To receive a statement that “one is a play safe” is not actually a compliment, implying that one does not defend his verdict over an argument or does not even have a stand on it. While playing safe might be a reason for a housemate to be nominated for eviction in the Philippine reality show Big Brother as it may infer pretentions, or be a reason for a journalist’s write-up on a corruption issue to be crumpled by an editor as it did not voice out the sleaze, to say that advertising is both a positive and a negative social tool is actually ‘safer’ than playing safe, and indeed, a positive comment.
It is inevitable to see advertisements everywhere. You see your favorite shampoo (which is effective) commercial on TV; you go past a call-center-job-opportunity flyer glued on a post (and you applied, got hired and paid your bills on time the next month); you read posters inviting you to buy your own condominium unit with as low as P5,500.00 monthly amortization (then found out after communicating with the contact person that it was a promo three months ago); you read from newspapers concert invitations highlighting the word ‘only’ in every admission fee (as if P2,000.00 costs really cheap); you notice empty billboard with still advertisement on it saying that ‘this space is available’ (and the next time you saw it, a high-end apparel brand took advantage of the space). Certainly, ads come to be part of our dailies and their effects vary accordingly.
