This Is Not a Simple Flowchart for Writers

Soon in an article, the unglamorous life of writers. Beyond the gaze of the readers' swoon. Below is a flowchart teaser on the relevant article forthcoming here on News Review Philippines.

The photo above shows an insider example of how writers are exploited locally, in one or two situations, that have become commonplace whether amateur or professional, and also experienced by communication practitioners.

Chart created with Canva.

Authored by the writer, Anna Liza VB. August 29, 2023. 

Thank you.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO READ THE LATEST POST, IN RELATION TO THIS CONTENT:  "The Unglamorous Life of Writers", published yesterday September 9, 2023.

To comment or send a rejoinder:  newsreviewph@gmail.com.

THE PITFALLS OF SOCIAL MEDIA YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN MISSING ON

 THE PITFALLS OF SOCIAL MEDIA YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN MISSING ON

It is totally overrated.

 

By this time about 70 to 90 million Filipinos is the number range for the actual social media users here in the Philippines alone, and the numbers can still vary and improve depending on the timeline.

 

With the way things have been, social media seems to have become the “be all and end all of media”, since the onslaught of the many challenges that taunted the industry, when media stations have closed down, while some are still struggling to survive.

 

These recent developments that have affected the media landscape, such as the shutting down of networks and companies, whether permanently or simply posturing for further ambiguity--  as modern entities of news and communication; and purveyors of entertainment, seem to have underlined its lack of boundaries or finiteness in establishing its stakes in the industry.

 

Moreso, it appears to have been forced to do a "transformation", without enough breathing space to study the normalcy of how ordinary netizens consume information on mass media.

 

Like a funnel and into a pitfall of further depthtitude, local media have become icebergs while many are blind-sighted in their solutions to survive while morphing and rebranding; testing further the possibilities of venture into other forms beyond print and broadcast.  Such is their aggressiveness to encompass other multimedia formats, shattering rattle media formalities, and making way for supreme interconnectivity.

 

There are many consequences that surround these developments. 

 

Media companies also have easy prey to the influence and clamor for further social media brazenness and ineptitude that could cloud their mission/vision and also hyper-fluctuate their unique identity in the middle of change.

 

ABS-CBN, from a distant view, had to let go of its known formula for news transmission;  and has appeared helpless, which pushed it to wallow and waddle through the murky online news streaming;  shutted to compete with countless minor players,  like a sub-channel of another media company. 

 

THIS CHANGE ALONE, ALONG WITH THE LOSS OF LOCAL TALENTS, IS NOT JUST AN ARROW SHOT  TO LIMP THE SOLID IDENTITY AND UNPARALLELED BRANDING OF THE NETWORK AS A SUPER TELEVISION NETWORK.

IT ALSO LENT CHANNEL 2 AN  IMPRESSION UNEXPECTED,  THAT IT CAN BE SUBSERVIENT TO OTHER MEDIA COMPANIES, a downgrade of sorts, AND RELEGATE ITS TOP SPOT TO CO-TEAM  WITH OTHER COMPANIES. 

               

With ABS-CBN side-swept by political pressure and trends, its powers were fainted by the dominance of social media. The exiting of companies or tapering down of broadcast; and minimalization of published pages, also signalled the birthing of many brave minor players who are eager to jump into fame or submit to the lure of having their own media companies.

 

Here lies complications for further media industry fragmentation and shift of power from the media owners and visionaries to the palm of the unskilled, ordinary, and  inexperienced information providers who want influence; or aim to domineer, dominate, or takeover an industry, without enough altruism to provide fair and balanced news reporting, and tasteful,  educated news and entertainment.

TO BE CONTINUED…

revised August 29, 2023, 6:03pm local time Philippines

MUD ADVERTISING AND ALL ABOUT THE NEGATIVE FAME

 Nothing is as compelling in the creative industry as the beauty and discipline of advertising. With it, products and updates on a market, and news about industries that matter, even advocacies and “community announcements” are propagated with words, using any printed,  electronic, or digital  media,  that holds a message to a point of value.

But advertising the way it’s meant has always been there to “serve”, be it good news,  a piece of information, or a well-intended fact from which the public can benefit from.

In recent years, along with the rise of online media, there came a slowing down of good news trumpeters. Instead, advertising became more pronounced and rather exploitative.  What came is a return to “boldness” in the way advertising is packaged.

