pro-reproductive health (RH) bill print ad shoots itself in the foot

double click image for larger view to be able to read copy.

this is a print ad published/sponsored by like-minded NGOs, groups and organizations who believe in the passage of the Reprodictive Health Bill which has been pending in congress for the last three and a half centuries. reading the print-ad, it is most probably spearheaded by RHAN or the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network.

all of these organizations want the reproductive health bill (read the bill here: http://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/text-of-rh-bill-no-5043/) passed. that is the same objective of this print ad.

the print ad aims to persuade the target market to be supporters of the RH Bill, to get readers to push their congressmen to approve the bill or at least to generate a groundswell of support for its passage. to have a large portion of the target market to oush for it will get the congressmen take notice and approve the bill. well, at least that is what they hope to achieve.

after reading the ad, however, we think what the ad is able to achieve the opposite. we think it is turning the target market against the RH Bill. this pro-RH Bill ad has shot itself in the foot.

this is next in WAWAM!

unwanted pregnancy for pinays : "nagpagamit na lang ako sa asawa ko! bubugbugin niya ako pag hindi ako pumayag."

"nagpagamit na lang ako sa asawa ko. bubugbugin nya ko kapag hindi ako pumayag." (i allowed my husband to use me. he will beat me up if
i don't allow him.)

there are probably two things that shocked you when you read the title of this discussion. it is not meant to be theatrical just to get attention, it is only to tell the truth. truth number one - among the filipino poor, yes, they do use exactly that word "magpagamit" (to have yourself used) to mean to have intercourse with a partner. it is a common term among them. not only that, even social workers use that term to mean sex.

the term does not shock them. nor do i think they know the implication of the use of that kind of a word to refer to sex. but that is the truth.

truth number two - yes, that happens often - women, mostly married women agree to unprotected sex with their partners because if they don't, their partners will beat them up.

that is based on consumer research. many women have told that story as to why they have had unwanted pregnancies. their partners or husbands come home drunk. and when the men are drunk, they most often want to have sex with them. often, the women do not have or do not use contraceptive devices. they know they are not safe but they have no choice but to agree to unprotected sex with their partners or husbands because if they refuse them, their drunk husband will beat them up. that is one of the reasons why there is a high incidence of unwanted pregnancies in the country.

keep that in mind when you view this commercial. that in many ways gives a real scenario behind the ad.



tv ad has english back translation

Couples For Christ anti-RH 5043 bill ad : half truths turn into full failure

this is a half page print ad that appeared on page 2 of the philippine daily inquirer. this RH Bill 5043 is a hotly contested one in congress with the catholic church on one side and progressive lawmakers on the other.


we do not think a plain black & white ad, empty of any visual is enough to attract anyone, much less convince anyone to CFC's position in the RH Bill issue. doing a press release would have been more effective if this was all that they can do as a print ad.

there is an attempt to some creative writing through the use of the idea "kill the bill before the bill kills the filipino family" which is quite good per se, but used in this ad, it became the weakness of the ad.

this ad stepped into the arena of "scare tactics" and "extreme exaggeration". "scare tactics" seem to be the over-all strategy employed by oppositionists to this RH bill. this strategy is applied across all forms of media, press releases, speeches in congress and even in the pulpit. almost forgot to mention that the whole thing is being led by the catholic church.

we will leave the point of the catholic church for the moment and will focus on the CFC, since it is them who released the print ad.

the "kill the bill if you don't want to kill the filipino family" approach does not work as it lacks specifics. the word "kill" and as used in the ad makes it very powerful but consistent with the "scare tactics" approach, it purposely left out a strong reason why or an explanation as to how passage of the bill will kill the family.

we can't even say the absence of the reason why is to leave things to the imagination of the audience. in the first place, ads to be effective do not leave anything to the imagination of the intended target audience. equally important, it's really impossible for the mind to figure out how passage of the bill will kill the filipino family. it's too much of a stretch and these two ideas, even if one uses wild imagination, do not belong to the same page.

i am reminded of the friars of the spanish colonial rule when they first came to the country some centuries ago, their favorite tactic in converting indigenous filipinos was to employ scare tactics, something like - "not converting to catholicism will bring upon you eternal fire and oozing lava to burn you in hell" kind of lines.

the spanish colonial friars may have had some success during that time -- it was the first time that the filipinos met westerners. some of them knew about islam, but most of them were worshipping their ancestors or animals and nature. most of them, specially at the beginning were unable to read, write or speak spanish. in other words, the scare tactics of the spanish friars mostly worked because the filipinos were mostly naive and clueless in many levels, in many ways of the spanish friars.

that, however, is not the case of the intended target audience of the print ad. this ad appeared in the philippine daily inquirer whose readers belong mostly to the AB and C socio-eco class. they are certainly not as naive and clueless as the filipinos were when the spanish friars arrived in the philippines. scare tactics will not work. not only will scare tactics of this sort not work, they will most likely have a negative impact on the target audience.

the target audience will see through this ad. they will probably feel insulted that such scare tactics are being used at them. the ad shows CFC have no respect on the intelligence of the intended target market. insulting the intelligence of the AB and upper C is probably the biggest mistake anyone can make when it comes to this particular target audience.

we have not touched on the part of the title of this post - half truths.

studying and reading the contents of Bill RH 5043 will clearly tell you that opposite to what this ad saying, it is actually for the filipino family. a significantly high percentage of filipino families belong to the poor with meager resources even for day to day survival of the family. this bill seeks to empower the family, women specially to have full control of their bodies when it comes to reproductive health. empowering family members, specially the women is being supportive of the filipino family.

couples for christ employing scare tactics done by the spanish colonial friars popularized centuries ago on naive and clueless pinoy natives and clearly employing half truths in this ad? that's clearly a WAWAM!

oh, and we forgot to mention that this group, couples for christ is a catholic organization which supposedly also follow the ten commandments.

losyang filipina woman slaps herself silly

this is one of the most compelling and most powerful ads for modern methods of contraception.

more on this, next in WAWAM!