Eraserheads Concert: Philip Morris Is Out

Although I have not seen any official announcement from Philip Morris, the buzz on the Internet these days is that the tobacco company is no longer part of the Eraserheads reunion concert. (Because I don't know exactly what happened, I don't want to use the words withdraw, back out, etc.) Philmusic, the popular Filipino music site, where the first confirmations of the concert were announced, reported yesterday that Philip Morris is out of the picture but the concert will definitely push through. Another sponsor is apparently taking over. I also received this email from a friend, supposedly written by Raymund Marasigan, one of the eheads:

From: raymund marasigan To: subsandwich@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 8:37:03 PM Subject: [subsandwich] eraserheads aug 30 08 confirmed dear everybody after much ado. the eraserheads concert is most definitely pushing through. philip morris and its brands have pulled out from the concert. but another company is taking over the production. the turn over started yesterday and they have already started work on the site in the fort. so you can check. there are good news and bad news. unfortunately its no longer free. all the long winded registration procedures in the red nation site is now void. the good news is that the age limit is now 12 years old (for safety reasons)and tickets will be sold so you dont have to wait for confirmation and what not. the official announcement and ticketing details will come out in major newspapers and on the radio on tuesday. these are the only details i know for now so no need to email me. im just the drummer. btw. i just got home from the last rehearsal. the band is cooking. we will see you all on the 30th.

This is definitely good news, although it remains unclear what led to this development. Did the anti-tobacco advocates and the Department of Health prevail upon the company? Did the company suddenly had an attack of conscience, or realize that, despite the fact that its product is deadly, it still has some sense of social responsibility? Some are speculating that the Eraserheads themselves were the ones who worked hard to find a new sponsor. If this is true, I tip my hats off to the band. As I've repeatedly pointed out in this space and elsewhere, an Eraserheads reunion concert is possible even without money from tobacco companies. For one, the fans are willing to pay to watch them. To be sure, Philip Morris is not getting out of this empty-handed. As I've mentioned before, it can walk away from the concert and still be happy about the publicity it generated. For all we know, Philip Morris probably figured out that they've earned enough publicity already. Indeed, regardless of what has happened, the tobacco company will forever be associated with this event. In fact, in the eheads mailing list, some people are actually thanking Philip Morris for all this. From a purely marketing perspective, that is probably enough. Then, of course, there are the hundreds of eheads fans who registered on the Marlboro website and gave important information that the tobacco company might be able to use to market its products to individuals via email and direct marketing. Now that Philip Morris is out of the picture (assuming the news is true), I wish those who are defending the tobacco company -- Why? Beats me. -- will stop attacking and ridiculing the anti-tobacco advocates and the Department of Health. We've all made our points. The concert is pushing through. Everybody happy. But for some reason, many are still castigating the anti-tobacco advocates and the DOH. If these Philip Morris defenders keep doing this, they're going to raise a lot of eyebrows. Having said that, I hope everybody will have a grand time at the concert. Carlos H. Conde is a journalist based in Manila.