For example, some online ads, do not merely promote and sell vantage points for new products. Some ads deviate from acceptable standards for advertising, previously disallowed by governing bodies.

A sweep read at the many frequent ads on display online these days can expose oneself to ads that hound customers with a charade of bodies and curves, closeups, and “show-all” product photos that aim to sensationalize and get attention with their own style of advertising. 

The real fault in some ads? These exploit women and models,  in such uncompromising postures enough for one to mind not the product but the model in photos.  It is not just the curves and the skin  peek that are shown in some non-mainstream, advertising, with a message loud and bold that it’s okay to flaunt.

Say in a product that must be talked about in a hush most cautious tone, the ad is graphically stated without much caution for decency and vulgarity by some advertisers and online sellers. These are blatantly common in online media and commercial sites.

Another kind of advertising that this writer would like to posit, is a seemingly innocent streamer in the community.  However, the display of tarpaulin although fraught with respect for the rights of those who have fallen from grace in a community, is also well-meant and intended, to let the public know about an erring individual.   Vagueness is not in the ideals of this kind of advertising which must be best called- mud advertising, the way it throws mud on the integrity of a person.  It is advertising if it is posted using a medium that is commonly used for advertising like what a tarpaulin is commonly used for.  And if it is situated along prominent areas where there is expected foot traffic. Moreso, tarpaulin advertising goes beyond a personal announcement and falls on the level of advertising if the message is posted more than once or twice, or with a schedule definitive of intention to get as much viewership or exposure.

                Can we consider negative news reporting as a form of advertising when it involves not just a personality but a person with business interests in the community? This is an ethical question that must be weighed by media providers which deliver the news, anyhow they can serve it for the public to partake of.

The thing with advertising these days, there has been an erasure of lines from advertising to the content, and the substance of news articles that are packaged as branded content. Because straightforward advertising  could turn off a lot of readers and sway them to stop the ad button once an ad interferes with their preferences,  advertisers have found it inevitable to repackage their products on media, and make them content-appropriate or  “content-embedded”.

What this writer also means to put forward in the open is that sometimes news and advertising have been interloped to a point of fault.  The disparity before is very pronounced. In later years, the shift in pleasing the numbers of followers has become a norm in changing the look of advertising, making these almost seamless with news and content at the forefront, while advertising seems to be at the helm of strategy.

We go back to tarpaulin advertising that carries a controversial announcement, advertisers can take caution not to overuse their intention to do good for others by using advertising as a ploy.  Or make an outcast out of an individual concern so as to diminish another’s integrity in the face of the greater community.

Mud advertising be it in the form of below-the-line advertising must not be a standard to address a competition, resolve a problem or warn about an issue that needs to be resolved with compassion and dignity.

Also, negative advertising must not be a gateway to other kinds of advertising that can disintegrate  regular standards of media normalcy so as to accept substandard advertising.

The helpless must not count on negative advertising that gives indignity or embolden others to follow suit, even if it is only meant for posterity,  to add on new followers, or bring sympathy,  and even sides for the unnoticed.

 

 

IS GETTING AN EXIT AGENCY ALREADY APPROPRIATE FOR FILIPINO EMPLOYEES?

 

Apparently, there are already companies in Japan that do the hard work for employees who want to quit their job and make it seem effortless. 

The kind of company that offers a resolution to avoid the awkwardness of employees when filing a resignation and dealing with their boss/es on direct approach terms.

Truth be told, such a company could have more place in the Philippines than anywhere else in the world. 

Employment locally has always been intrusive, starting from the screening stage where every detail is asked including medical and work history. These are necessary in order to give prospective employers a necessary heads-up on how an applicant is at work, while in the office, or even when handling remote positions.

The process can include a long wait and more pressure is hatched at the back of the applicant to please and make a good impression even before employment begins.  

When filing a resignation, however, the process can vary per employee’s temperament, style of negotiation, and workplace experience which can eventually dictate how a resignation is expressed, filed, or announced.

The standard acceptable process is to let an employer aware of an employee’s intention to resign, at least about a month before the actual date of effectivity. This is debatable however as some employees would opt for shorter advice for resignation to proceed and take effect.

But since a resignation involves not only a cessation of responsibilities for a specific work designation; company to employee relationship;  and a halt on the professional ties with the employer or boss/es, an employee may find himself or herself in a dire inconvenient position to express such intention to resign, in a very abrupt or direct approach, to avoid the toxic negotiation and discussion process.

