by Aurelio Peña
JUST LIKE any presscon I have attended in Davao, I’m not easily carried away by what the guests or panelists say upfront. And that includes the recent presscon put together by the Fifth Bright Leaf Awards at the Royal Mandaya Hotel which gathered around half a dozen media gals and guys just as curious as I was what this was all about.
Oh yeah, it was supposed to be a nationwide award for all those hotshot journalists with just enough adrenalin in their stomachs to write about all the “heroes” (or whatever word you like to use) in agriculture, the things these farmer heroes do that can inspire and motivate other farmers as well.
Cash awards of P50,000, P30,000, P20,000 were dangled before the Davao media who were there— photojournalists, feature writers, radio/tv broadcasters, news reporters, etc— who seemed eager to take a shot at these awards which, by the way, also include gold trophies, iPods, round trip plane tickets and free 5-star hotel accommodation.
If all these aren’t enough to leave your mouth watering (it was nearly lunchtime and our stomachs were churning), we don’t know what else can do it. It all looked so easy, especially for photojournalists here who had been turning out so many award-winning photos right here in Davao.
These guys don’t even know that taking a simple picture of a farmer’s family in the middle of a rice field could earn them P50,000 with trophies. IPods, plane tickets, free hotel, etc. What a nice way to make a living!
The awards include categories for: Agriculture Story of the Year, Tobacco Story of the Year (?), Best Television Program or Segment, Best Radio Program, Agriculture Photo of the Year, Tobacco Photo of the Year, Best Regional News Story, Best National News Story, Best Regional Features Story, and Best National Features Story. (More details can be found at www.thebrightleafawards.com)
So, it was natural for us to ask what company was behind all this and whether or not the Department of Agriculture has a hand in the awards. Those Manila guys who made the Power Point presentation kept mentioning the initials “PMFTC” without spelling it out and avoided mentioning any government agency like a plague. Why are they trying to hide the sponsors behind the Bright Leaf Awards?
They sounded apologetic when they finally blurted out what the initial “PMFTC” means — PHILIP MORRIS FORTUNE TOBACCO COMPANY which looks like Philip Morris bought out Fortune Tobacco Company from Lucio Tan, either lock stock and barrel—or a merger that leaves Lucio with little controlling interest.
When we demanded where the DA was in all this, two guys behind us smiled sheepishly and admitted the awards are part of their PR program and have a stake in it as much as Philip Morris or Lucio Tan who are gunning for a much better image in a world increasingly hostile to the global cigarette industry.
Now that the cat’s out of the bag, we saw the logic why such a big paying award had to be made to bring the Philippine media close to the hearts of the world’s biggest cigarette manufacturer.
Naughty as always, our media friends didn’t have to remind these Bright Leaf guys (backed up by cigarette money from Philip Morris) that Davao City is a Non-Smoking City—and one of the first cities in the world to make dmoking in public places, a crime.
This Bright Leaf Award is one of the most beautifully-packaged PR campaign I’ve ever seen and I doff my hat to the ad agency which created this concept. If it succeeds in winning the hearts and minds of all Filipino journalists, perhaps they’ll be writing more stories that will promote more smoking—and more sales for Philip Morris cigarettes.
This is what it’s all about.
(Comments? Email me at : tradingpost_davao@!yahoo.com)
