The Lifespan of Messages: News and Its Living, Breathing Nature

By Vincent R. Pozon

Whether you’re selling a product, campaigning for a politician, or waging a war against city hall, you’re dealing with news, and news has a lifespan. The marketer wants his products talked about; the lobbyist wants to keep his issues or campaigns foremost in the public consciousness. We’re all after awareness, but consistent awareness needs feeding. Causes must be nourished if you intend to keep them top-of-mind or, at the very least, still breathing.

People in the business of convincing others, whether their methods are aboveboard, subtle, or covert, on commissioned media— digital or legacy—all bemoan the short attention span of their audience. Sometimes, despite their efforts, it feels like they are troubling a deaf audience with bootless cries.

The public mind cannot multitask: while it can focus on you or your cause with fervor, it can be waylaid and misdirected by other issues. No matter how shrill you already are, neck veins engorged, if something else comes up, you or what you are selling is pushed aside. Product launches fall flat; major accomplishments pass like quiet ships in the night. Expensive but unnoticed.

The business of perception management includes understanding this limitation of the mind. In its arsenal are advertising, events, and the use of foils and distractions. The ebb and flow of news cycles is complex, with multiple factors influencing which stories dominate public discourse at any given time.

When Ninoy Aquino was in Boston living in exile, he occupied little space in the consciousness of the people. The Marcos dictatorship’s restrictions on media forbade news about the opposition leader.

Of course, there are times when we wish for the news to die quicker. People who find themselves in the news for the wrong reasons are grateful for other stories that can shove the problematic out of the picture, out of the diminutive box that is the public mind.

The advertiser who commissioned plastering street signs with an advertising message for melatonin, toying with the name of the highly regarded senator Gil Puyat, might consider all the talk about the Paris Olympics opening scene welcome and heaven-sent.

The party-list representative who berated an airport security checker—what was his name again? — has seen the problem vanish; he can come up from under the water, his image sufficiently rehabilitated.

The Pharmally brouhaha disappeared. It takes political heft and dedication to keep a topic about corruption alive in a country accustomed to corruption news. It has resurfaced in recent congressional hearings.

Trump, emerging bloodied and rising to his feet, pumping his fists, is an image almost guaranteed to take him back to the White House. He should have been invincible politically. News about Trump is no longer about the assassination attempt. He managed to lose a clear asset, shoving it out of the public mind with angry, racist flailing.

THE WASTED ADVANTAGE. Today's news is about how he is managing the Harris phenomenon.

This is not about the forgetful or forgiving nature of people. The blood that flowed in the streets at night during Duterte’s watch is not forgotten or forgiven, just no longer "top-of-mind." This is a tangible and measurable limitation of the mind and of media. This is the nature of the beast.

We must understand what promotes growth and circulation, and we must also recognize the filters that restrict awareness, circulation, and comprehension.

The Facebook Newsfeed Is Like the Public Mind

Sometimes you see something too often, but you miss a relative's obituary or a friend’s post about a reunion. Everybody is competing for the precious real estate that is your newsfeed: your friends and family, their friends, the news organizations you subscribe to, all the pages and groups you have “liked” and joined, the jokes, and the videos — all trying to dislodge one another.

Some news is boosted, sponsored, and thus seen more often, taking up more space in the mind, while the rest is forgotten, seen fleetingly, swiped up, or scrolled past. And because news is 24/7 and comes from all corners of the globe pouring into your phone, that newsfeed continues to scroll even in your sleep.

How does one keep a product top-of-mind? How does one care for it, keep it burning?

News Dissemination Is No Longer a One-Way Street

The old way to communicate was to send a message and send it periodically. The science of integrated marketing communications now includes the receiver of the message in the scheme of things. You look for feedback from the receiver and work on it, cultivate it. While you may be the instigator, a conversation must be had with the viewer, reader, or browser, and you must listen.

IT'S NO LONGER a one-way street. Especially because of the speed and efficiency of social media, we need to consider what the recipient will do to our message.

Today, the receiver of news influences the shape of the news; once it is out there, we lose total control.

The International Olympic Committee hesitated in responding to the social media pummeling of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and lost control of the message, causing damage to its reputation and maligning the reputation of the athlete. The defeated boxer, Angela Carini of Italy, apologized to Khelif after days of hysteria. The expression of regret will not matter, as the subject is now owned by the public and has become fodder for a hideous debate between conservatives and progressives.

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When we launched "May RiteMED ba nito?", which showed and emphasized the substantial price difference of RiteMED medicines over originator brands, the public began spoofing the jingle, appropriating it for their purposes. They would use the line to ask if there were cheaper versions of whatever they were buying. When they found the iPhone expensive, when they were shocked at the cost of a ticket to a music concert, they would howl, “May RiteMED ba nito?”

“Huwag mahihiyang magtanong” became advice to the lovelorn. The recipients of our message responded to our campaign, and we didn’t just sit back and let the market dictate its course, we irrigated the phenomenon. We had a contest for the best performance or parody of the jingle, ensuring that the message stayed alive and resonant.

CULTIVATING the campaign once it's out there; RiteMED crowdsourced performances of the jingle

ONCE IT IS OUT THERE, we lose total control; the recipient reacts.

Messages have form and feel; they are physical, occupying space in the mind of the recipient. They barge in, survive, and then die. The lifespan of messages can be augmented or truncated. What is required is mindfulness in their care and maintenance, and a respect for the receiver. Now, more than ever, the target audience, the reader, listener, or viewer must be heard. Equipped with the megaphone of social media, they can strengthen your message, help in its circulation, or they can subvert it.

Vincent R. Pozon

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?', VP Binay's 'Ganito Kami sa Makati', JV Ejercito's 'The Good One'). 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.