Rick Astley, Roderick Paulate, and Facebook

One of the goals of New Media Philippines is to chronicle and highlight some of the significant online breakthroughs that we’ve seen happen locally. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a full-blown marketing campaign done by an FMCG. Here’s one story that will forever be etched in the history of the local music industry. When the announcement was made that Rick Astley would perform in the Philippines, a good friend of mine JC Medina, together with his friends, decided to make a group in Facebook entitled “I’m Watching Rick Astley in Manila and I want Roderick Paulate to be the Opening Act”. Roderick Paulate is a local comedian who has the vocal range and dance moves of Rick Astley. He’s one of the icons of the Philippine entertainment industry.

To cut a long story short, producers of the concert heard that there was an online petition on-going to have Roderick Paulate sing at Rick’s concert. They gave Roderick free tickets and towards the end of the show, Rick Astley invited Kuya Dick (aka Roderick) on-stage and he literally stole Rick’s thunder and made the show one of the most memorable concerts ever staged in the Philippines. Here’s a video of their performance together:

If you want to read more, here’s the Multiply entry of one of JC’s friends where she tells the story blow-by-blow and in detail.

The internet is one of the most powerful tools available because of how it can mobilize, empower, and spread communication in a short amount of time. The beauty here is also that whatever content you publish, anyone can read it – and when I say anyone it can be the President of the United States or a young kid surfing the net before playing his favorite online game inside an internet cafe.

You might be interested with my previous posts

• May 2, 2009 -- Social Networks – Be Represented Everywhere
• April 24, 2009 -- 3 Tips on How to Get Traffic from Social Networks
• April 15, 2009 -- How to Create a Facebook Group
• April 14, 2009 -- US Trend – SME’s Now Going Online
• April 14, 2009 -- Personal Branding through Social Networks