The thing with work culture locally is that bosses have enough clout to dictate the future work of employees. Not a few employees would like to tread on a very balancing strategy on filing a resignation so as not to earn the ire and prolonged disappointment of their employers.

 

At times, employers particularly those in middle-management positions, are more deaf than responsive to employees’ needs and interests. 

Because every employee loss especially a fast turnover can hint at bad management style or workplace negativity, there are managers who exert enough pressure to keep their employees on deck. But when unable to do this, some opt for negative recommendations or feedback to the detriment of the employee who has expressed intention to leave work.

 

There are many instances when middle managers and those with the power to wield, go as far as “mud sling" an employee's record when hearing about an employee's resignation via grapevine.  They can do so without hilt or fault because the employees left behind are usually part of their own certain clique of loyalists.

Some managers also spill juicy irrelevant facts about an employee that can compromise a person's integrity in the face of other employers, in order to save face and get a decibel of approval from their colleagues when accepting a resignation.  

These are not unusual attitudes of managers locally, thus the complications of a work exit can be as tricky as getting a job from the start. Office politics allows these to permeate the work ethics of personnel thus leaving employees with a hesitancy to discuss resignation plans way before an official letter is filed.

 

To avoid pressure on employees, an “exit agency” can be more useful to have because it frees an employee from all the stresses and negativities of having to deal with bosses when quitting work. 

However, there are also companies locally with well-meaning Human Resources personnel who help the employees express their resignation thus aiding the smooth negotiations for the job turnover. 

 

Since this is a generation that has always looked out for solutions to pain points of ordinary people, human resource and manpower agencies should also best an effort to make resignation easier for employees, and make the process more like an ordinary "quit call", just like the companies that are in our neighboring country that go the extra mile to make sure employees' interests are always upheld to the very last.

There Cannot Be More Fines, We Are Not A Country of Fines

 

Count them if you can pay them.

 

There is a better alternative to getting the products and services these days that makes everything equal and goes above the reality of being  "consumer-deprived" or devoid of essentials for household and life-survival. 

In all the things we spend for, we have always had a leeway to choose whether we pay via cash, credit card, or installment basis.

The old way of purchasing things which is slowly becoming outdated is to pay for items and services in cash. Because not many can afford to retain credit cards, cash reigns supreme in the great economy where every consumer must be favored and taken care of. 

But in a dismal economy fraught with new hopeful developments, one showing a bearish attitude towards the simplest of buyers, the best deal option is to use e-wallets, hence the popularity of digital money.

E-wallets are convenient when the pandemic waved its feel on the populace wanting to veer away from face-to-face contact either in small stores or in commercial establishments. Another wise option for the regular shopper is to rely on digital wallets that offer installments, making purchases affordable that have been toned down in mini-proportions.

This mode of paying in "pea-sized amounts" offers a problem solved on the pain point of a regular consumer. 

However, even as modes of payments now are more technology-driven and trend-inspired, what service and product providers fail to take note of, is to remove another pain in the throat of ordinary consumers—that of paying penalties, fines, or hidden charges to ensure continuity of services and assure of continued supply of consumer products.  

Let us not deviate from the usual spends of the ordinary Filipino.  

Utilities that require its subscribers to settle fines or penalties in varied amounts.  Reconnection fees can fetch as high as low as Php 600.00, to Php 1,500 depending on a company's requisites.

Meanwhile, as for the micro-loan consumers, the fees and penalties are not as definite and can be as flexible depending on which one has offered a micro-loan product.  This can be as low as Php 50.00, for ordinary micro-loan amounts, depending on the delay or schedule in settling the payments and the interest/s dictated by the principal amount.

In tax settlements, the penalties can be even more astounding and might range from Php 300 to less than Php 2,000 per month. In vehicle registration, penalties can also be charged against the owner of a vehicle. 

In the timeline of the pandemic, everyone is expected to make ends meet and keep the odds at bay when it comes to paying obligations. By consumers' standards, the current cost of living "is already high" in the country, at a time when jobs are scarce offline and online, and product availability can also prove to be scarce or limited.

