THE PHILIPPINES SHOULD INVEST MORE ON CREATIVITY

by Roger Pe

Photo by Gerry Chin


The Philippines has not had serious branding effort until late last year when it launched a massively successful social media campaign, “It’s More Fun in The Philippines.”

Previous to that, its advertising had no focus, a now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t thing.

It was by sheer luck that previous campaigns had brand retentions. As advertising with no focus and sustained drive, awareness must eventually dissipate and wrong perceptions remain.

The country’s tourism advertising was treated as tertiary, more like a seasonal thing and aired whenever people feel like doing it. At one point, it had to tie up with a big advertiser just to breathe life and keep it from sputtering.

Like a small cottage industry, it has not really took off like some of its more aggressive neighbors who looked at tourism, not as a mere government cabinet social function, but as a brand deserving better marketing and wholistic creative packaging.

A breath of fresh air, Philippine tourism today seems to have taken on some serious sense of blueprint planning.

Now it is talking, now it’s beginning to create ripples and many are hoping that it rides on the crest of a wave to attract more visitors to its shores. Watchers are hoping that it is not “ningas kugon” (flash in the pan) and doesn’t fizzle out.

By hiring no less than an advertising expert as its department secretary and acquiring the services of an ad agency whose output is consistently impeccable, there’s no reason why the world shouldn’t focus its “Eye on the Philippines.”

Will it work? The signs are up the wall.

As of the first quarter of 2012, the country has surpassed percentage targets and is poised to hit past its forecast: 4.6 million tourist arrivals (Indonesia’s figure more than a decade ago).

While it is a modest target, it is realistically possible, some observers say, knowing other problems the country needs to address within a short-term period.

“The Philippines deserves much more. It’s mind-boggling why the world’s third largest English-speaking country with one of the world’s most hardworking people is not up there side by side with Malaysia and Thailand,” says Eric Cruz, Head of Creative of Leo Burnett Malaysia, one of Asia’s most internationally awarded advertising agencies.

Cruz is correct. It is mind-boggling, that a country more beautiful, charming and friendlier than some overrated tourist destinations doesn’t get mind-boggling tourist receipts.

Cruz is proud of the many world-class Filipinos he encountered overseas. He is aware that Filipino talents, like its 3D animators are most sought-after by film producers abroad.

In an interview, the guy who is on a sentimental journey of finding his roots in the Philippines loves to dote on the power of the Filipino.

“The Philippines main export is human power and talent. And if we look at some of the most memorable things in the history of the web, the Filipino prisoners dancing to Michael Jackson was one of the pioneers of online content.”

The “love virus” was created by a Filipino, clearly that tells me the Philippines has talent,” Cruz added.

While there are capable post-production houses in Manila, he laments that some ad agencies still want to go either to Bangkok or Hongkong just for color grading or simple effects online work.

Way back, the Philippines used to attract many creative people from the region. We once had the best facilities, editors and technicians. Sad to say, a number of them have left to look for greener pastures overseas.

According to Cruz, the Philippines can be Asia’s creative hub. “We can be better than Thailand and Hongkong in film processing if only the government can help provide the vibrant atmosphere, modernize and infuse incentives to help our creative industries,” he said.

Similarly, he pointed out South Korea’s Samsung, which is using the Japanese formula in building its brand. Samsung’s brave and innovative moves have already overtaken Nokia and giving Apple a run for its money.

“What’s lacking is the infrastructure and knowhow and how to apply the talent and energy,” he said, “but that is not impossible,” Cruz said.

Cruz noted that the creative industry in the Philippines is picking up, having won golds in Clio, Cannes, Asia Adfest, London and made inroads in One Show and D&AD.

“The government could learn from other global economies, with regards to how countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore and now China are turning to the creative industry to reinvent its economies,” he said.

He also took note that Filipino food has not caught mainstream status, as did its Thai, Japanese and Vietnamese counterparts inspite of the fact that it is just as excitingly sumptuous. “We just need to know how to market and create a spin to it,” he said.

