Where the Scrolling Stops and the Streets Begin

We may not be on the streets today, but we are one with everyone who are.

For the longest time, we've made resigned jokes about corruption here in the Philippines. It's gotten to the point that it's little more than background noise to us.

Unfortunately, when you repeat a joke a bunch of times, it really stops being funny. And that's how we feel about the corruption that has been happening right in front of us lately.

Days like today? Days where the people have had enough and march on the streets to let their voices be heard? These days matter, because it goes beyond the political: now, it's personal.

It affects anything and everything. The schools our kids go to. The roads we drive on. The hospitals our parents depend on. And yes, the careers and businesses we try to build.

This hits hard, and for those of us who are in the digital marketing industry, it hits differently, and not in the Gen Z slang way.

We work in an industry where success hinges on building a name the right way, while we see people seeing success through sheer impunity and entitlement. Where a fledgling brand needs to spend a 3-6 month campaign just to get noticed on Facebook, other people spend the same time earning billions doing literally nothing, and all at our expense.

And yes, it's hard trying to be more civic-minded in an industry that embraces capitalism, but we can't turn a blind eye to this. None of us can.

Because ultimately, we all are here in a system that may or may not reward hard work, but absolutely rewards unfettered greed, so long as they have a hand in the nation's cookie jar. They want us to look at each other and tear each other apart because in doing so, we don't look at them.

But we see them now. Oh, how we see them.

And that's why these rallies are important. People can be cynical, but the freedoms we enjoy today did not come in being quiet and compliant with the powers that be. People had to rise up.

It's not just for activists. It's not just for politicians to listen to or be called out by. It's not even just for the people who are marching on the streets for once today. It's for all of us who are affected by the rampant corruption that we've had to put up with for so long.

Unless we're one of the lucky(?) ones benefiting from this corruption, these people are doing it for all of us.

The least we could do is be in solidarity with them. Because marketing may be what I do, but being a Filipino is who I am, and it would be a dereliction of my civic duty to not be one with them in saying "ENOUGH."

And then, and only then, maybe I can give you another fun listicle about the latest trend in digital marketing, and tell you how we can help your brand.

But today? Let's be part of something bigger than all of us. March, if you can. Shout, if you can. Just make sure to not do one thing - stay silent.