political ads: small banners that think small a big waste of money

you can't miss it, every city has it. actually every city has lots of it - these ubiquitous small banners with the faces and names of current barangay (smallest town unit), city and provincial officials. depending on certain months, congressmen and senators get into the act. well, ok actually almost everyone in government does it.

but do they work? do they have a marketing and advertising value?

looking at these ads, you can say there is an advertising campaign being followed here, complete with a copy rotation plan and an annualized media plan. the copy rotation and media plans follow events during the year - christmas, new year, graduation, valentines (yes, even that), summer, fiestas and anniversaries just to name a few. on those alone, we are looking at minimum 7 executions in a year or an average of something new every two months.

that number does not yet include ad-hoc campaigns announcing the govt officials specific programs for his/her constituents, plus the occasional barangay hall repainting or free inoculation activities.

from 1 mayor, 1 vice-mayor, add half a dozen to a dozen councilmen, 1 or two congressmen and 1 barangay captain per barangay - we're talking of a gazillion (that's an exaggeration) officials releasing their own small banner ads on every other street corner and every other empty wall. whew!

looking at copy - these ads are no more than just name and face recall. they really don't contain much in terms of content. to say it positively, they are minimalist in messages. they are usually just the face of the local government official and copy that says "Happy Fiesta To All" if its fiesta time or "Happy Valentines To All".

given those, the ads do nothing more than generate just face and name recall. oh wait, it does more - it irritates us and it uglifies the city! we are of course assuming that people who live in the city actually look at any of these small banners. (i doubt it, though.) and also assuming, people who live in that city do not know the names of their local government officials and they do not know how they look like. that also assumes the local residents did not vote them in the last elections.

that's exactly the point - these ads are nothing more than just irritants. we doubt if these small banners with a minimalist message really do anything to endear these officials to the electorate. from an advertising standpoint, many of these ads just duplicate what is already existing. they were elected by the people, i'm sure all those who elected them into office know their names and their faces. come on now, do they really think voters will say anything like this - "Wow, Mayor de la Cruz greeted me "happy valentines", i'll re-elect him in the next election!"???

if these small banners don't do anything to the likability of the local officials, what do they achieve? one sentence - they uglify the city and a true blue WAWAM.

billboards - advertising that kill, literally

WAWAM! had previously complained about billboards on EDSA. these giant ulgies hardly contribute to marketing efforts nor brand building, why bother having them and allow these bollboards when all they do is to uglify EDSA and our city? (http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/billboards)

now, 3 billboards collapsed. good thing nobody got seriously injured and nobody died. these are giant structures, it's easy to imagine that a much larger catostrophe could have occured. these giant structures could become giant and multiple spears that can puncture cars and buses and even spear people on the street. these are located on EDSA, a major thoroughfare, almost always busy the whole day. in fact the collapse occured during the day when EDSA is full of commuters - workers, ordinary folks and school children are out to go to points in the metro.

these billboard suppliers should be held fully responsible for the loss and damages. if someone dies because of these unsafe structures, owners of these companies should be put in jail. shame on the advertising industry!

Remove All Billboards On EDSA!

3 Edsa billboards fall; 5 hurt

By Julie M. Aurelio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:57am (Mla time) 10/14/2008

MANILA, Philippines – Five persons were hurt when a billboard collapsed in the middle of a heavy downpour and fell on the site of a bus terminal at the southbound lane of Edsa, near the Santolan flyover in Quezon City Monday afternoon.

Two more billboards on Edsa also toppled over – one near a car repair shop on the southbound lane and the other in front of the Makro supermarket on the northbound lane – but no injuries were reported, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) enforcers said.

Although none of the billboards fell on Edsa, the incidents led to heavy traffic on the southbound lane, extending all the way to East Avenue from the Santolan flyover.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/metro/view_article.php?article_id=166258

the uglification of our city, our homes

i was taking pictures of signages of banks and restaurants, i could not get a clear and clean shot of many of the signages. then i realize what is happening --- the city has been uglified by telephone, internet, cable tv and power companies with their wires recklessly hanging everywhere and anywhere.

the wires are so many, maybe 200 to 300 wires in some cases that they almost form a black blanket over the shot i was taking. the sad part of that is i bet most of those wires are no longer live. why spend the money to remove them?

here are some of the pictures. look around you and you will see how much they have uglified our neighborhood and homes.



aren't there laws to prevent these things?



* the word "ugligication" and "uglified" have been used in WAWAM! previously

petition for a new word!

if there is the word beauty and there is ugly, and then beautify, don't you think there should also be the word UGLIFY?