WHO IS ERIC CRUZ?

Cruz took over when Malaysian advertising legend, Clio Lifetime Achivement awardee Yasmin Ahmad passed away.

For two years, the agency was at standstill finding someone who could fill the vacuum left by Ahmad. Until Burnett Malaysia CEO Tan Kien Eng flew to London and found Cruz in the city’s Wieden & Kennedy office working on the Nokia account.

Prior to WK London, Cruz spent eight and a half years at WK Tokyo, working with brands like Nike, Google, Honda, Aiwa, Kumon and Mori Building.

His achievements include the prestigious Tokyo Art Directors Club Award, a Cannes Cyber Lion, One Show Gold and Silver, and The Japan Media Arts Festival Excellence Prize.

He values real work and his views on scam ads will unnerve those who keep on perpetuating them just to make them look good to the advertising industry.

He co-founded WK Tokyo Lab, WK’s experimental music label and creative think tank, overseeing its entire visual output -- from directing music videos, to art directing and designing its packaging, online experiences and live events which helped redefine and reinvent Japan’s music industry.

Born in the Philippines, Cruz grew up in Crame, a Manila suburb, with his grandmother for the first 12 years of his life. He went to school at St. John Academy in San Juan and St. Martin up until 4th grade.

He grew up the same as any other Filipino boy loving Mazinger Z and Voltes 5 with an interest in drawing fast cars and robots.

His aunt was an Art Director who actually put him in a Klim tv commercial for which he lost the lead cast because he scraped half of his face on the ground from riding his new plexiglass skateboard, a Christmas gift from his mom in the US.

In '83 he saw Benigno Aquino Sr., father of today’s Philippine president, Benigno Aquino Jr. get assassinated on TV and three months later, his family migrated to the USA to follow his father.

They had a brief layover in Tokyo, but never did he realize he would one day live there, and landed in LA where he would spend the next few years of his life adjusting to becoming an American.

His parents separated and he ended up living with extended families - between LA, San Francisco, New Jersey and New York for the next four years.

On a field trip to a place called Art Center in Pasadena, when “fashion illustration was the shit, and Patrick Nagel was the bomb”, he saw a deer at the parking lot, he remembered thinking to himself: I would love to one day go to this college.

His parents discouraged him from pursuing a career in the arts. But he figured, if he can do what he wanted he could give it his best shot.

Cruz won scholarships here and there but lost one, which really woke him up: a scholarship won by another Filipino, whose portfolio he thought was really sharp and focused. He ended up going to School of Visual Arts in New York. But that loss gave him a kind of strength.

He discovered graphic design and gravitated towards it because one could fuse the language of art, illustration and design into one and he could do album covers, books among other things.

Cruz took off a year to do a co-op, a paid internship to earn some money and finish university. He learned a lot working at Norfolk Southern, USA’s second largest railroad company, designing annual reports, magazines, etc.

While checking out Portfolio Days one day in Washington DC, he met a recruiter from Art Center, who offered him a scholarship.

So excited, he literally drove home at 105mph in a 60mph zone, a sign he thought was from his grandmother encouraging him to attend Art Center.

He also did an exchange program at art centers in Switzerland wanting to learn how and why Europeans did such good work but still managed to live such healthy lives.

Cruz then started his career in San Francisco working at Studio Archetype, owned by digital pioneer, Clement Mok, who was also the founder of Front Page, a web design program, which later sold to Microsoft.

Soon over, a recruiter from Wieden & Kennedy came down to Art Center to review graduating portfolios. WK flew him up to Portland to meet with a few teams, Coke and Microsoft.

After a shortlive career at WK, Cruz then moved back to LA and joined a company who had just renamed themselves Imaginary Forces from RGA LA.

Here, he learned how to do motion graphics and make design move, as well as how Hollywood movie magic was done, shooting and producing TV commercials and music videos, the highlight of which was designing titles for the movie “The Mummy”, which was a great project for him.

