaign. The check was a very strong symbol since it conveyed strong approval and affirmation. The campaign was so strong that the symbol even ended up on relief goods given away during the aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy’s devastation.

The death of Cory Aquino has put the use of ribbons back in vogue. The yellow ribbon was symbolic of the people’s support for Cory and their commiseration with her passing. In a token effort to distance themselves from gaining political capital from Aquino’s death, Nonoy’s campaign used a stylized ribbon that had a dove in the design.

The use of symbols has never really been in vogue before. In 2007, Prospero Pichay tried to use the lowly “pechay” as his gimmick for his campaign. He gave out fans that had the words “I’m a Pichay fan!” on them and he ended up finishing in the high teens of the senatorial race.

Joseph “Erap” Estrada had a nifty cartoon sticker that was a mainstay of jeepney windshields everywhere. As polarizing a character as Erap is, a lot of people could agree that the caricature was very cute and somewhat endearing. It definitely softened the image of an ousted leader and a convicted plunderer.

Gilbert Teodoro used the number eight extensively in his campaign posters and stickers. For the most part, while his “number eight” posters were rather nice to look at and inventive, it wasn’t easy to deduce that they were meant to be political paraphernalia for his campaign. Later editions of the same sticker would feature the number eight sticker with Teodoro’s slogan “Galing at Talino” superimposed on the foreground. Teodoro was the only one among the presidential candidates who used his position on the ballot as a campaign strategy. This is quite interesting since it’s likely that he will never be able to recycle this concept again as his positioning on the ballot would probably change if he runs in the future.

The Gordon campaign used the lightning bolt to highlight his ability to make things happen faster than expected. This was a good move considering that the color red along with the bolt would convey a message of dynamism and activity. As most people would joke, both the color and the symbol also reflected Gordon’s hot temper. It is said that the idea to use the lightning bolt came from one of the volunteers in the Gordon campaign.

Jingles

Manny Villar is definitely the king of jingles. Even before the campaign period, Villar already had an “Akala Mo” ad that was trying to dispel the negative labels that were attached to him. As the results of the elections would show, the ads were not exactly that effective in changing people's perceptions. The “Akala Mo” campaign was supposed to culminate in a concert featuring the hottest bands in the country but much to Villar’s misfortune, the concert was scheduled on the day that Typhoon Ondoy hit.

Villar would then enter the campaign with a song that has provoked serious cases of last song syndrome (LSS) for many people in the past four months. The “Dagat ng Basura” (Sea of Garbage) jingle is unlike most jingles that have been done by other politicians. In the past, politicians tend to just buy the rights to songs and have it tweaked to their specifications. The People Power Coalition senatorial slate used the song “Who Let The Dogs Out?” by the Baha Men as the template for their jingle while Miguel Zubiri paid Lito Camo for the rights to use “Boom Tarat” as his campaign song.

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“Dagat ng Basura” was a new melody that allowed Villar to communicate his supposed humble beginnings as a “tunay na mahirap” (truly poor person). Why this is important continues to baffle a lot of Filipinos who have seen the advertisement. This emphasis on this Villar sidelight has become some sort of a precursor for many articles that exposed Villar’s real past and childhood. While the song may have been played ad nauseam and millions have probably labored hard to get the blasted song out of their brains, it failed in making Villar more palatable to the voters. While Villar was spending almost P300,000 per 30-second bit on prime time, his ratings were still static.

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Villar would follow up with a second jingle that had a more inspirational message for those who seek to follow the same rags-to-riches story that he was able to do. The song was not as catchy but for sure, due to the number of times it was played on prime time, people memorized the lyrics to the song without them noticing it.

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Noynoy Aquino had a campaign song during the early stages of the game. The reception wasn’t really that warm since it did feel very contrived and over-the-top. The Messianic leaning of the song was just way too much to handle for most people.

Gilbert Teodoro was embroiled in a very tedious and almost embarrassing faux pas when Rico Blanco claimed that his permission was not sought for the use of the song “Posible” by the Teodoro campaign. The song was earlier named the official theme song of the Philippine delegation to the 2005 Southeast Asian Games held in various locations in the country.

Erap didn’t use a campaign jingle for the 2010 elections – neither did the other candidates.

The ever changing game

Campaigns will never be a static game. The people who want to win should be willing to try their hardest to win hearts and minds through the medium that is most accessible to people. This election, we have been bombarded by the same types of television advertisement and jingles but we’ve also seen new tactics like web marketing, e-mail campaigns, and spamming, as well as other ways of reaching out to voters through social networking sites and SMS.

With more and more people becoming part of the web and the country’s archipelagic nature becoming less and less of an issue when it comes to getting the word out; campaigns would definitely continue to evolve and maybe these little things – the hand signs, the campaign color, jingles and even symbols – would be the difference-makers in the end.

Photo: “SAM_8031” by Carmela Nava, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved.

Photo: “Laban signs all around.” by din villafuerte, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved

Photo: “pichay fan” by Jas Rigor, c/o Flickr. All Rights Reserved

Photos of Manny Villar supporters  and Dick Gordon by Noemi L. Dado. Some Rights Reserved.