An example analogy of how penalties could be used for another purpose by the consumers, instead of having the penalties paid, and thus make way for more  items on an ordinary mom's grocery bag is below:  

Example: 

 

• A PHP 50.00 penalty charged by a microloan can suffice to cover the allowance of a grade-schooler or pay for a cup of munggo beans, or a kilo of rice, enough to cover a day’s meal for a family.

• The PHP 300 penalty can afford a consumer 6 kilos of rice enough to augment a week's sustenance for an ordinary household.

• The Php 600 penalties slapped by another utility company can be enough to pay for the water service consumption of a city-dweller subscriber, for about a month.

• A Php 1,200 penalty charged by another lifestyle-essential utility company can be enough to pay for the transportation of a schooler for two weeks or more, should an ordinary consumer/s be freed from paying it.

These simple comparisons of how consumers can make better use of the penalties they pay, in order to procure products and services, must be understood in clear and simple terms by the company or business that charges these penalties.

If a subscriber/consumer moves heaven and earth to be able to pay or afford local products and services that are requisites for their own standards of living, why deny the consumer the opportunity to be free from paying such fines when these would mean a heartbeat of a meal; an extra mile of reach to a destination; or an extra day of guaranteed meal for a schooler?

Fines are as debilitating as the obligations of debt that ordinary consumers shoulder in their own blindsighted ways to follow a structure of fines dictated by the businesses they rely and trust on.

 

 News Review Philippines

2023

Posted in real-time by the writer, Anna Liza VB.

For comments and suggestions, or press invites please email newsreviewph@gmail.com.

We Must Patronize Only Ethical Jewelry Locally

 

 [Opinion]

Admittingly, as soon as  I have read pronounced comments about an excavated (was it?) ancestral metal found (I can just imagine how it looks), that was previously displayed, at a museum,  that recently made its way into the hands of an artisan, to make such jewelry reworked and molded from its original old trove haunt, I felt moved, to incredulity.  

How on earth, an unearth belonging previously deep a find, can make its way to the neckline of a beautiful celebrity? 

What are the resonating ideals of such an effort to make jewelry from a "gold find" from a past forgotten even if it has the best of intentions? 

Truly, it is hard to imagine exploitative fashion out of old belongings. 

Whose item will be next for the sake of fashion? I say fashion must NOW thinktank about its boundaries.

We all know that fashion is as imaginative as it can get. 

It knows no age and it explores anything that can be made into a beautiful thing. 

But our need for fashion let’s say even for the sake of being ecologically minded, must not be thrust into the unknown, enough to dissonate disrespect for the values of history, culture; and respect for the un-living.

It was like a hatchet depth to be unraveled that stylish jewelry fashion can come from those which can't defend itself,  making it unthinkable to own and flaunt.  

Fashion has always been liberating from the point of view of a wearer. But its purpose must not be to commercialize a past that makes up a culture or a society belonging to the rested.  

We make fashion, probably yes even out of a molehill, but that molehill must not come from an era belonging to the depart, where a treasure could be hidden, and exploited for the sake of art.

 

  

 

THIS DICTATES YOUR FUTURE. ANSWER THIS WELL BEFORE ACCEPTING A PROSPECTIVE JOB

 THIS DICTATES YOUR FUTURE. ANSWER THIS WELL BEFORE ACCEPTING A PROSPECTIVE JOB

Don’t rush to accept a job offer for the sake of being hired.

[CAREER TIPS}

So, you think you landed the job of your dreams, as a first-timer or a returner employee. 

Hurry not, eager employee.  In times of pandemic when jobs are scarce, and work-from-home jobs are not really happening for most applicants, there is one thing that one must be careful in “settling” for, before signing for a job.

 

Forget about that excitement  in trying an industry that is aligned to your education. 

 

As one chooses work, so is he or she building a future one day at a time.

 

The secret to being wise as a newcomer or same-old worker relies only on one thing-- when one is afront with an interview personnel, at a time when an individual has a pretty good chance already of being hired.

 

Know that this secret to having a better, brighter future can start with writing the answer to one important question given by screening personnel, even way before the interview, from the time you score an application form.

THIS IMPORTANT FUTURE SETTING for a worker requires answering a blank line that is repeated over by hiring personnel, no matter what company or industry one aims to enter.

 

The heavy impact answer that could impact an individual career, when asked by human resource personnel, requires honesty to the question:

What is Your Expected Salary? How Much Was Your Previous Salary?

 

These two questions tell and foretell how an applicant and would-be-employee would be treated by a company or employer.

