It might be schadenfreude, but who cares? I'm ecstatic that advertisers are pulling out from Willing Willie. And so what if I'm gloating at the misfortunes of another? He deserves it, and since he won't be going to jail for what he did to that boy (unless I'm very lucky), he might as well be hurt where it counts: financially.
So lots of love to the advertisers who have sent the clear message they want nothing to do with the disgusting exploitation of children: Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Jollibee, among others. As a sign of support, I will look for your products in the grocery, and patronize them.Your decision was a much bigger form of advertisement than the ad placements you would have made in that insufferable show, where children are paid P10,000 to gyrate and simulate sexual desire while already in tears, where our community is taught that people, even children, are commodities to be bought, and where the clear message beamed out to unfortunate viewers is that only one escape from poverty is available.
And to those advertisers that are still waffling, come on. While you obviously have no legal obligation to pull out, it would be nice to see some moral fibre at your end. Join the exodus, there's a holy land awaiting. Cancel all your ad placements and move it somewhere else where they're going to be more appreciated. (Like, alternative lifestyles? You might as well place those ads on Glee or The L Word so we can have more gay-friendly shows developed.)
And I must say, I don't understand the strategy of the network. Why is ABC 5 pointing its fingers at other TV stations? Who cares if other stations have little girls scampering around in bikinis? I don't see those girls crying while they are jeered on to perform. And, like what they always say, an evil doesn't justify another evil. So even if other stations have done this before, it doesn't necessarily make what ABC-5 did in this case suddenly above reproach.
Is ABC 5 saying, 'don't just punish me alone, punish all of us'? Is ABC 5 then dragging in the other stations, in the hopes that they will be forced to exert their considerable own resources into defending themselves, and since there will be a mighty collaboration of powerful stations, all of the stations (lucky ABC 5!) will be exonerated? Might be a good plan if that's the case.
Or, is ABC 5 sending a message out to advertisers that there are really no other options anyway, since all the competing shows in the competing networks are doing the same things. So, ABC 5 is saying, 'there's really no need to boycott our show, since all the shows have the same shallow and degrading format.'
Both strategies might work, but that's where we the collective community should weigh in. Let's take advantage of the opening afforded by ABC 5 and tell not just one, but all the stations, that this behaviour is unacceptable and that we will not accept it. That way we are able to make not just one, but all of them, adjust to our demands accordingly.
I am in the midst of a book called The Lost Art of Gratitude. It's part of the Isabel Dalhousie series, where a woman in her forties muses about philosophical issues, and then tries to apply her viewpoints into the conundrums she faces in real life. Coincidentally, in this volume, Isabel encounters the freeloader theory, which proposes that there may be no need for an individual to voice out opposition to evil, because he can just rely on the tide of opposition from the majority to win the day. So, the theory posits, a lazy individual is morally right in keeping quiet when he sees evil right before his eyes. He can just freeload, and the rest of society will be able to make things right for him.
Of course Isabel fumes at this proposition. Evil should not be tolerated in the hopes or the expectations that other people will act against it. As in Janjan, the dancing/crying boy's case, each of us should be vigilant about the evil we just saw, and all do something about it. That is why I, as a writer, am using this pulpit to cajole advertisers into pulling out. And that is why you, the advertisers, should not rely on other advertisers to do the right thing.
Otherwise, we will just all be evil freeloaders. And we would be no better than Willy.