sleaze in kataxpayer billboard that fails to sell or even make sense

this is a billboard that is on that road where White Plains subdivision is in Quezon City.  we were of course driving when we first saw the billboard and two things caught my eyes – the mini-skirted legs of the woman and the words “tax accounting”.  as we were driving, we didn’t get the message of the billboard, did not have enough time to read all of it.

but just the same, as we drove past the billboard, we thought something was not making sense in that billboard. we were unable to connect in any way the woman’s mini-skirted legs and tax accounting. they were just unrelated even if we stretched the meaning and message of the ad with those visuals and words.

we drove really slow the next time we went past  it to be able to read the whole thing. our instinct was right, the billboard didn’t make sense. it used sleaze in a bad way and nothing in the ad made sense, nor does it make a sale.

 

 

this is a close up of the main visual and the headline in the billboard.

 

 

 

the visual is sleazy and totally appalling  – it shows a before and after situation where the mini-skirted woman in the before picture had her legs crossed and then spreads her legs apart after a man supposedly offers her an engagement ring. yes, the woman spreads her legs!

why would anyone put this kind of visual in an ad? it is insensitive and very offensive. the sexual meaning is blatantly disrespectful.

and the main visual  is just the beginning.  there is more on how this billboard totally fails.

the legs spread apart with an engagement ring has nothing to do with “tax accounting”.  the product being sold here is apparently a tax accounting seminar. legs being spread, sex and tax accounting seminar all don’t mix well and don’t make sense. there is no message there. the message is all lost and probably because of the obsession with sex and sleaze.

the sleaze in this billboard is heightened with the subhead “it works all the time”. like saying it’s a “sure thing” the legs will be spread.

there is a large chunk of unsaid message in that billboard – taking the tax accounting seminar is a “timely solution. important investment” that it will be most useful and will work all the time. but all that is actually unsaid because the ad has been so obsessed with the sleaze.

there are many more ways, more effective and more sensible to deliver that message than use the sleazy visuals. there is an attempt to be creative here but it is used badly and being used just for the sake of showing some sleaze.

aside from the advertising component failure of this billboard there is another one – the billboard is actually right beside the gate of St. Ignatius Subdivision where we can assume  families live there.  their young children see that billboard on a daily basis.

this is a WAWAM!

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call these numbers to ask them to bring down this billboard : (998) 979-3922;  921-6107

 

barangay bel-air barangay captain nene lichauco speaks out on bel-air corruption articles

there have been a 3 part series of articles published at the manila times to whicj lichauco has reacted to. click here to read them:

• Bel-Air Scam – barangay level corruption at Barangay Bel-Air Makati, yes Makati!

• Barangay Bel-Air Makati Corruption – fake assemblies & payments to family members of barangay captain nene lichauco

• Barangay Bel-Air corruption? P45M “direct & negotiated” contracts, 53% of budget

Lichauco: Celeb out to discredit me

August 30, 2013 9:25 pm

by By Beting Laygo Dolor, Managing Editor

Saying she and her fellow barangay officials in Bel Air, Makati City have passed every official audit on their use of their village’s funds, Constancia Lichauco blamed a local celebrity for making a mountain out of a molehill, resulting in a case filed against her before the Ombudsman.

The celebrity is one of the country’s former beauty queens who lives alone in the exclusive community, she said.

barangay bel-air barangay chairman nene lichauco. photo from PDI

“We used to play tennis together,” Lichauco said, adding that she had no idea why her former friend turned against her. Whenever they see each other at the weekend market in Salcedo Village, Lichauco waves or smiles at the celebrity, who simply ignores her.

Lichauco has been Punong Barangay of Barangay Bel Air for 18 years. In the six times that she ran for three-year terms, she has been challenged only twice, and on those occasions handily beat her opponents.

“I live, breathe and feel Bel Air,” she told The Manila Times. The 75-year-old widow said she devotes all her time to serving the village, where she has lived for more than four decades.

Lichauco first became barangay captain in 1989. She served three terms before taking a break, returning after her fellow Bel Air residents asked that she run again. She told The Times that she has not yet decided if she will seek reelection this October.

She said she was not surprised a case would be filed against her before the Ombudsman. Since the beauty queen had no chance of unseating her—“She has no friends in Bel Air,” according to Lichauco—the only way to remove her was to file the lawsuit using other conduits.

Unfortunately, according to the village chief, the Ombudsman files charges against government officials even in the absence of hard evidence. Sometimes, Lichauco added, charges are filed based on hearsay.

While Barangay Bel Air is indeed the richest village in the Philippines based on its annual income of P150 million, misusing its funds is all but impossible, she told The Times.

“People think that just because you have P150 million, you’re free to spend P150 million,” she said. This is not the case. The bulk of that money is already budgeted every year to specific expenses.

Line budgeting means that there is nothing in the amount that can be construed as the barangay equivalent of pork barrel, she said.

Besides the Commission on Audit (COA), they also have an internal auditor to make sure that their funds are spent wisely, and within legal bounds.

Since her barangay council is comprised of some of the most respected members of the business community, no form of hanky panky is possible, she said.

