Sore Winners: Or Why, After the Elections, It is Still Toxic

By Vincent R. Pozon

The sniping has not stopped; Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Tiktok and Reels, Facebook's Tiktok imitation, overflow with conspicuously commissioned pro-Marcos clips and clapbacks, with a few more nuanced.

If you're wondering why, after the elections, after a landslide, the quality of the discourse is still malevolent and threatening, well, follow the money.

Candidates field warriors, and that is no euphemism. They truly are called social media warriors. In minutes, they can protect their clients, be present for them in threads whenever and wherever their clients are mentioned. They do not leave posts unanswered; they respond to comments in numbers. In minutes.

If the fever is just a touch lower than campaign period pitch, this is the new reality: social media warriors -- for all intents and purposes -- are PR outfits. Call it Crisis Management. They operate 24/7, they're always ready to protect and defend and undermine the opposition of the day. It really does not matter if you won by a landslide in the last election.

They need sustenance.

The army has to be fed. A labor-intensive industry was created by the elections, and the last one made it more attractive. Now they're not going to twiddle their fingers waiting for the next election.

Hopefully the vitriol can die down.

While we're hoping it won't be as toxic and as vicious down the road, I suspect it cannot be helped, given that this is the new media landscape, and this is the language of the industry, and this is the staffing -- intentionally rabid, with a predilection to capitalized cusswords.

The vituperative attacks are weapons; in a battlefield that is 'no-holds-barred', there will be curses and wishing death upon those they have been commissioned to target. But whether it can be toned down, the lesson the new government seems to have learned is that winners shouldn't stop campaigning.

After a year of college, Koyang entered advertising, and there he stayed for half a century, in various agencies, multinational and local. He is known for aberrant strategic successes (e.g., Clusivol’s ‘Bawal Magkasakit’, Promil’s ‘The Gifted Child’, RiteMED’s ‘May RiteMED ba nito?”). He is chairman of Estima, an ad agency dedicated to helping local industrialists, causes and candidates. He is co-founder and counselor for advertising, public relations, and crisis management of Caucus, Inc., a multi-discipline consultancy firm. He can be reached through vpozon@me.com.