Advertising as Propaganda

The Promotion of Pro- Filipino Consumption Behavior in the 1930s

Abstract

In the 1930s, several advertisements appealing to nationalist sentiments bore the mark of NEPA, or the National Economic Protectionism Association. NEPA was formed by Filipino business magnates who embraced Manuel L. Quezon’s call for the strengthening of the Philippine economy and its industries. For almost half a decade, NEPA was used as a brand that advanced ‘pro-Filipino’ consumption behavior. While the brand’s pro-Filipino posturing seemed to resist the colonial rhetoric, a more nuanced assessment of the elements, orientation, and mobilization of such branding suggests that it was systematically produced and promoted to serve political and economic elite interests. To shed light on the brand’s essence and intentions, this article examines several advertisements for NEPA branded products from 1934 through 1941. It analyzes the brand’s historical and institutional contexts to establish the link between its notion of ‘nationalism’ and the state’s and entrepreneurs’ political, cultural, and economic motivations. Ultimately, this study demonstrates how NEPA’s advertising campaign attempted to engineer Filipino consumption behavior and generate a ‘basic grammar’ in which the articulation of pro- Filipino in the 1930s was framed.