“Popularity doesn’t create jobs.”

With the detention of former DSWD secretary Dinky Soliman, I expect GMA’s popularity will further slide.
I met Dinky once, in the course of a project. She was an alloy of affability and iron. Her colored hair extension was a lovely red herring. It was easy to imagine her trying to fill the crater of poverty and hopelessness so many Filipinos live in, one handful of water at a time.

The quote above is from Ignacio Bunye, GMA’s spokesperson. I think this is an excellent example of spin. As a dabbler in spinsmanship, I find it snazzy and obfuscatory at the same time, which is a difficult feat. Think about it. How many factors go into popularity? Doesn’t the perception that jobs are being created, that goods are becoming more affordable, that life is overall easier on the bones, doesn’t that count when
speaking of the popularity of any public figure in power? And that, therefore, popularity is a real (although fuzzy) measure of past performance, and delivery of actual benefits versus promises?

If your shampoo doesn’t give you shiny, bouncy hair and a gaggle of admirers all agog, just as it promised, you wouldn’t keep on using it, would you? Oh. You would. It’s just a shampoo, after all. You’re smart enough to tell that it’s just a commercial, really.