Ethics and product endorsements
So you’ve seen Aga Muhlach downing all that Jollibee Chicken Joy. So you’ve seen Sharon Cuneta eating all those McDonald’s burgers. And watching them do it makes you want to run to the nearest Jollibee and McDonald’s outlets to get a bite of what they’re having on the screen of the idiot box.
Now try this for a reality check. From “Kitchen Unplugged,” the Web log of a Hong Kong Chinese named Gattina who now lives in Spain:
The production house I worked at in Hong Kong some years back had made a TV commercial for mooncake (filled with sweet paste made from lotus seed, a festive food). A little talent, who was a six-year-old boy, however, hated mooncakes! He tasted it, spit it out, ran to his mommy to cry. But no worry, every time the camera started rolling, the boy automatically got himself ready… angel smile, chubby cheeks, and a giant bite on cake (over 10 takes), urging every parent in front of TV running to that bakery!
And it isn’t just about food. You’ve seen Gretchen Barretto raving over Olay and saying that her smooth white skin is the result of the use of the product. And everyone wants to have smooth white skin just like hers so they go and buy Olay. There’s Kris Aquino endorsing half a dozen products on television every day. There’s KC Concepcion, the athletes, the beauty queens, the socialites and just about anyone with a familiar name or face.
It doesn’t matter whether the person endorsing the product is an unknown, like the six-year-old boy who hates mooncakes, or a celebrity like Aga Muhlach and Sharon Cuneta. What’s the difference, anyway, when they’re all paid for their services? They don’t speak their own words, they say what the companies that pay them want them to and they only do it for the money. We don’t even know if, beyond the cameras and talent fees, they really patronize the products that they endorse.
It’s big money. Every unknown wants to be famous because the status will turn him into a sought-after and highly paid endorser. Every celebrity wants to be a bigger celebrity because it means the ability to command a higher price for his endorsements.
Never mind that the common man looks up to his idols and, twisted thinking or not, treats him as a model who will not lie to the public. What’s a lie anyway? One man’s lie is another man’s truth, according to some. Gretchen does not categorically state that she no longer visits dermatologists and that she has stopped using other skin applications altogether. So, with so much left unsaid, the poor viewer is left with the impression that Olay and Olay alone gives her such flawless skin.
Worse, in the case of junk food endorsers Muhlach and Cuneta, very few seem to make the connection between Jollibee and McDonald’s diet, and the weight problem that both Aga Muhlach and Sharon Cuneta faced at one point or another.
For the reasonable man, it is easy to say that these endorsers are people whose professions are not related to protecting the interests of the people anyway. But when journalists start doing the same thing, we enter a gray area of ethics. These are people who represent themselves as fair, impartial and objective. To say that they are endorsers in their capacity as private citizens is a fallacious argument because it is their public image that they use to make the endorsements.
And when elected government officials become product endorsers, then the ethical issue multiplies a hundredfold. These are people who are obliged to protect the interests of the public. They are our representatives and their voice is supposed to be an echo of ours. But what do they do? They have become mouthpieces for corporate businesses. Chiz Escudero is on billboard ads; Pia Cayetano is on TV ads.
In a way, it is a twisted form of transparency. Some of us have known all along that politicians are not our servants but the servants of those who have contributed to their campaign, whether in cash or in favors. Perhaps, they are just exhibiting publicly what they have been doing on the sly before. The thing is, it is as though they are slapping and mocking us collectively, telling us to our faces—with impunity —that impartiality and protecting public interest are secondary only to making money and staying in power.
When the results of the last national elections became final and the Senate opened its doors to more young people, some said that we had entered a new era. The voice, wisdom and fire of the youth, they said, would infuse new ideas to the tired and boring ways of the old. I suppose we’re starting to get a taste of those new ways and ideas—in billboards and 30-second TV commercials.
A third of what’s been written about me is true, a third is half-true and the rest consists of drug-induced hallucinations. I suppose I’d better let me, rather than them, tell you 
19 responses to "Ethics and product endorsements"
You know connie what I cannot understand is why every christmas season Jolibee in tandem wit aga muhlach solicit toys from their patrons and they distribute these stuffs to under privilege children in the name of Jolibee hmmm,with billions of pesos lining up their pockets why not spend some (without asking donation from their patron) to buy toys for under privilege children in that way they can banner it to their heart contend.If I do have old toys I will surely toss it directly to the street children or poorer neighbors without passing thru jolibee which i think is the right thing to do better than going to Jolibee outlet to drop it.
You forgot Mr. Palenke becoming Mr. Labandero.