Lichauco said that her constituents will be her ultimate judge. The unnamed celebrity can run against her in October, if she wants, she added.

Lichauco belied reports (not in this newspaper) that she owned three condos in Rockwell in Makati. She said her house in Bel Air is the only real property she owned.

http://manilatimes.net/lichauco-celeb-out-to-discredit-me/34982/

photo source : http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/100715/barangay-bel-air-in-makati-city-to-stage-pasinaya-2013

la salle and UST’s teng brothers very gay pic – topless shows a brand character failure

we saw this picture of the teng brothers jeron and jeric posted at  twitter by sportscaster TJ Manotoc (@tjmanotoc) that accompanied an article posted at the  PhilStar website (Philippine Star), Lifestyle section. my initial reaction was – omg, what is the point of that picture? then i tweeted (@wawam) this :

source of pic and the article here : http://www.philstar.com/supreme/2013/10/05/1241418/sibling-rivalry

we thought there are so many things wrong with that picture:

it is a very gay picture of the Teng brothers. we have never seen a much more gay picture of two basketball players in philippine sports. while we have not seen all the  pictures of US basketball players, of those that we have seen on the internet and in sports magazines, this is the first time we have seen a picture of this sort even in feature articles like the one posted at philippine star. and even in sports magazines and in sports pages of philippine newspapers.

what of the picture are we talking about? well two men who are topless, showing lots of manly muscles, hands held  together in an “embrace” that way, with their bodies so close to each other. plus the bottoms not being shown makes you wonder if they were completely naked. although i have to admit, maybe the last point is taking it too far.

basketball players are always shown in their uniforms and if not in uniforms with clothes on, tops and bottoms included. seeing them topless and in this way is unheard of, also unseen. basketball is a sport of skill and mental prowess, it is not about muscles or brawn. in fact the shorts that basketball players now are very long (started by michael jordan) showing very little leg muscles. even the tops that basketball players wear show very little muscles. showing shirtless basketball players is a shock and very much way off.

a follower of ours in twitter, @econcepcion asked “where are the school colors?”. that is a very good point. basketball and most specially college basketball in the philippines and UAAP is all about the team colors – green is for la salle and yellow for UST. we see that all the time during the games. in fact it is the colors that people wear to watch the games that separate and identify the audience as to what school one supports.

shirtless means the teng brothers are not showing the school colors.

the article is published at the “lifestyle” section of the Philippine Star, not at the sports section. so that also makes you wonder what this picture and article is all about. reading the article though is about what happens to the brothers during and after the game, its about sports.

from a communications standpoint, this picture is very much off strategy and off-brand character in several levels. it is a very confused set of communication material where the visuals do not match with the content of the article,  most certainly the sports of basketball and most specially the basketball skills and talents of the teng brothers.

just like in advertising, pictures even in newspaper articles also tell a lot of the story that you read. this topless pic of the teng brothers  is way off and does not contribute to the story being told in the article. there is no way one can actually rationalize or defend that that picture should accompany the article.

we saw a picture from rappler.com that is actually a perfect fit to this Philippine Star article. it is a picture of the teng brothers entangled in court during the first game with each of the teng brothers not allowing the other any room or advantage. we saw that play out on tv during the game and those few seconds on the court were totally intense but  it felt like it almost went on forever as each one fought the other for space and positioning. it was really beautiful basketball skills.

you appreciate the intensity and professionalism of the brothers even though they had their school colors on and not topless.

from what we know, writers and specially editors labor at choosing the pictures that accompany articles. they know that pictures that accompany articles does play an important role n the appreciation of the article. on this philippine star article, nothing of that sort happened.

aside from accompanying the article with a very gay picture of the teng brothers, this picture is way off strategy, way off brand character and does not make sense at all. it’s a WAWAM!

million people march october 4 rally poster – cute shades the point

 

there is a second Million People March rally since the first august 26 one and this time at ayala avenue at makati city. the organizers released the above poster. our take on it:

it’s a great poster, the visuals grab you. the over-powering graphics of the pig does this very well. a cute and very red pig that you can’t miss and in fact is the central element in the poster.

and that is where the problem lie – it’s too cute. the cuteness of the pig graphics robs the seriousness of the purpose of the rally it is supposed to promote. it feels like its a celebration of something nice and cute while the PDAF scam is nowhere close to those adjectives and in fact many people are angered by the PDAF. not that we want the pig graphics to be designed ugly or disgusting but it needs to be within the context of the event it is promoting. there should be other ways to draw the pig graphics other than sugary and everything nice.

that leads to the next point which is to us the bigger point – the pig graphics does not communicate that “pork is unwanted” or as the what the rally is all about, to “abolish pork”. we think, much more than the cuteness of the design, this really is the bigger weakness of the poster. the posted fails to communicate that we do not want pork and as what the rally will be saying, we want it abolished.

the graphics does not say we want pork, but neither does it say we do not want it. the graphics technically is neutral on the issue of wanting or not wanting pork but the cuteness of the pig design can be argued as it is something desirable.

this poster withstanding and the analysis of the  poster, we will be going to the october 4 rally at ayala avenue.