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By Rommel C. Lontayao Reporter
First it was ABS-CBN versus rival
network, GMA 7. Now it’s The Philippine Star and the Philippine
Daily Inquirer that are arguing.
The Star said on Friday that it
stands by its claim that more advertisers are reaching consumers
through the paper than any other major daily, reacting to a
front-page story in the Inquirer alleging that it was making false
claims.
It has stopped the publication of
an advertisement making claims on its advertising reach after it
became the subject of a complaint by the Inquirer. But the Star said
it will continue to print similar advertisements, with the visuals
presented differently.
Lucien Dy Tioco, the Star’s
vice-president for advertising, said they have proof to support
their claim made in the ad, which came out November 29 and carried
the headline “More advertisers are reaching consumers through The
Philippine Star than any other major daily.”
Dy Tioco added that the claim was
supported by data from the Nielsen Media Research and was already
presented to the Adboard.
The Adboard has issued a
cease-and-desist order on December 6, stopping the publication of
the Star’s ad for allegedly making “unsubstantiated” claims on
its advertising reach and for containing images allegedly
“disparaging” to its competitors.
The order was issued in response
to a complaint filed by the Inquirer, one of the two other papers
depicted in the disputed ad.
The advertisement features a
top-view image of three people sharing a small roundtable and each
reading a different newspaper. The papers were arranged in a way
that they divide the table into three parts, resembling a pie graph.
The Star took up a larger part of
the table area than the other papers, implying that it takes the
larger portion in the pie graph.
The text at the lower-fold of the
ad read, “The Nielsen Media Research Print Advertising Information
Service shows that when it comes to advertising, we have a bigger
slice of the pie than the other major newspapers.”
The advertising agency McCann
Erickson disputed that claim, saying “the data presented does not
indicate ‘more advertisers’ are reaching consumers through the
Star, only that more ad space is purchased.
The Inquirer also complained that
the inclusion of their paper and Manila Bulletin in the
“misleading” ad had “cast doubts” on their performance
despite both of them having a higher readership than the Star.
According to an article published
Friday by the Inquirer, the ad’s visualization of the other major
daily newspapers violates Section 2.1, Article 4 of the Adboard Code
of Ethics, which says “no ad may disparage a direct competitor
[same product] or indirect competitor [direct substitute] to make
the competitor look unfavorable.”
Dy Tioco said the
cease-and-desist order stopping the publication of the advertisement
was issued because of the way the ad was presented, not because of
the content or the idea of the ad.
“The problem is on the
presentation of the ad, not on the advertising reach claim. We will
continue to publish the other version of the ad,” he added.
Meanwhile, Inquirer Publisher
Isagani Yambot said they still have to read the explanation given by
the Star to the Adboard before making a reaction.
The Star-Inquirer dispute over
the true figures on the papers’ advertising reach is not the only
recent case of media organizations arguing on who performs better in
terms of reaching the public.
Last week, ABS-CBN Broadcasting
Corp. filed a civil case against AGB Nielsen Media Research
Philippines for the latter’s gathering and releasing of allegedly
erroneous ratings data.
ABS-CBN also linked rival
television network GMA 7 to the alleged tampering of TV ratings
meters in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, as allegedly claimed by
an official of AGB Nielsen Media Research Philippines.
GMA 7, meanwhile, denied the
allegations.
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