is the attack / negative ad against Mar Roxas at YouTube the start of Nega Ads War?

attack / negative ads are not allowed to be aired in Philippine media by the self-regulating Ad Board of the Philippine advertising industry. that is the reason why we do not see such ads on air.

attack ads are allowed in the US and  they are usually against political candidates. they take the form of exposing or talking about the bad or wrong policy decisions or positions taken by political opponents. negative ads can be done in the US by consumer brands, often by way of side-by-side demonstrations that show one brand outperforms the other and the brands are clearly identified.

this is the first time that we have seen an attack / negative ad in the Philippines. since this is not allowed in Philippine traditional media, this one in the internet at YouTube.

we are now wondering if this attack / negative ad against Mar Roxas will usher in a new era in Philippine elections where attack / ads will be posted in the internet by competing political candidates. there is very little that can be done in terms of regulation on content aired in the internet or even YouTube and that means the possibilities of what kind ads will be posted is limitless, we can see the very worst posted in the internet for everyone to view.

without regulation and the possibilities unlimited, the first casualty will be the truth and fairness. this can be really messy for all, not just the candidates but even for the rest of Filipinos.

this can be start of the Nega Ads War in philippine elections.

new in Philippine elections – negative / attack ad against Mar Roxas

we saw this TV ad at YouTube as we were looking for Mar Roxas political TV ads. we were surprised, this is the first attack / negative TV ad aired in the Philippines.

 

why is this first? that is because attack / negative ads are not allowed to be aired in the Philippines. and that is probably the reason why this can only be viewed in the internet through YouTube. the TV networks will not allow its airing on their TV stations. so far it has gotten only 13T views since it was posted last November 16, 2015 by a Michael Gierza.

this attack / negative ad against Mar Roxas is a polished ad that can only be written and produced by an ad agency. copy works very well, the production values are not superb but its passable and acceptable. the casting is well done with credible millennials appearing on the TV ad. it is an ad targeted against millennials.

the negative issues being hurled at Mar Roxas are well chosen, these being exactly the problems many of us, not just the millennials have been complaining about  for many months now, these are – heavy traffic, MRT problems and the Yolanda problems that are often blamed on Roxas.  the messages in the ad will resonate among the voters, among all voters who are not living under a rock in the Philippines.

the ad aims to do two (2) things : cast doubt on Mar Roxas and to confirm the negatives that have been talked about to be true. casting doubt on Roxas is potentially powerful and can harm Roxas. once a doubt is cast in the minds of the target audience, they become very easy to completely capture and convert into the opposite side.

the negatives or accusations have been around for many months. the idea is to put them on media so that those seeing the ad will confirm in their minds to be true. personally, i do not think that are true and it is underselling for Roxas to be blamed for those.  and that is how this ad becomes sinister. these are unverified truths, even unexplained in the ads why these are to be blamed on Roxas. but because the ad is out, there will be people who will not question its veracity and just accept them as truth.

the problem with the ad is the question of truth. are these negative issues truthfully attributable to Mar Roxas? i doubt if any one of it will pass the test of truth, there is this thing called “truth in advertising”, right?

Mar Roxas’ marketing and campaign teams should have this removed from the internet / YouTube. this has the potential to hurt Roxas if it gets a lot of views. it has only gotten only 13T views so far, lets see if it gets more after this posting in this blog.

we now wonder how that can be approached and removed from YouTube. YouTube and the internet is NOT governed by the Ad Board, the self-regulating body of the Philippine advertising industry. it has regulatory powers among local media like traditional media – TV, Radio, Print and others but most likely has none on the internet and YouTube.

we have to admit, given the barrier on airing attack / negative ads on Philippine media, putting one on the internet  and YouTube is a smart move.