Justin Trudeau’s Jollibee visit ‘staged’ but a winner just the same

Planned fun. What’s wrong with that?

What is really amazing about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brief visit to a Jollibee restaurant shortly after landing on Clark Field for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Manila is that some Filipinos would actually consider the possibility that this visit was a genuinely candid spur-of-the-moment decision on Trudeau’s part.

It is, however, understandable that many Filipinos would find the whole affair charming just the same. The smiles of the Jollibee staff were pretty genuine considering they, of all people, would have most likely known about the visit in advance. Trudeau looked quite genuine himself. And even if that genuineness may — or may not have been — contrived, well, what’s the point in trying to see past what is evident at face value, right? People watch movies all the time. They are able to suspend disbelief, internalise the story, and empathise with the characters even if they are aware that everything in a movie are all actors performing upon props.

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The event was obviously staged. But it was a good show nonetheless — a public relations win by any measure. A tip of the hat to Trudeau’s handlers is in order. Most important of all, it was undoubtedly fun for all parties involved.

It seems, however, that all that is lost on social media “maven” Noemi Dado (a.k.a. the “Momblogger”) who, armed with a Rappler quote swoops right into the thick of the matter to presume to rescue everyone from their ignorance of the obvious fact of this staging…

You don’t say. Was it staged, really, Mrs Dado?

It seems this is just a case of yet another “influencer” who would like to be seen to be in the thick of things as the momentous occassion of the ASEAN Forum transpires in Manila. The thing is, you not only need to have substance to put in insightful commentary as events unfold, you also need to possess multi-dimensional wit to grasp the ironies, nuanced messages, and subtle signals woven into these events.

Otherwise, you come across as a mere wannabe starved for relevance in an increasingly-competitive social media jungle. There is lots of room to fly in this game, but you need wings to fly above the bottom-feeders who feed off the literal and the slapstick and pass that grub on to the sort of audience who habitually prefer to be entertained rather than enlightened. Ironically, Dado’s attempt to “educate” inadvertently came across as a tragic failure to grasp the bigger point to be made — that, ultimately, Trudeau used his power to influence people not just to uplift his own public profile but also that of a fortunate Jollibee crew who, in those 15 minutes of fame the Canadian Prime Minister granted them, seized a rare opportunity to represent ordinary Filipinos with dignity and grace.

Was this event “staged”? It doesn’t matter, because to dwell on that is, as Dado had demonstrated, simply missing the point.

10 Replies to “Justin Trudeau’s Jollibee visit ‘staged’ but a winner just the same”

  1. even if it was staged? What’s the big deal? these people just want to make an issue out of almost anything, even if that’s something that they don’t necessary have to unlike.

    1. bengin0’s just pointing out how petty some people are, and is describing the process on how these guys are trying to turn a non-issue into a full-blown “truth expose” with them spearheading it (for fame of course).

    2. Ever heard of raking trust votes? or making yourself look good in public? its to make an IMAGE that you’re a SAINT and people will opt to trust you.

  2. It is staged, and for the record, I don’t like Justin Trudeau who is a prime example of a socialist-leftist incompetent leader, of all his international meetings for his past terms with other dignitaries and world leaders, he seems to be always left out, maybe because he’s Noynoy if he was Canadian, only won because of his good PR, the people tired of the last Prime Minister and generally because of his family name. An idiotic yoga instructor who spouts idealist nonsense to the gullible and brainwashed millennials who are more interested in Social Justice garbage than running a country, who has all the best PR in the world, always smiling and looking like a pretty boy, too bad he sold Canada’s gold, was generally a failure in addressing the Fort McMurray fire while denying help from the US and Russia just to get South African “Singing Firefighters with beat-sticks” who refused to work for free till he paid them with the taxpayer’s money, generally doesn’t know where to take the Canadian economy, refuses to reform the voting system there, or legalizing the only thing he was voted for, Marijuana, and finally regretting his decision to spite Trump by allowing millions of illegals and refugees into Canada. He’s only good for social events, not much for anything else.

  3. The difference between a signature and an autograph is that the second one has higher face value on a plain paper than the first one even on a cheque.

  4. Even if it is staged; Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, has shown his good side by visiting the Joliibee Restaurant. Did he bought some fast food in the restaurant ?

    I believe, he has some projects about the maternity wards of women. We congratulate Prime Minister Trudeau for financing such project.,.

  5. At least his better than that leftist guy from Bayan Muna or KMU (I forgot his name though) who drank a McFloat in which he’d bought it from an American fast food restaurant & later it became viral on social media this year. And that’s funny. 😀

  6. This is what we can classify as attention-seeking attitude. When something is already obvious and you still want to make a mountain out of it, you are clearly being an attention seeker. The feeling of being a ” truth exposer” gives them a total bliss and makes them feel awesome, and cool. Typical flipfaggot attitude, my gosh I hate BOBONG PINOYS…

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