One picture damns a nation

THE aphorism "a picture is worth a thousand words" has attracted a following since 1911 when the members of the Syracuse Advertising Men's Club (New York, USA) met in March of that year to discuss their craft. A copywriter who documented the event quoted New York Evening Journal editor Arthur Brisbane as saying: "Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words." Since then, communicators of all shapes and sizes (e.g., advertising firms, propagandists, public relations agencies, media organizations, and lately, content creators, influencers, trolls, etc.) have leveraged the power of pictures to send compelling messages to their target audiences.

By rationalizing that it was for "documentation purposes only," Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos perhaps did not mean to troll himself when questioned about a picture that showed him and Philippine National Police chief Rommel Marbil flanking fugitive and dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Guō Huápíng (aka Alice Guo). But there he was, likely forced to explain himself after having surveyed the damage he caused to his own image when that picture ignited an uproar of disapproval from the public.