A lot changed since Ngongo was heard endorsing “On-eh-nen-al” and “Ma-tah-an Matahmis”. What I really would like to see are these celebrities endorsing these products or institutions:
Gretchen Barreto – WeddingPals
Alfredo Lim – Clairol
Joseph Estrada – Equitable Bank
Bong Peneda – Small Town Lottery
Lito Lapid or Bong Revilla – Asian Institute of Management
Ed, a school that my kids used to attend (past tense ha) collected toys, old clothes, food and cash from students to distribute to orphanages during Christmas. I stopped donating because why should the school donate all that in their name? As though it was the school’s generosity and good heart that made it all possible. Same shit with Jollibee. IMAGE. Image.
BlogusVox, re “Lito Lapid or Bong Revilla – Asian Institute of Management” HAHAHAHAHAHA And make that BOTH Lito Lapid AND Bong Revilla.
Many of our famous and not so famous celebrities not only venture as a product endorser,they also endorse moneyed politicians every election time as well, that is why we have Jamby Madrigal nodding on her bench in the senate.Oftentimes people tend to believe the endorsers never mind if the product will work or not.
If we can encourage people like Connie and Ed and elect them as government officials, Philippines will be much better today … and for the future generations. Hope your kind will multiply by at least tenfolds. Think about that.
Ed, politicians are products based on the way they market themselves.
Jaime, I pass.
Greetings from Cali, where we’ll be for a few years (and beyond) while I go back to school.
These lines had me laughing: “Worse, in the case of junk food endorsers Muhlach and Cuneta, very few seem to make the connection between Jollibee and McDonald’s diet, and the weight problem that both Aga Muhlach and Sharon Cuneta faced at one point or another.”
But you know what, I’ve been urging my mom to contact Oil of Olay because she could be their endorser. Youthful looking skin and all she’s been using this time is Oil of Olay. We’ll pretend she didn’t get good genes with it, shall we?
this post reminded me that sometime during the 70’s when then Dolphy live-in partner Lotis Key, had refused reading an ad on air in an evening variety show, saying that she only endorses products which she has tested and proven to be effective. How many of these product endorsers would do that, I wonder.
Pinayhekmi, congratulations! And good luck and have fun! Back to school is wonderful.
Re Olay, I bet it wouldn’t work as well for Caucasians as well as it does for Asians. You’re right, genes.
Tito Rolly, she did that? Wow. Smart lady. No wonder she left Dolphy and the Philippines.
~ ed and connie on Jollibee and toy donations
There are many “abnormal” people like me who couldn’t let go of our old toys easily because were “not normal” but in a way, because of toy donation projects like that of Jollibee would knock those “abnormalities” out of us and then we succumb to donating the toys in the end.
And ed, do you really do that “surely toss it directly to the street children or poorer neighbors?” Really?
KotsengKuba I dont literally mean toss,but yes I gave all my sons toys,books clothes I pack it up in boxes and even ask some friends here to give me some of their used things and everytime I go home even it is very hard to tow it to the airport I do.
Hello JAIME, sorry but Im not cool with politics ha ha ha…leave that to the people with strong guts,they can do better……
Yah. Shame on the ethics of those product endorsers.
Btw, the ads on your website … do you necessarily endorse all of them?
Happy Friday!
You are so right! I too think these endorsers do not use the products. You know what kills me? Endorsers promoting whitening cremes and they are already white, like dah? Are we that stupid? Make Wilma Doesnt endorse a whitening creme and show the before and after pictures–if she turns white then Alleluia that is a good product. Truth in advertising please!
UberDuper, what a stupid question. You see me writing about them much less singing praises about them? Asshole.
Well, you do make money off of them, right?
Why so touchy? And get off your white horse, alright?
If you even had a semblance of brain, you’d know that ad space and product endorsement is not the same. So I won’t even dignify your bullshit with an answer. And I know who you are. IPs are registered. BTW, stop being so envious about my high horse. You’ll never ride in one.
A well-known TV personality once was the guest speaker in a symposium sponsored by the school where my child attends.
He talked about the influence of media and its effect on our children.
One of the things he discussed which I found interesting was how fried chicken served in fast foods (translation: Jolibee, McDonald’s, etc.) make little boys effeminate.
We all thought he was making a joke, but then, he went on to say that today’s commercially-grown chickens are fed with commercial feeds enhanced with progesterone so that they can be harvested in twenty to twenty five days instead of thirty days.
If any of you are skeptical, I guess there’s only one way to find out whether this is true or not.
So, take your little boys out to Jolibee or McDonald’s and let them eat fried chicken regularly.
If they start to develop breasts and their hips grow wider…then I guess you won’t be skeptical anymore.
“…he went on to say that today’s commercially-grown chickens are fed with commercial feeds enhanced with progesterone so that they can be harvested in twenty to twenty five days instead of thirty days.”- Ormocanon
I thought mag-mukhang intelligent kung sasabihin ko ‘progesterone’ instead of ‘female growth hormone’. Kaso, ‘estrogen’ pala ang correct term. Sorry, my mistake.
But as to where he got his( the speaker’s) data, I have no idea.
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