I hereby grant to the University of the Philippines a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to reproduce, publish and publicly distribute copies of this academic work in any form, subject to the provisions of applicable law, the provisions of the UP IPR policy and any contractual obligations, but also more specifically. Provide open access to the work, allowing “fair use” of the work in accordance with the provisions of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 8293), especially for educational, scientific, and research purposes. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of the Philippines - Diliman in 2007 and started working in media immediately after graduation.
He provides public relations services for brands under the Araneta Group of Companies, including Binibining Pilipinas. To Binibining Pilipinas – the queens and contestants, the organizers and even the party press – for providing (one way or another) insight to this study (special mention to the five Binibinis who cooperated and agreed to be interviewed for this study); and. This research work is dedicated to the competition community - the media, fans and observers - in the country.
A Binibining Pilipinas 2021 candidate, shown with an advocacy that was based on her hometown and profession. An authentnographic approach was used to describe and analyze the personal experiences and insights of the researcher (as someone working in the competition) and the selected candidates who were interviewed.
INTRODUCTION
Continuing this autoethnography study, I aim to answer the question "How do beauty pageants contribute to advocacy and development communication in the Philippines?" through the lens of a social marketing perspective. This research sheds light on the fact that aspects of popular culture in the Philippines – such as pageants – are a vehicle for development communication. Although there are many beauty pageants in the Philippines that this study could cover, I only focused on one particular pageant – Binibining Pilipinas for two reasons.
Vianne Grace Delfinado (2015), in her study Beyond the Belt and the Crown: A Cultural Examination of the Potential Impacts of Beauty Pageants on Philippine Society, discussed how beauty pageants were originally created -- something intended to promote entertainment or businesses . In the study Portraying women in televised beauty pageants, Daniella Asare Adu (2021) turned to history to trace the origins of the spectacle. With this development, the Manila Carnival is believed to be the forerunner of the current national pageants in the Philippines.
The evolution of the spectacle is something that Jassir De Windt (2019) addressed in the study Will beauty save the world?. Interestingly, the notion of the commodification of women through pageants is one of the main points of the study Intersectionality of Commodification and Empowerment in Media Text Coding: Autoethnography of the Beauty Queen by Julieane Fernandez (2015). In most of the studies included in this literature review, some degree of emphasis has been placed on the communication skills that competition candidates display in the competition.
In her study Contesting Nationalisms: Gender, Globalization, and Cultural Representation in Nigerian Beauty Pageants, Oluwakemi Monsurat Balogun (2012) said that female contestants in her country are treated as "national public figures".
FRAMEWORK
Place Where, and the means through which the target group has access to the product/service. Includes the strategies used to inform the target audience about the product, its availability and its desirable qualities such as TV, radio and internet. The theory describes that social marketing uses more creative and interesting means such as 'edutainment' (education plus entertainment) in packaging and distributing useful information.
This theory deals with how an idea is presented to people (through 'frames') and how this affects the receivers of the message in processing the idea. It was an idea that was discussed by Erving Goffman in his 1974 essay Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. The basis of this theory is that attention is paid to certain events or ideas, which are placed within a field of meaning.
The most common example could be seen in news reports, where the media create frames by "introducing news with a predetermined and narrow contextualization (Arowolo. References refer to message framing theory as an extended version of agenda-setting theory, the former "focusing on the essence of the discussed questions and not on a specific topic (Arowoldo. Difference between Agenda Setting Theory and Message Framing Theory Agenda Setting Theory Message Framing Theory.
The amount of attention the media pays to a topic, and the length of time individuals are exposed to it. Framing therefore focuses on how "concepts that are related in a message will also tend to be related in the mind of the audience" (Ardèvol-Abreu.
METHODOLOGY
The interviews were done casually and without recording (with me just taking notes) due to the fast schedules and ongoing activities of the competition. Binibining Pilipinas aspirants are not asked to indicate their chosen advocacy in their application forms. After listening to Binibining Pilipinas candidates discuss their personal advocacy in interviews and in various segments of the pageants, I am amazed at how convincing and passionate the candidates are in getting their messages across.
A Binibining Pilipinas 2020/2021 candidate, shown with an advocacy based on her place of residence and profession. This leads to the identification of the third element of social marketing in this context: price. These are the goals Gray and other Binibining Pilipinas participants see as she promotes with ostentation.
Advocacy promotion has become an integral part of the pageant process as, as I have observed, it helps the girls connect more with their audience. The people behind Binibining Pilipinas also participate in helping girls promote their advocacy. Girls' promotion of their personal protection creates a positive impression for Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc.
With the traditional Binibining Pilipinas events and activities canceled due to COVID, our team turned to social media to give more exposure to the pageant queens and candidates. These examples lead to the identification of the last element of social marketing in the context of this study: the promotion. In addition to framing the advocacy messages on the girls' personal stories (via personalization, as discussed earlier), the candidates were able to craft advocacy communication through another form of framing: via entertainment.
Having all these interviews and presentations as part of the competition contributed to making the show more empowering today. For this study, an autoethnographic approach was used to examine my personal experience and observations as part of the Binibining Pilipinas team in order to fully understand how advocacy communication works in the pageant. Some would even reflect their avocations through their fashion, or present them in different segments of the pageant, such as the talent show.
Even the people behind Binibining Pilipinas are participating in helping the girls promote advocacy by producing digital materials posted on the pageant's various online platforms. This study clearly shows how pageants like Binibining Pilipinas contribute to advocacy and development communication.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Portraying women in televised beauty pageants: A content analysis of Miss Ghana and Miss Malaika [Master's thesis, University of Ghana]. The Lucky One: A Constructivist Study on the Conceptualization of Women's Empowerment in a Festival [Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines – Manila]. A study of the historical context of the Miss Venezuela pageant as a possible contribution to communication for development [Master's thesis, University of Malmo].
Beyond the Sash and the Crown: A cultural study of the possible effects of beauty pageants in Philippine society [Undergraduate thesis, University of the Philippines - Manila]. The Intersectionality of Commodification and Empowerment in the Encoding of Media Text: A Beauty Queen's Autoethnography [Undergraduate thesis, University of the Philippines – Diliman]. The role of advocacy communication in combating child trafficking among selected primary schools in Mathare Constituency, Nairobi County, Kenya [Master's thesis, Daystar University].
