Listen and learn

Throughout the world, we cannot escape the reality of political campaign jingles: those catchy tunes where politicians try to promote their political image to the people en masse. Well, one of the places where this proliferation heavily takes place is in the Philippines.

Politicians in the Philippines for some reason love to use campaign jingles as a way to attract the masses to their voter base. Some can be quite funny, and some are just stupid by way of their music videos.

Here are just some of those familiar jingles (for those who do not know the politicians, their name is linked to the respective Wikipedia article):

-Manny Villar: "Sasakyan Kita" (insert artist here)
-Juan Miguel Zubiri: "Boom Tarat Tarat" by Willie Revillame
-Vicente "Tito" Sotto III: "Itaktak Mo" by the Sexbomb Girls
-Vicente Magsaysay: "Taralets" by Imago
-Francis Escudero: "Sugod" by Sandwich
-Michael Defensor: "Para Sa 'Yo Ang Laban Na 'To" by Manny Pacquiao

As far as I know, the jingles in terms of their aims are fine. I find some though a bit questionable. For example, I would not like groups of professionals, even a priest, performing the "Boom Tarat Tarat" on TV for Zubiri, or Manny Villar doing his funny "dance".

I do know of people who also question their lyric content: a friend of mine asked me how Zubiri is the "Amigo ng Bayan" (Friend of the Nation), and I wonder why Prospero Pichay's (possibly) original campaign jingle has to repeat the same line, which is getting so tired. I probably don't want to hear any more "Tutuparin ko ang mga pangarap niyo. Ako po si Prospero Pichay, pro-Pinoy!" (I will make your dreams come true. I am Prospero Pichay, pro-Filipino!).

Politicians sell themselves to the electorate. Whether or not campaign jingles are effective is up to the campaigners themselves. I would place Escudero's and Magsaysay's jingles as the most comprehensive platform-wise, while Defensor's borders on the non-sensical.

Oh well. That's the life of Philippine (musical) politics.