Cruz went to Cranbrook to de-professionalise. It was during this time that he investigated himself, his roots as a Filipino-American, trying to find out why we are, who we are and how we came to be.

On the Internet, he found out that Filipinos actually had their own form of alphabet called Alibata or Baybayin, which the Spaniards made extinct, which wasn’t common knowledge for most Filipinos.

Cruz created a modern version of the alphabet, what Alibata could look like if it were alive today. This exploration led him to create a body of work, a film and print piece, entitled "Bahala Na", a portrait of the Philippines, which featured the Mangyans of Mindoro, one of the last two tribes that still uses this ancient form of writing.

While backpacking through China, he sent John Jay, Wieden & Kennedy Global Executive Creative Director his reel. The long and short of it, he began another career affair with WK. He moved to Tokyo a month after 9-11 happened and stayed there for the next 9.5 years.

WK Tokyo is where Cruz grew up and made the best work of his career. Realizing that he wanted to live in a country that spoke English again after almost 10 years, he moved to WK London, and stayed there for 14 months, had a baby and wanted to settle back in the US.

On his way back he was offered a job in Malaysia. He had always wanted to work in Southeast Asia, and Kuala Lumpur seemed a close sibling to the Philippines, a new challenge to run an office where he could both practice and teach a creative staff of 125 people.

Cruz has never worked in the Philippines but was recently in Manila to give a lecture about his work and critiqued the latest work of Leo Burnett Manila for the network’s “IPC” - Internal Product Committe sessions.

Last week was Cruz’ first professional connection with the Philippine creative community, a sort of a homecoming for himself.

Over an interview, he said “I would love to one day return and teach other Flips what I know how to do. I wanna give back one day. I would love to have more of an ongoing interaction with the ad industry in the Philippines. I also want to do some personal projects here sometime soon,” he said.

Cruz has great hopes for the power of Filipinos.
The award-winning creative director has an advice to those who want to make it in the field:

“Learn the craft and pump something original in the global broadcast. The rest will work itself out. People worldwide will find those who do something great. I’m a firm believer that everything exists, waiting to be discovered,” he said.

by Roger Pe

There is now light at the end of a ‘bottle’.

If you see some shanty roofs with protruding Pepsi plastic bottles, do not think that they have replaced old tires as protection from typhoons.

They’re actually lighting bulbs, slipped from outside and installed right in.

The bottles provide marginalized Filipino households with daytime lighting and it does not use electricity.

Last week the reward for Pepsi’s ad agency BBDO-Guerrero was electric. By focusing on the bottle a medium with which to provide light for residences of the poorest of the poor, the agency won for the country won its second Gold Clio. It was also a first for a high profile brand.

Young & Rubicam Manila previously won a gold for an unbranded public service ad in 2007.

BBDO-Guerrero won the iconic gold Clio statue for Innovative Media. Winners celebrated their triumph in a gala ceremony held last May 15th at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History.

“It’s a tremendous achievement,” said BBDO-Guerrero Chief Executive Officer Tony Harris, who admitted that because Filipinos are more welcoming, “it’s more fun in the Philippines than in London,” his place of work prior to his Manila stint.

“It’s such a great honor for the Philippines showing the world that it is far more advanced by winning in a medium so innovative and beneficial to a lot people,” a proud Harris said in an interview.

Harris paid tribute to Pepsi as being supportive, encouraging and as a friend of the agency. He also exalted the agency’s energetic and enthusiastic talents. “They’re just teeming with ideas,” he said.

In the Philippines, where daytime lighting is a scarce commodity for the urban poor, millions of homes have no natural light source. Lights must be kept day and night causing electric bills to rise.

Thanks to the country’s most internationally awarded ad agency and Pepsi, together with MyShelter Foundation, they created the “Liter of Light” campaign, an initiative that provided communities with low-cost, carbon-free lighting solution using old plastic bottles.

Online and on the ground, BBDO-Guerrero made Pepsi a hero, bringing much hope to those who can’t even afford electricity.