 

Writing down one’s expected salary requires honesty and consistency of expectations, and not just hopeful statements on the part of an applicant.

 

It used to be that hard-knock industries attract a lot of bemedaled applicants for many reasons other than salary. The reasons include opportunity for fame, clout, or even an aspirational one. But signing up for a job that does not consider one’s financial requirements and needs; agreeing to a salary that would NOT satisfy standards of living  decently in today’s times could be tantamount to walking a lane of hopeless pursuit for a future that is not there.

 

Workers must be firm and blunt in putting forward their ideal salary expected. And must not get a kind of work that does not even consider good salary placements for employees.

 

Many companies consider hierarchy and plantilla in filling out work positions and offering figures for the salary.  But often, applicants are shortchanged of what they deserve or what is commensurate to the time one has to exert in order to get work done.

 

Thus, it would help that workers from the very start must write the fine line of their salary needs because if the preferred salary is not given, in one’s target position or work, a worker may soon regret having spent a great deal of time and effort being part of a company.  Regrets in employment must not be a standard for workers who value their talents and dedication to a company.

 

It is a tricky question that is always given with the intent to measure sometimes, with a bias to undermine and not to patronize a person’s capacity to work,  no matter what qualifications one has.

 

WHAT’S YOUR PREVIOUS SALARY IS A QUESTION HIRING PERSONNEL OFTEN ASK TO MEASURE THE IMPORTANCE, VALUE, AND INDISPENSABILITY OF AN APPLICANT.

 

How and why? The tendency of hiring personnel is to simply retain the old salary or match it with a similar offer to the applicant. That is often the easy and best route taken by HR, to offer a "realistic" same salary and play on that card of “times are hard” statement WHEN FINALIZING A SALARY OFFER.  

 

The fact is, getting the right salary can be as elusive as getting the right job to match one’s qualifications.

 

Hence, an applicant no matter what background one comes from,  must not settle for a losing end of the bargaining rod.

THIS IS THE ONLY THING YOU MUST KNOW WHEN RENTING AN APARTMENT

Mind your space. And your lessors.

Not yet ready to get your own place? Sadly, it is the reality of middle-class families and individuals. The ease of getting a place is not yet there given the business conditions in the country.

There are a lot of developers targeting earners with the purchasing power for affordable houses that are in development, even in the pre-selling stage.  But high-interest rates in banks, lack of enthusiasm to lend financial assistance to families needing basic shelter, and the prevalence of difficulties in getting papers needed to process real estate investments, are some of the reasons real estate buyers cannot readily jump into the prospects of having new houses immediately. 

If buying is not yet an option, the real good deal is to rent a house in a reputable city with all the necessities available in building a family.

But forget your checklist of what to look out for in a rented house, there is just one basic seek-in information that lessees must know. 

 

The lessor or land owner should not live beside the same place you intend to rent out. 

 

It is no surprise that there are lessors who stay in their real estate property they rent out for reasons only they can declare. But as a starting family, a prospective lessee must know that there are a number of complications when getting a place where a landowner or lessor lives beside the property you rent, whether it is a few steps away from the house you would be renting on or in the same vicinity of your apartment.

 

Here are the reasons you must not settle for a house where the lessor lives in the vicinity of your unit or apartment:

 

·         THE LACK OF PRIVACY OF TENANTS. Living with your lessor next door is an inconvenient way to start a family. The lessor would have so much access to your day-to-day affairs, activities, and privacy as both would live in the same location. This fact guarantees familiarity both ways and same circle complications that can be disfavoring to the tenant’s interest and necessities.

 

By having a lessor living next door,  the tenant/s opens up their own family and individual realities that can be a breeding ground of loss of integrity both for the lessor and the lessee, as the former can easily impose a supervisory attitude towards the house property he/she is renting out.  PRIVACY is a big issue for tenants with lessors living next to them.

There will be a conscious effort to cloud the decision of the tenants by superimposing on the will of the lessee, how the property is maintained or kept, and the tenant/s could also be in constant scrutiny from the lessor whether or not the tenants’ actions is congruent to the lessors’ expectations.

 

 

Having a lessor next door could guarantee less freedom to move around the house for your family.

