Boycott the newspapers ! (3)
December 26, 2007
Helen Ang is strategising to make her Christmas wish a reality.
Read on.
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From the feedback we’re getting, increasing numbers of people have cancelled their newspaper subscription. However, this is indiscernible if we act alone here and there. To create an impact, we need one specific period when it’s clearly demonstrated to Malaysia that a lot of us are doing this, i.e. collectively refusing to buy. Why? To spread a viral contagion like how one Walk led to another to another.
There will have to be a dedicated Boycott Week when heaps of newspapers should demonstrably be seen stacked unsold at the news stands and a similar point made in other equally unsubtle ways. We’ll let you know the date later.
For now, People’s Parliament can start a testimonial corner where anyone who has stopped buying newspapers might post his decision, share very briefly when and why, and what his alternatives are.
Scattered throughout the several threads on Boycott are already more than a dozen such accounts. We’ll collate these comments for starters (you’re free to ask Haris to remove your previous entry if you object to it re-appearing in compilation) and open up a sort of signature campaign. We can publicise this list when we launch Boycott Week. What say you?
Below are two ideas from Paul Warren and CHK, which I think are great.
Paul suggests letting media planners know that we don’t believe what the newspapers say. So how can we lend credence to what the ads claim which are printed in these untrustworthy papers? CHK suggests that we inform advertisers we will switch products because they endorse mainstream media (MSM), which means they are endorsing misinformation, e.g. instead of Milo, we will opt for another lesser-known chocolate drink.
Here’s the integrated strategy. The message we send advertisers is they’re wasting money on newspapers; the more they advertise, the more they turn us off.
We bombard the targeted major advertiser(s) with mail notifying them we will promote their competitors who have refrained from giving MSM what they love most – money. Ad revenue, not selfless community service, is the raison d’etre of these profit-chasing newspapers.
Prominent advertisers, like Pizza Hut for example, are “good corporate citizens”. We, the people, are responsible citizens who will not support products and services of corporations which irresponsibly support MSM. And we expect responsible corporate behaviour in line with our lofty aspirations. Take for instance, The Body Shop. The secret of its success was an environmentally responsible image, and founder Anita Roddick’s deliberate decision not to advertise conventionally.
People’s Parliament will tell advertisers that when we target them, we will put their product claims to the test. We are going to evaluate their corporate history. We’re going to put their activities under scrutiny. We’re going to compare them with their competitors. If they spend so much on ads, their products surely cost more in order to cover their advertising and marketing expenditure. We are against indirectly subsidising MSM in this manner!
Paul will post a sample letter, checked for its legality by Haris, which we can all send to the advertisers to urge them to re-evaluate their media strategies.
Hindraf overnight did more for public awareness of the Indian condition than MIC in the half century the party has been toadying to Umno. We can achieve the same: Negative publicity for major advertisers; winning free publicity for non-advertisers whose products and services are our recommended substitutes.
CALLING for your input: We’re now doing word of mouth and word of mouse. Let’s take this to group level. Suggest the NGOs that will come on board. E-mail thepeoplesparliament@gmail.com if you can facilitate this networking. Also talk to your Resident’s Association or other groups (religious, professional, social, etc), then roll out the bandwagon.
So far, so good … we’re on track but we need a greater sense of urgency, okay?!
December 26, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Cool plan.
Now we just have to think about, amongst a multitudes of others, compensations for the Indian newspaper delivery-men, and some paper/printing factory workers who would be laid-off if this plan is successful… and so on.
Sigh.
December 26, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Indeed, I have stopped buying NST and Star some years back. It was just too painful to be taken in by their lies day by day. Now I just go for Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today and some other reliable blogs. But I do read The Sun though. I think they did some good exposes like the Port Klang Free Zone(PKFZ)scandal.
In the article,”An Indictment of Malaysia’s Media” it was said that the Group Editor or Editor-In-Chief are now nothing more than “chief errand boys and girls for the establishment and their politcal masters”. They have completely prostituted themselves to being instruments of the state’s propoganda machinery and their dailies are nothing more than Barisan’s newsletters.
Yes, hit them where it hurts the most, the adverts and commercials. The boycott should also be more organised and done in a concerted effort.
Haris, I think this Hartal initiative should similarly follow your anak bangsa malaysia campaign. Have Mob come out with a hartal poster. Call all like minded blogs, political parties, civil society to join in. Expose the lies of the MSM with clear examples of their misdeeds etc and very soon we’ll have them on their knees.
December 26, 2007 at 4:10 pm
After the Hindraf rally I stopped subscribing 3 newspapers i.e. The Star, NST and Tamil Nesan as I could not digest their blatant lies and nauseating head lines.
I have opted to Malaysiakini
I am only sad the that all the news paper vendors / delivery men are poor and hard working Indians and my action will surely deprived their income. This delivery-men works 361 days in a year whether it rains or shines. They wake up and 2 am and start their work as early as 3am taking delivery of the papers, sorting and delivering to your door step without delay.
Recently the famous SIL of PM complaint that this year for the first time the UMNO President’s speech was not published the next day because as the newspaper delivery was monopolized by the Indians and they were on leave for Deepavali.
Well, First they had their meeting on the Deepavali day thinking that the meeting will overshadow the festival and no importance will be given to it. This is also part of their systematic marginalization on the Indian and Hindus culturally. But, these fools did not realize that there will be no newspaper publication next day after Deepavali as the delivery-men will be on leave. These fools in UMNO must have only realized when they did not see the paper on that day.
News paper delivery is job that required you to slog like hell in order to earn a decent living. Perhaps Khairi with his Oxford brain should break the monopoly from the Indians and past it the Malays…….then we will see the whole industry crumbling down.
December 26, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Bravo ! Get a plan of action and get going.
Target the major advertisers like the Telcos, credit card companies, AIRASIA and supermarkets like GIANT,TESCO,Etc.These folks will be the first to feel the impact of Peoples Power because they are situated in “BLOG INFESTED” urban areas.
Good Luck. HIT THEM VERY HARD WHERE IT HURTS—-Their POCKETS ! !
December 26, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Great, for the last one year, I stopped reading MSM, mostly go onto Blogs such as this.
Is this the start of a peaceful non-cooperative, civil disobedience movement?
What suggestions for my local newspaper vendor? Actually I did tell him that I was buying the paper only to keep him in business, even though it remains unread at home.
I am also quite willing to pay him the commission he receives for selling the newpaper!!
I’ll talk to him on this.
December 26, 2007 at 6:10 pm
While we can all boycott the advertisers who are deemed to be supporters of MSM, but how can we reward those who would agree to support the Boycott instead. Can we offer to promote their products through alternative media, for example.
December 26, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Good question by toyolbuster.
Some sort of alternative should help speed up the Boycott and offer advertising opporunity to those who agreed to support