Miss Earth Major Setbacks

         On an ordinary days when there are no major events or sport spectacles worth watching on television and when beauty pageants are being held which steal the scene, captures the attention of billions of viewers around the world. Beauty pageants which showcase the aesthetic value, and wisdom of women across the globe has been part of the popular culture and reminds us with the diverse world based on these women’s perspective. Beauty pageant is both an art and science. It amuses us with its beauty and made us also realize it is a competition that everything must be perfect and appropriate in conduct, flawless and must be aware of its technicalities, qualifications and effects to win. Beauty pageants itself has a big impact and consequences before, during and after it is held that affects people all over the world that goes beyond any races, religion, color or affiliations.

          There are lots of international beauty competitions being held annually throughout the year. Miss Universe is the biggest and most prestigious pageant of them all because of the cost, conduct of the pageant and prizes involved. It is also an influential pageant due to its causes, advocacies, programs and other campaigns it has done and continuously been doing all over the world. It is the most watched beauty pageant in the planet with a viewership of over a billion watchers across the globe. It is a very spectacular event and being watched that any minor glitches or faux pas are noticed, generate mixed reactions and criticized. Since beauty pageant are made for perfection, people can’t help but marvel at how Miss Universe has evolve and continue to grow with a lot innovation and trends it make to become a household name or trademark.

          Miss Earth is a growing international beauty pageant which uniquely focuses on environmental awareness and conservation. Due to its advocacies, programs, campaigns and mission it draws attention from all over the world making headlines from its pageant like the participation of delegates either from a conservative Muslim or Arabic country or from a small unknown island territories or maybe first time participant to any beauty pageants. Since it is steadily growing and more people are watching through the years, some concerned beauty watchers like me would like to voice out their opinions, give some pointers or suggestions or give feedback about the pageant before, during and after it is held for its improvement, to satiate or exceed viewers expectations and most of all, to captivate the people’s mind leaving them in awe, dumbfounded and wondering.

          Since Miss Earth is on its 10th year and still a far fetch from being a prestigious reputable pageant, I want to point out the flaws or setbacks of Miss Earth:

1. The official website lack updates, boring and uninteresting. It lacks the following:

a. official portrait photos of the delegates posted on its respective profile information as well as two sets of evening gown, photos, swimsuit and national costume portrait photos

b. no official Youtube channel where it can post candidates interview to have an in-depth scrutiny of each delegates and the pageant activities.

c. fans interaction to vote for their chosen delegates, have their comments or feedbacks, chat and meet other fans. The purpose of interaction is to generate interest, incite curiosity and search engine optimization.

d. news or official statements, bulletin board were not update

e. user interface is uninteresting and lackluster

f. the online photogenic voting uses the personal photos of the delegates which are fabricated and manipulated. Unlike Miss Universe, where the Miss Universe Organization has its official photographer sponsor of the event to take official photos of the delegates as criteria for judging for most photogenic so that the actual photos taken during the event that cannot be manipulated will be justified by the actual person, the personal photos of Miss Earth is strikingly contrasting the actual person.

2. The conduct and management of the event is dismal because:

a. Disorderly and unorganized events

b. No online live streaming of preliminary competition

c. Inefficient, impractical and inappropriate separate events for swimsuit and evening gown.

d. The result of the national costume which eventually won by Japan is ridiculous, highly questionable and clouded in controversy. National costume must be significant and associated with the candidate’s country of origin to its culture, custom and history. It must somehow reflect her country’s identity. The national costume of Miss Japan is not an obvious representation of her country but merely a fashion forward statement in an evening gown. They may be awarded her the National Costume trophy upon knowing that Japan’s national director Ines Ligron and famous fashion designer created the costume which is somewhat unfair and lopsided bias. (Note: Previously, a controversy surrounded National Costume of Miss Japan in Miss Universe 2008 which took place in the same city and country where Miss Earth 2010 is currently being held – Nha Trang, Vietnam which was also a design created by Ines Ligron incited fury and anger among Japanese citizen back to her native Japan because it features a costume too skimpy to wear, flirty and seductive because it’s front covering is too narrow above the knee just below her private parts so they made another version which is a little bit longer to include the upper parts of the leg just above the knee.) Other country might have been deserving of such an award. There is no surprise and excitement anymore to that major award because it has already been announced which results to the frustration of most people and major disappointment of the pageant.

3. The finals night is lackluster and boring

a. production number as well as swimsuit and evening gown are lousy using an already popular music

b. The judges are ambassadors or politicians who were neither aware of the technicalities of the beauty pageant

c. The background music is laidback, primitive and lacks glamour and sophistication

d. The finals night lacks energy and vibrancy that you’re not getting your money’s worth.

e. The surprising cut. From the 80+ delegates, the top 4 finalists who will be directly announced eliminating the semifinalist and quarterfinalists. This will be the worst cut ever in a beauty pageant and is very unfair depriving an equal competition to find out who is really the deserving queen.

f. Sash, flower, trophy and crown are given to all the four (4) finalists showing inefficiency, tackiness, impractical and time consuming. Aside from this, the winner and runners up loses their regal bearing from carrying such a huge load making them masculine.

g. There is no first walk of the winner which deprives her of her right to enjoy the crowning moment on her own and opportunity for a solo snapshot of the new queen.

h. Lack of information and video profiles of the semifinalists during the finals

4. Logistics and marketing shows their amateurism

a. They don’t collaborate with international companies or networks to upgrade their pageant to globally competitive standards.

b. Lack sponsorships and bidding for the different staffing and aspects of the pageant like photography, fashion & styling, etc.

c. No aggressive promotion and marketing done to generate interests and sell the pageants to companies for sponsorships.

           It’s been ten years but I haven’t seen much improvement about Miss Earth. They must make a big leap forward in order to catch up with Miss Universe. I was surprised to know at how fast local beauty pageants here in the Philippines featured in their respective festival to learn and make their pageant at par with the international beauty pageant competition like Miss Masskara Festival of Bacolod, Miss Sinulog of Cebu, Miss Dinagyang of Iloilo, Miss Bicolandia, Miss Ilocos and other similar pageants. Their respective pageants are glamorous, complete and incredible before, during and after it happened. They study and observe Miss Universe and apply and innovate it more to their respective pageant to make it glamorous, prestigious and sophisticated pageant and according to my observation, they outplay, outperform or outlast Miss Earth when it comes to standard even Binibining Pilipinas, the Philippines’ premier national pageant sending delegates to Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International topple and outshine Miss Earth. I think they need to be open-minded and bold enough to take risk and make drastic changes to make the pageant bigger, productive, profitable, influential and effective.