EDITORS DESK
We’re all familiar with how endorsers work: highly influential people or sometimes celebrities hired to say good things about a particular brand or product. It’s perhaps one of the oldest marketing techniques there is. Yet lately, it seems like having highly influential people disparage a brand or service has been more effective.
Climate change denier
In the automotive sector, perhaps the biggest unwitting endorser of electric vehicles has been none other than US President Donald Trump. He’s probably never driven a car for decades now. That much is evident. The last time he sat in the driver’s seat was likely when his former advisor for government efficiency, Elon Musk, brought Teslas to the White House for him to see and endorse. “It’s all computer,” he famously said of the car’s user interface. Seems like his glowing words and the Tesla CEO’s close association with him have only hurt Tesla sales in the US.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. During this term, he’s done the exact opposite of endorsing sustainability. He’d publicly proclaim climate change as a hoax and even actively sabotage any efforts to stem its arrival by rolling back EPA regulations, putting an end to EV subsidies and perks for American EV buyers, calling wind turbines bird-killing machines, and actively encouraging more oil drilling and exploration in his own country. It may have worked in the US for a while, even prompting some American carmakers to shelve their electrification programs and go back to producing gas guzzling V8s.
However, nothing has convinced the world of how urgently we need to shift to electrified vehicles more than the consequences of his “war of choice.” Attacking Iran has forced it to block the Strait of Hormuz (the main passageway for middle east oil exports) in retaliation, which in turn has caused fuel prices to shoot up. Suddenly, ICE vehicles are not the most practical way to get around anymore.
The fuel price shock may not have hit the US as hard. However, it’s certainly hitting everyone else. Just over the past month, we’re receiving reports of record EV sales in the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and Australia; all regions highly dependent on fuel imports from the middle east.
As such, we have the world’s most vocal climate change critic and denier, Donald Trump, to thank for this sudden shift to EVs. It largely wasn’t motivated by any concern for the environment, but more a concern for our own wallets. Nonetheless, it’s a long overdue shift. Who would have thought he’d convince so many people to finally take the leap, not because of his rhetoric, but because of his own myopic actions?
Rookie mistake
Closer to home, we also have a few vocal critics of ‘traditional media’ to thank for some renewed trust and a slight uptick in reach and readership. Over the past weeks, ‘traditional media’ outlets like the Manila Bulletin have been maligned by an up and coming vlogger. This self-proclaimed ‘king’ has called outlets like ours irrelevant, entitled, and about to go extinct. Quite hypocritically, he made the claims (especially about our so-called entitlement), while wearing a gold watch, smoking a cigar, and drinking whiskey. Just the week after, he showed just who the entitled one is by demanding a vehicle for review to be delivered the next day. It’s something that typically takes weeks, even for the most esteemed of editors. He was quickly blacklisted by the end of that phone call.
The media organization this blogger recently joined has been the subject of controversy this week. Its founder was just caught by the NBI during a sting operation. The agency says he was attempting to extort money from a lawmaker by demanding a payment in order not to air a hit piece about him. Before this incident, this same organization has actively tried to separate itself from traditional journalism outlets, calling the latter corrupt, biased, and no longer trustworthy. Now, suddenly, it is calling the arrest of its founder an attack on press freedom. So far, it seems like no other media outlet is echoing that sentiment in their defense. Of course, there’s certainly no lack of coverage, follow-ups on the case’s development, or analysis. It would be a shame to miss out on such a viral story after all.
Given the result of all these recent events, I’m beginning to wonder if bashing a product or service is perhaps the new, counterintuitive way to endorse it. It certainly worked for EVs, and it appears to be working for ‘traditional media.’
(Iñigo S. Roces is the editor of Manila Bulletin’s Motoring section)