In one of the virals, BBDO-Guerrero showed houses in a slum district in Manila, near a railroad track. The alleys are claustrophobically narrow.

Dingy, lurid, the atmosphere contributed to making it a virtually dark world. People either slept it off or stayed outdoors.

Here also, “Solar Demi” was God-sent, gaining popularity for brightening up many homes in Sitio Maligaya squatter area.

He taught many residents to do these simple steps: Punch a hole on a piece of metal roofing. Fill the bottle with filtered water. Add some bleach. Slip in the plastic bottle from outside in.

When already installed, apply some sealant. Make sure it’s tightly sealed by contact cement to make the roof leak-free.

The bottle refracts the sun’s rays to produce daytime lighting equivalent to a 55-watt electric bulb.

In a San Juan City shantytown, Christmas lights were on at nighttime but dark during the day. Pepsi solar bottles solved the problem and, voila, the residents had daytime lighting.

Shanty residents gave testimonies how a cola brightened their day. One said, his electricity bill went down, another said, it never heated up.

But the most remarkable thing said was it gave them hope from a life of abject poverty.

Pepsi, the agency and My Shelter Foundation seeked funding from a global audience to bring the gift of light to low-income communities in the country.

“Give the Gift of Light” e-card was launched using digital channels. Videos on YouTube, Facebook were similarly introduced. A “Bike for Light” was mounted as well as web banners strengthened the campaign to heighten awareness.

The e-card allowed individuals to donate directly to the project at www.aliterofkight.org, the website carrying the solar lighting project’s new global identity, a Liter of Light.

Result: Over 10,000 volunteers gathered, 20,000 bulbs were installed, 46,666 lives brightened. According to the agency, the project was recognized at the 2012 Pepsico Global Performance with a Purpose Awards.

It also gained the support of the Philippine government and was specially commended at the 2011 World Climate Conference covered by BBC, NHK and other networks and presented at TED X in Dubai and Mumbai.

Pepsi also exerted efforts in sharing the “Bottle of Light” initiative across other Pepsi offices around the world, notably Kenya, Uganda, Indonesia, Vietnam, India and Colombia.

CLIO Awards received over 11,000 submissions from countries worldwide this year. The complete list of winners in all categories is now available at: www.clioawards.com/catalog.

BBDO New York won as Agency of the Year, Ogilvy & Mather as Network of the Year, Volkswagen as Advertiser of the Year and Wieden+Kennedy London winner of the prestigious Hall of Fame Award.

The 53rd Annual CLIO Awards was hosted by comedy icon Joan Rivers. Annie Leibovitz and Anthony Bourdain were presented with Honorary CLIOs.

Piyush Pandey, Ogilvy & Mather India Executive Chairman received the 2012 CLIO Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2004, Piyush became the first Asian to be president of the Cannes jury.

If Cannes is the Olympics of advertising, the Clio is the most widely recognized and coveted symbol of ad industry’s creative achievements, gaining the reputation as the Oscars of advertising.

Creative Credits:

Ad Agency: BBDO-Guerrero/Proximity Philippines
Chief Creative Officer: David Guerrero
Creative Director: Dale Lopez
Art Directors: Dale Lopez, Dennis Nierra, Tim Villela, Leah Mababangloob
Copywriters: Raymund Sison, Rachel Teotico
Producers: Jing Abellera and Ino Magno

UNUSUAL BILLBOARDS

What is the most spectacular and crowd-drawing billboard you’ve ever seen?

Nine years ago, TBWA Japan made the world talking about two billboards in prime locations of Tokyo and Osaka.

In Tokyo’s Shibuya district, the world’s busiest pedestrian-intersection and Osaka city’s urban center, the billboards were mounted on top of a ten-story high building with a simple 4-element layout: The brand’s logo (not even humongously screaming), campaign tagline, simulated football field and just the color it has always been known for: Blue.

What’s so special about the stunt? Stunning.

Where advertisers used mannequins before, Adidas elevated two human soccer players and suspended them vertically from a 26-foot bungee rope.