 

 

·         THE EXPECTED FAMILIAL CONNECTION IS ALWAYS THERE.  As tenants living next door, you must be prepared to mingle, elbow to elbow with the lessors’ family, and expect interactions with the lessors’ own circle of connections. As tenants, you must decide if such constant probability would be impactful to your need for family privacy, margins for freedom, and integrity. As we all know, too much familiarity and lack of privacy can interfere with the tenants’ rights when it comes to moving around, and personal decisions in how a household is maintained.  Expect comments whether necessary or not from the lessor, no matter how amiable the arrangement seems to be from the start. The lessor-to-tenant interaction is not always perfect as the lessor who lives nearby can also expect a little dose of familial support from the tenant once needed. This consequently affects the business integrity of the lessor in the face of its own tenants.

 

·         SHARED SPACE OR COMMON GROUND BETWEEN THE LESSOR AND THE TENANT CAN BE A CAUSE OF TENSION or cold disagreement between the lessor and the tenant, and this cannot be avoided. Since each family or each circle has been brought up differently and can show different attitudes about a lot of important issues where it concerns daily realities, a lessor can be vocal in asserting their own hard way of doing things, and superimpose on the preferences of the tenant that can affect individual freedom and choices.

 

THESE THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS DISCUSSED OR EXPECTED IN THE OPEN since most enterprising businesses offer a very presentable façade in their customer or client relations.   But when it comes to renting an apartment, everything becomes personal or subject to hear-end comments, hence to avoid conflicts and disagreements when renting a place, interested parties must try all means to find the best route in having a home space rented out to others; while tenants must be prepared for the business and personal weaknesses of their lessors when it comes to daily interactions should living next door be an unavoidable option for the tenant/s.

 

This business article is open to advertisers’ input and advertorials. Please feel free to direct message this writer or respond to this open call for sponsored articles about real estate, house renting, budget homes, etc.

 

Thank you.

About Quiet Luxe, Loud Logos and The Cost of Being Admired

 

Recently there are luxury brands (we need not name the who’s or the which-- it’s influencer-style marketing these days and we don't wanna alienate), gearing a paradigm shift in the way luxury items are distinguished and patronized.  

The increase in the attention worthy-posts for “quiet luxury” is obviously positioned to appeal to logo-averse buyers of expensive items. 

So expectedly waiting for this, because in true high-end fashion, not all people with money for luxury would ALWAYS WANT TO make a big deal out of how much they spent for a bag, or who they are wearing, to other people. Thus, “quiet luxury” seems like a more peaceful route to loving luxury with a conscience, without the need to brag and tag.  

 

"Quiet luxury” may be more alluring to the right niche but not to the countless aspirational buyers of luxury goods who want to be out and loud with the brands they fancy.

 

Why this writer opines that logo-fest on bags and everything branded would still win the favor and hearts of local consumers because of the wide acceptance of luxury brands as status symbols and success-pitchers for the locals.  

In addition, consumers who wear and carry popular brands of bags, shoes, etc., are more favored and treated nicely in the city or rural side.

 

Try going out to an ordinary place wearing only simple clothing for whatever purpose, or donning only a simple bag; go looking like a plain Jane, or Joe for the men.  

One could easily spell a difference in the customer service efforts one can get from a shop attendant when one is logo-worthy versus that of the so ordinary. And this is a normal mindset among the locals.  

 

Filipinos love international brands so much that this culture of luxury wearing tends to out shadow our own acceptance of local products.  

It is not a matter of luxury versus practicality. Frankly, for many young and old,  it is a matter of having acceptance and being estimated well by others, that brings forth a reason to wear and patronize popular luxury brands. 

 

But the preference for luxury can pose a burden to ordinary consumers when brand bias trickles down to other lifestyle items that have become “essentials” for many Filipino consumers- like game consoles for kids, and insurance products that do not necessarily embed their brand names, but require expensive prices in order to be enjoyed by mainstream consumers.

 

When moms and dads have to keep up with trends,  to evade being an outcast in the middle of an amiable taste for brands that denote status, wealth, or high income, there goes the pressure to spend more. It is understandable that there are parents who would want to go super-upper on their lifestyle, just to avoid their kids from being branded as can’t afford, at a time when consumerism gives high value to everything luxurious. Like when going for a fancy gaming lifestyle that could allow a level-up treatment from those who are in the world of the can-affords, just to avoid their kids from being bullied. 

