Maharlikan Times

EDITORIAL: “Pinoy Power” – A Presumptive, Farcical and One-sided Marketing Mix

By Granville Ampong

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -  Banking on the marketing skills of Top Rank Godfather Bob Arum, “Pinoy Power” might become a major plus if the prose it advances yields a sufficiently fluent and realistic entertainment without  the nagging suspicion that it may have gone slumming.

       “Pinoy Power”, referring to the empowerment of the Filipino boxers, borders far to the unsettling truth. And the message is clear. It is about to unfold, suggesting by implication for Filipino fighters to forge supremacy over what they want to impress, which in this case Nonito Donaire, Jr. is expected to win impressively over Rafael Concepcion of Panama and for Bernabe Concepcion over Steve Luevano, notwithstanding with the rest of the undercard fighters, this Saturday, August 15  on Pay-Per-View, at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

       But, “Pinoy Power”, per se, rather invokes a somewhat frenetic attempt by Top Rank to render a pre-boxing judgment in favor of the Filipino fighters. One may suppose that it is such a farcical, less validating, and one-sided marketing mix.  It is simply, they say,  a market positioning phrase.

       Yes, just may be, it may find its niche in this most diverse continent. But, it may lack a  wider appeal to the greater interest of the American boxing fans and may not convincingly sell itself, especially in the matter of segmentation in  the mainstream market and most especially if doubts of split decisions or technical decisions will come into play. The integrity of the judges' decisions may somehow suffer. Or, either way, the judges may be compelled to render a decision in favor of the less likely winner as for non-Filipino fighters, if it is too close to call, only to justify that impropriety is prevented to favor the Filipino fighters. With this in mind, one can intimate an intellectual foresight that either extremes can happen if one judge and his personal biases would  push himself  beyond his limits.

       If Top Rank’s attempt is to validate its campaign without igniting conspiracy theories, then“Pinoy Power” by name does not seem to fit, at least in this most diverse, racially sensitive marketing arena in the U.S.

       Many things have brought this contentious issue to this point. One being that the management teams of the respective non-Filipino fighters for this “Pinoy Power” not only have failed to come up with anything new to oppose the naming of this boxing event it implies; they won’t even confront their best defenses of it. One would think, on the other hand,  that, after so much time, Top Rank officials would have something original -something fresh -  to level against what they so boldly disdain. And yet, "Pinoy Power"  may just hurl the same arthritic arguments against  other non-Filipino fighters. In sad contrast, its title does not bear a verbal link between Philippines versus Panama nor U.S. versus Philippines, nor Mexico versus Philippines, if it should be so.

       While the American boxing aficionados and critics have never seriously refuted the material implications of it, they would rather reserve their utter blanket condemnations of this "Pinoy Power" thereafter, and probably they would just move on.

       But, the American boxing fans should not discount the limitless possibilities that these Pinoy boxers, such as Nonito Donaire, Jr., Abe Concepcion and Mark Melligen, are bound to pour out their sweat and blood in public simply to give what is due to them - to entertain. And that is what "Pinoy Power" is all about.

       Whether or not "Pinoy Power"  is a less validating brand of campaign in the American market versus the racial diversity of fighters it matches,  Arum being one of the greatest marketing experts, plus the rarity of  his emotional intelligence,  cannot be underestimated, even if he somewhat looses his touch between resiliency and favoritism.

Note: Granville Ampong is an L.A.-based journalist regularly writing for Nevada Examiner, California Examiner,  Manila-US Times, AmericaFront.com, Philboxing.com and Maharlikan Times. To submit comment(s), please e-mail: granvilleampong@maharlikantimes.com. Or, you may visit his site: http://www.maharlikantimes.com/.