This commercial must’ve been around for quite a while now. While channel-surfing, I paused at IBC-13 and chanced upon this horrible commercial. Not that I expect brilliance or truth from government stations, mind you, but this is such a blatant smear campaign, it’s criminal.

The stupid commercial essentially urges people to junk any ideas of collective action against social ills (as well as whatever progressive history could be gleaned from the past People Power phenomena). But that’s expected from the said stations.

What’s totally bothersome is that they used the actual flags of existing progressive groups as props. Clearly recognizable are the banners of the Kilusang Mayo Uno, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and League of Filipino Students–groups which, not coincidentally, have suffered casualties under the government’s fascist Oplan Bantay Laya.

More than the usual pro-government propaganda, this can actually be considered defamatory, unethical at the least. They could’ve used any fictional or dummy flags, heck they could’ve used blank flags, but they chose to malign actual groups which are the ones genuinely forwarding the people’s agenda in the first place.

Ideologically and logically, debunking the commercial is a cinch. The commercial argues that no significant change has been gained from mass actions–”yun at yun din, walang pagbabago.” This statement is reflexive. It is a slap in the face of the Arroyo and Aquino regimes, which were put in place via people power. It is an indictment, an admission of the fact that these presidents failed to enact the people’s agenda, the advancement of which was the condition of their ascent to power.

The commercial urges that “sa sarili nagmumula ang pagbabago,” which is to some extent true. However, genuine social change cannot be done invididually; to argue otherwise is sheer naivete. Collective action and individual remolding are done in tandem.

In that funny/offensive pseudo-Chinese accent of Mr Shooli’s, the stupid ad enumerates ways to generate “pagbabago:”

1. “Negosyante, magbayad ka ng tamang buwis.” (But is it not the government that gives tax exemptions to big companies? Is it not the government which enacts regressive taxation systems like E-VAT, which forces people to pay the same amount in taxes regardless of social stratum and actual ability to pay? And whatever happened to the huge tax evaders?)

2. “Ikaw driver, sunod ka batas trapik.” (But is it not the drivers who are relegated to extreme poverty due to the bullshit Oil Deregulation Law, which allows big oil companies to generate billions in profit at the behest of the poor consumers? True, drivers can be reckless but there’s a larger issue here.)

3. “Mr. Policeman, wag na kotong.” (Police and military forces are poorly paid and suffer from existing social ills as well, yet they are being mobilized against so-called “insurgents” who are only fighting for their shared rights. Not to mention large-scale corruption and moral bankruptcy in their top brass.)

4. “Kung ikaw botante, wag mo benta boto mo.” (Walang magbebenta kung walang bibili. First these bullshit politicians (say, Arroyo via Garci) create the condition of dire poverty which forces people to virtually do ANYTHING (prostitution, organ sale, etc) for survival. Then, they offer to buy votes. Who’s at fault?)

5. “Kung ikaw rebelde, pag-usapan na lang problema. Wak na patayan.” (Whatever happened to the GRP-NDFP peace talks? The government refused to remove the CPP-NPA-NDF from the international list of terrorists and refused to recognize the existence of two governments on this country. Mapag-uusapan ba talaga? Besides, which side was found guilty even by the United Nations of sytematic human rights violations? Wasn’t it the government?)

6. “Ikaw government official, lingkod ka bayan. Wag sarili mo.” (Has GMA ever seen this commercial?)

The commercial ends with that stupid sidekick running over to Mr. Shooli happily waving a 500 peso-bill. Apparently, the rallyists are being paid to mobilize. Pure crap. I go to rallies with the aforementioned groups and we do NOT get paid. Many don’t even have enough money to get home. Perhaps it’s the pro-goverment rallies which are guilty of this.

Clearly, this commercial is defamatory. I suggest that the maligned groups alert the broadcast media authorities for legal action, or at least call for the pull-out of this bullshit ad.

I’m so infuriated. After the new fare hike, the alleged “rice crisis” and the Meralco hoopla, seeing this audiovisual piece of shit makes me stark raving mad.

All together now: Ang kapal ng fez!

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‘Shooli’ ad an utter waste of taxpayers’ money
By Airah Cadiogan

I saw this disastrous ad last weekend and then came across Karl Castro’s dissection of the said national embarrassment. (The video clip is also available on Karl’s site).

I was dangerously mistaken when I opted not to take the ad seriously, shrug it off as typical state propaganda (i.e., poorly done in both form and content) or just another smear campaign that is, for your own health, best forgotten. I was dangerously mistaken because a closer look at the ad reveals details that not only mock (for the lack of a more legitimate tactic) specific ideologies and legal organizations, but violate mass media - specifically, broadcast media - laws and ethics.

As was raised in the discussion after Karl’s post, the ad’s use of the actual flags of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) is enough grounds for these groups to press charges (which LFS seems intent on doing : go here). But above and beyond casting LFS and KMU in a questionable light, the ad, one can say, pays homage to two of the most militant progressive organizations that have historically fearlessly fought the mongrels in power to advance the national democratic agenda for genuine social change.

But that aside, the ad banks on an idea that mass media, as an ideological state apparatus (as per Althusser), has endlessly tried to promote - i.e., activism leads nowhere, nothing is more isolating than going against the system or the established order. To its credit, it successfully draws attention to the kind of relationship mass media must foster with the state and vice-versa: a symbiotic relationship that functions to maintain at all costs the status quo.