richard gordon – “who needs celeb endrosers?.” he does!

brave words from richard gordon – he says “I don’t need endorsers.”  actually, he does need endorsers for his political campaign as he is trailing badly in the polls. he had a going-in problem, he started very late compared to the other presidentiables. he also sounded very tentative before the start of the campaign which disallowed him to build some momentum in his campaign.

don’t get us wrong – we like richard gordon. we think he is a viable option to the leaders in this campaign. but for him to say these things we think is really double speak or making excuses for his own inability to have endorsers in this campaign.  

gordon is a master of media and the brand image. he knows how it works and he knows how to make it work. he did that when he was the department of tourism. he was a huge success with his WOW Philippines campaign.  gordon is one of the more creative and media savvy national leaders. the only other person who can match him is senator juan flavier with his well loved  “DOH It” campaign.

this election is particularly a media bruising campaign with the heavy and early advertising campaign that villar launched a few decades ago. aquino may not have the same amount of mega ad dollars to spend but he shot up to dominant front runner on the strength of crazy brand image.

with the two leading contenders in this election on top due to strong advertising and stronger brand images, gordon who is languishing in the polls will need more than himself and brave but empty words to win in this election.

mass consumer advertising in this country puts celeb endorsement as the formula for successes. i would say close to 80% of the ads we see on tv uses celebrity endorsements from all types of brand and services. the need for celeb endorsements is no different for presidentiables.

this statement of gordon got him some media play but if he actually sticks to his statement, an election win is questionable for gordon.

richard gordon’s “the transformers” tv ad – a boring calling card

richard gordon is a creative man. who can forget his wow philippines campaign when he was with tourism? he also had “aim high olongapo” when he was rebuilding the city while he was mayor. it did not surprise us that he has “the transformers” as the line for his and fernando’s presidential and vice-presidential run.

but this ad does not deliver and in fact disappoints in creativity. it did not have the spark of the slogans we have come to know gordon is popular for. it has “the transformers” as a tagline in the end but it ends there.

we do not think the idea of “the transformers” was played up in any meaningful way in this ad. what this ad is a straight short resume of gordon, highlighting the key achievements in his career as a national leader. it is a short introduction of who richard gordon is.

it is not a failed ad, it is just too straight forward and close to being boring. it is certainly not creative. it’s a ho-hum ad, something you will be satisfied to see once and will not look forward to seeing it again. you would most probably leave the tv set to go get a snack or take a leak when you see this ad come up again on the tv.

we think this ad had a simple objective – introduce richard gordon to the voters. it is like sending out calling cards to the voters. it has achieved that in some measure but what a pity they did not make this ad more hard working.

the ad fails in one aspect – it did not make something out of the idea of  “the transformers”. the line was there but it was not the core message nor was it dramatized in any meaningful way in the ad. the line has a lot of potential for creative work but they did not take it.

to successfully make use of the line,  a lot of strategic and creative thinking need to be done. it is an idea that many of the young are familiar with, the transformers movie being one of the most successful in the last couple of years. the line being so much connected to the movie, the strategic and creative work need to find a way to pull it down to election talk and the presidency in ways easily understood and persuasive to a mass market and those who has not seen the movie. in fact even to those who have seen the movie, it needs some re-tooling for them to appreciate the concept for a presidential bid.

perhaps gordon will make use of it in the next ad, with the richard gordon calling card already distributed to voters. caution – it is a line pregnant with risks.