THE wife of House Speaker Prospero C. Nograles has cautioned Optical Media Board Chair Edu Manzano over an LBC commercial which “irresponsibly confuses, particularly the schoolchildren, about the concept of right and wrong”.
In letters to the Advertising Board of the Philippines (AdBoard) and the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), Rhodora B. Nograles, chair of the Congressional Spouses Foundation, Inc. (CSFI), strongly expressed concern over the new television advertisement of “LBC Remittance Service” which presented Manzano as the featured host.
“The ad, which used the spelling bee concept, directly conveyed that LBC is the correct spelling of the word “remittance. To say “tumpak” (correct) is fundamentally wrong and it is worse to propagate it using the mass media,” Mrs. Nograles said.
Ms. Nograles said she recognizes the business sector’s need to market its products and employ strategies to increase sales and improve patronage of products and services.
However, she said, there are “other responsible and more creative ways of achieving such objectives than using an educational scenario in an advertisement which conveys a message that is contrary to the educational essence of teaching what is right”.
Ms. Nograles called on the AdBoard, the agency primarily concerned with the development of the ad industry through self-regulation, to raise the matter to the advertiser, and remind other advertisers as well, on everyone’s responsibility, especially to the youth.
Meanwhile, MTRCB chair Ma. Consoliza P. Laguardia asked the Ad Standards Council, Inc. to investigate the LBC advertisement.
“The advertisement is a distortion of truth on the proper spelling of the word ‘remittance. To the young minds, without the guidance of an adult, such distortion of truth presents an instructional digression,” Laguardia said.
“The average child may not have the adult’s grasp of figures of speech, and may lack the understanding that language may be colorful, and words may convey more than the literal meaning,” Laguardia said.
Laguardia also urged the Kapisanan ng mga Broadkaster ng Pilipinas to immediately issue a cease and desist order against the advertiser or order the immediate withdrawal or recall from public exhibition of the advertisement until its propriety or compliance with the Broadcast Code of the Philippines and P.D. 1986 is resolved.
Laguardia cited a Supreme Court decision (Soriano vs. Laguardia) which authoritatively declared that “the welfare of children and the State’s mandate to protect and care for them, as parens patria, constitute a substantial and compelling government interest in regulating petitioner’s utterances in TV broadcast.”
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