Understanding Advocacy Communication in Beauty Pageants through Social Marketing Framework

Abstract

Beauty pageant is a popular culture that most Filipinos – from the girls who join, to the audience who observe and follow every activity – are very passionate about. Through time, it has evolved from a competition where girls are judged solely based on their physical beauty, to an event where girls are provided a platform to promote advocacies. Given this transformation, this research looks at how modern-day pageants (particularly, Binibining Pilipinas) contribute to advocacy and development communication in the country through a social marketing perspective. An authoethnography approach was employed to describe and analyze the personal experiences and insights of the researcher (as someone who works in the pageant) and of the select pageant candidates interviewed. By looking at pageantry through the lens of social marketing, pageant girls can be seen not just as models with beautiful looks, but as communicators with stories and messages to share. They are provided opportunities to discuss their advocacies which are narrated based on their personal backgrounds and experiences, and are relayed to the audience through traditional interviews and entertaining digital presentations. By doing advocacy communication through relatable stories and delivering it via interesting means, pageantry as a popular culture is given a more meaningful role and purpose in society.