media punches

July 2, 2006. Araneta Coliseum.
Yesterday was a celebrated day for the Filipinos. Boxing or non-boxing fans. Manny Pacquiao brought another feather on his (and our) cap. His match with Mexican Oscar Larios was awaited by Filipinos, Mexicans and other boxing fans all over the world.
Months before the match, we have seen the media broadcasting news about the coming event. ABS-CBN even took the chance to broadcast the event. The event was so sensationalized by the station that they even held a contest for a round girl for the fight. There was also a SMS contest where trivia questions about the event were asked to the televiewers. Of course, you get prizes for a correct SMS answer and when you are the lucky texter.
Even before the Pacquiao-Larios fight, I have been seeing Pacquiao advertising different products. His shorts during the fight with Larios was also printed with different product logos. Of course, the best way to advertise is to show your product logo as frequent as possible. People who are glued to their television sets during the match, were unconsciously exposed to the advertisements. Interesting thing was, these were big companies he was dealing with. I can just imagine how rich he is after doing some boxing stunts, singing, smiling and eating with his family in front of the camera. Lucky guy. This is what you get after excahnging punches with someone from another race and winning the fight. An hour or two of tolerating pain during the match and days to recover from the bruises and cuts and you get recognized by almost everyone around the world. Hard work.
All these effort to promote the event was a success because Pacquiao won. Again, everyone loves him even more. Bringing out my pessimist side, I thought that what if Pacman lost, would he be still loved by most Filipinos? Maybe some would still see him as the country's hero and some would try to pretend to have had a memory lost. But I guess many would still recognize him as a hero bacause he brought pride to people who desperately needed something or someone to uplift their spirit.
After the match, Pacquiao said that he was so excited to show a good match in front of his fellow Filipinos. He was excited to show his punches. If I was him, I would be so pressured to win the fight because of the venue. It would be so hard to loose inside your soil. Infront of the people who made you your country's hero.
There is nothing wrong with the media attention Pacquiao is getting and will be getting, actually, he deserves it because he won the fight. He is the latest "thing" for the media. And media also gives the viewers the notion that anything about Pacquiao is news. Atleast for the meantime. The power of the media to make a big issue about someone and something is manifested here. Sometimes, this power is abused and people get so fed up because they receive the same information every now and then.