By Jasmine Shewakramani
With the onset of election campaign periods in the Philippine come a multitude of campaign material: jingles, advertisements, posters, rallies, and celebrities.
The use of celebrity endorsements during election period is nothing new to many Filipinos. As much as they remember the annoying jingles, they also remember the smiling faces on campaign material, imploring the vote of the populace.
Some Presidentiable have several celebrity endorsers under their wing to help add to their election campaign. Manny Villar has King of Comedy Dolphy and noontimehost Willie Revillame. Noynoy Aquino has his sister, host and actress Kris Aquino. Gibo Teodoro has perhaps his running mate, Edu Manzano. Richard Gordon is one of the other presidentiables who staunchly beilieved in relying on his platforms rather than on star power.
A few weeks ago, the Commission on Elections considered under the Fair Elections Act a ruling that celebrities, or persons working in mass media, should resign or take a leave from their work if they are going to become an active volunteer in campaigning for their chosen candidate. It has since been overturned, as the Comelec further stated that it would be up to the home network or agency to decide if they would like their talents to resign or take a leave from their shows.
Many said that such a law is unfair to mass media people as it restricts freedom of speech. Presidential candidate Gibo Teodoro, despite having no celebrity endorsers at the time he made this comment, said that celebrities should not be slammed with such restrictions just because of their political preferences. They are allowed to have biases regarding this matter, as long as it is clear that it is their preference and not that of a group or network unless stated otherwise.
Celebrity endorsers, they say, are not paid but are volunteers, and volunteerism is welcome in these elections because it shows that the people are actively taking part in decisions that shape the future of our country.
There are several advantages to having celebrity endorsers. They can emphasize the importance of the elections to their audiences through their shows and columns. They are also beneficial to the presidentiables they endorse because their star power ensures people are actually listening to them.
However, this may also pose a disadvantage. Stars can use their TV shows, radio programs, newspaper columns and whatever other outlet they have in order to support a candidate. This creates a bandwagon effect, as viewers who idolize celebrities may not vote for their preferred candidate based on their personal judgment and inference. They vote because it is their idol’s preference and, of course, they’d like to be associated with their idol if only through choice of candidate.
Sometimes celebrities exercise their power to an unneeded extent. They use their connections in order to further glamour their audiences and entice them toward a certain candidate. Point in case is the star-studded commercial of Noynoy Aquino. His music video-like commercial included not only his sister Kris Aquino and nephew Baby James, but Regine Velasquez, Sharon Cuneta, Boy Abunda, Anne Curtis, Bianca Gonzales, Bea Alonzo, Dingdong Dantes, AiAi delas Alas, Erik Santos, Mariel Rodriguez, Ogie Alcasid and Marian Rivera. Of course, people were abuzz with the airing of this commercial, and for weeks after, it was the talk of the town. It became the headliner for a popularity contest, or a game of who can cull the most stars.
The fact of the matter remains that celebrity influence can be used the wrong way. It has happened before and it can and will happen again. I believe that the Comelec should have gone through with the ruling, since it is reasonable and advocates fairness for all parties involve. Celebrities should realize that they cannot have eveything their way; to be fair to the Filipino people, they should give up their shows for the duration of the election period while on the campaign trail. It is, after all, not a pink slip but just a leave. The sad part is, many celebrities think that they should get their way all the time, and so throw tantrums when they are countered by the law.
We will never truly get rid of the celebrity factor in the elections, because of the showbiz culture of many Filipinos. Nevertheless, we can only hope that endorsers actually help in keeping the public informed about these aspirants, rather than turning it into one big popularity contest.
