Ang Kape Ni LaTtEX

Late last December, Connie Veneracion aka the Sassy Lawyer wrote in her Manila Standard column of the same name about how media’s use of game shows and charitable foundations breed a culture of dependence.

In the local game show/variety show scene, ABS-CBN’s Wowowee is currently the hottest item, enjoying high ratings and viewership not only in the Philippines but also abroad, wherever Filipinos have access to ABS-CBN’s The Filipino Channel (TFC).

And it’s no wonder that it does.

Its game participants are usually members of the audience, mostly from depressed backgrounds. The promise of cash prizes, ranging from a few thousand to a million pesos, entice these people to take their chances at being able to join Wowowee’s games. On the other hand, Wowowee has set aside a special area from balikbayans who watch the show on TFC, and who usually donate dollars to be added to the cash prizes on top of the set amounts given by ABS-CBN. So naturally, when Wowowee announced it’s big cash-pumped celebration, thousands of people went to see the show.

Unfortunately, 79 people died trying.

Tragedy beset Wowowee’s first anniversary celebration at the Philsports Arena (also known as Ultra) in Pasig, when 79 people were killed and more than 200 were injured in a stampede that occured early this morning. Apparently a huge crowd was jostling to enter Ultra to be able to be eligible for playing in Wowowee’s special game portions for its first anniversary. ABS-CBN announced that a huge amount of prizes await those who can enter the auditorium: consequently, people camped out of the PSC complex as early as Wednesday night.

If this were a case study in marketing, ABS-CBN must have been doing something right. They have successfully bred a culture of dependence that entice millions of people to watch the show and thousands to regularly attempt to join its audience for a chance to play.

The tragedy, morbid as it sounds, proves just how popular the TV show, and its host Willie Revillame, really are. However, it’s not the first time that ABS-CBN was able to market an event so effectively that it ended in chaos and disaster.

In September of 2003, a similar stampede occured during the concert of Taiwanese boyband F4. Ironically, it happened at the same place, in the PhilSports Arena soccer field. ABS-CBN, however, washed its hands regarding the incident, saying that it was “not in any way involved in the production of the concert” and was “merely a media partner” of the event producer.

It was fortunate that no one got killed in the F4 stampede. But did ABS-CBN and the PhilSports Arena administration really have to wait for something like this to happen? Did ABS-CBN turn a blind eye from lessons that were supposed to have been learned in the F4 incident, even if they were the actual (and consequently, most effective) marketers of the event?

While ABS-CBN has pledged to pay for the medical and funeral expenses of the victims of the tragedy, taking responsibility in events organization goes far beyond reparing broken limbs and having bodies buried. It knows how effective their marketing strategy on Wowowee is. It knew that hundreds of people were camped out at the PhilSports complex nights before the stampede. It knew that many more will attempt to come in afterward. Even if details of the start of the stampede have yet to be cleared, ABS-CBN clearly had the ability to have had taken steps at managing the crowd that wanted to participate in Wowowee’s anniversary.

It’s high time that they take responsibility for organizing uber-popular events like this. It’s too bad 79 people had to die for them to realize that.