It is a fact of life in the country that those who live below the expectations of others, those who can't afford the high-priced goods in their everyday use have a high probability of being bullied whether directly or indirectly; whether in subtle gesture or as a direct insult verbally or even through social outcasting where popularity and favor of goodwill counts more than the indistinct and the generic-wearing individuals.

Reference is alluded, to a recent viral story of a dad being affected when his son gets home after being bullied because of wearing a replica brand. A story that illustrated the local penchant for brands,  to enjoy social acceptance, must not be undermined.

 

Suffice it to say, admiration is a spellbinding lure of many brands. Those who buy expensive items are often associated as successful; not “losers”, just like the young would like to drum roll many times over.

 

What is unacceptable is when our status-hearted philosophy permeates even in the way we look and shop for medical products and services, that are expectedly must-haves, like insurance products that are priced unaffordable and are marketed to give luster to a specific niche. When it comes to insurance products and medical services, there must not be a distinction to profile the low from the highs.

 

One buyer of prepaid insurance bragged about getting a product for her helper, alluding that a low-cost insurance product is only for those who are at the bottom ladder of economic status. If this persists, even the kind of service that is supposed to be professionalized and idealized such as that given by the medical industry, can be marginalized to favor the luxe-abiding ones. 

 

Insurance products bought without the need to shell out high and mighty amounts, give a buffer of security and a layer of protection among ordinary consumers, in times of uncertainty.  Thus, insurance products must not be branded to mean exclusively fashioned for the poor, or for the wealthy, even in a sublime way.    

 

We cannot let status and brands, delineate consumers of many lifestyle products to assert importance, more so demand a kind of service or product, we need as Filipinos especially when it comes to healthcare or medical services.

 

Edited July 18, 2023, 7:08 pm. News Review Philippines by Anna Liza VB.

Copyright 2023 Philippines

 

The Fault in the Unseen: What Creatives Won't Tell Everyone About Big Projects

And What Mediocrity Truly Spells 

Believe me, mediocrity is a word those in the creative professions loathe.

With a reason of course.

No creatives in advertising can be there if, from the very start, one does not know the intricacies of their work, more so the difference between mediocrity and mediocracy.

It is not all about colors, photos, words, and fonts when one is handed an advertising campaign that is expected to be shredded and criticized by many--probably because of timing, probably because of budget.

It cannot be diluted that those who belong to the world of creatives, when given a project,  [warning cliché] do get that “fire in their belly” to finish a task with aplomb, breathe—success.

Unless when a team of creatives is demoralized or has a very stressful deadline given them, that demands quality within an almost impossible deadline or timeframe;  or for them to work despite a lack of manpower available. One cannot simply judge a whole slew of creatives based on the outcome of a project. 

With the foresight of having an unsatisfactory output, one who can pull the strings, can simply call the shots, trash everything, or have a do-over of work.  Rest assured, the creatives would be the first ones to balk at such an average campaign. 

The real deal, before a project is accepted, is a whole lot of expectations are given to creatives. 

Sometimes, the demands are not doable.  But creatives, believing that they can always do their best, would always put a brave, fast-paced move forward, in order to satisfy a client. 

What this post wants to share is:  why a team of creatives "at the helm of things" did not pull enough brunt and blunt to come up with an impeccably original campaign for a tourism project? 

• Was the brief clear?
• Was there a budget that supported such a big deal campaign that is accessible within the confines of the deadline, for the team of creatives to peruse? 
• Or was the deadline given so strict that the team working on the campaign, had no choice but to come up with a hush edition from logo to video?

In times of failure, the writers and artists for such a gargantuan project do know they would be the ones to take the blame for such a hullabaloo. And believe that a team of creatives would have the decency to admit what’s wrong should all else fail. 

 

So much has been said about the tourism campaign. But what is good to ponder is that a team of creatives from a well-known ad agency could have done a better job, if all support, and ideals were given them. If the ideals were not there, no matter how excellent they are, they can only give a lackluster output, if something was sorely missing that requires them to further their brilliance.  

Most of the time, originality is spun by inspiration. And an excellent campaign also requires the right work environment to bring forth enough motivation to be original. By coming up with a campaign that fails many expectations, the ad agency's creatives would be the first ones to be dissatisfied with their own work.

Something to spell out there, lay out the reasons for fail, not just criticize the finished tourism campaign if originality really was a big deal for everyone.

commentary. News Review Philippines 

edited @10:19pm July 11, 2023

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