They swung back and forth like spidermen, kicking a soccer ball hanging between them. Japanese passers-by went wild.

At a 90-degree angle vertical soccer field, the football players displayed their wares in 10-to-15-minute interval matches, spread from 1 pm, 2 pm, 4pm, 5pm and 6pm.

Having created an extreme billboard medium, Adidas even went a step wilder onto the next: staged another death-defying series: Vertical sprint, prelude to launching the “Impossible is Nothing” campaign.

Adidas reinvented outdoor-advertising, static advertising suddenly became sedate, the medium zoomed up to new heights, literally raising the ante and creating the most effective and wildly acclaimed outdoor bang of the decade.

It cleaned up every award in major competitions, in Cannes, One Show and Clio, enroute to becoming the winningest billboard advertising in history.

McCann Worldwide Manila’s “Living Billboard” for Coca-Cola recently made it to AdAge and other global trade sites. Before reaching Guadalupe, northbound commuters passing through the city’s Edsa must have seen this 60 x 60 foot billboard made of real Fukien tea plants around the iconic Coke bottle.

If they were ordinary plants, they wouldn’t be such a big deal but they were carbon-dioxide-eating plants and they carpeted the whole frame. Pots made from recycled bottles contained 3,600 small-growth trees, thriving from a mixture of organic fertilizers. They were meant to absorb a total of 46,800 pounds of air pollutants from the atmosphere during its entire exposure.

DRAMA OF FRESHNESS

In 2007, Leo Burnett Chicago also made a similar outdoor stunt for its client McDonald’s when the latter introduced “Fresh Salad” on its menu. The fastfood’s ad agency team worked closely with a horticulturist to create a billboard that would dramatize the idea of freshness.

The ‘growing’ billboard started with 1½-inch lettuce sprouts, which then grew into lush leaves. The ‘billboard garden’ was even safe from being plucked by birds because there was no place for them to perch.

Expectedly, the campaign created much word-of-mouth buzz among target consumers, and all the way to Cannes and Clio, harvesting awards one after the other.

Ogilvy Manila has made a number of cut-through billboards for Unilever over the last few years. Utilizing the medium’s function to the hilt, the agency has always made Ponds enjoy top of mind awareness among target users.

You must have seen a woman actually using the billboard’s tarpaulin to hide her pimply face. What about a “die-cut” billboard shaped like a skin pore with a man holding a giant scrub to clean the entire surface? Did you see that girl with a ‘red dot’ on her cheek, (actually, a siren lighting up) for pimple alarm?

There are many other ‘odd’ billboards around. However unusual they may be, they got huge talk-value mileage, eventually translating into sales.

Has anyone seen a transparent billboard, like the one pulled off successfully in South Korea? It could pause some danger though, if not executed with safety measures.

Years back, a “Light Bulb” billboard ignited talk-of-the-town sensation for The Economist. The Ogilvy Singapore team designed it with a motion sensor, lighting up the bulb every time a passerby walked directly below it.

What about God’s Billboard quotes? “Bring your umbrella, I might water the plants today.” Signed God, one series says. In 2002, Love Singapore Movement tasked its agency to create a new image for God – “someone with a sense of humor, someone who talks to people in his own way, with wit, irony, humor,” said Eugene Chong, creator of the award-winning campaign.

Some examples of the billboard messages were: “What do I have to do to get your attention? Take an ad out in the paper?” God “I hate rules. That’s why I only made ten of them.” God “Please don’t drink and drive. You’re not quite ready to meet me yet.” God

TACKY BILLBOARDS

While there are exceptional billboards around, a lot are also choking our metropolis, causing people migraine, even provoking consumer groups and vanguards of morality. Manila once woke up seeing a liquor billboard that enraged religious and women’s grops, prompting Adboard to step into the picture.

An apparel company was asked to pull down all its billboards near Guadalupe Bridge for showing men in bikini briefs with bulging crotches.

Billboards must deliver their messages in split seconds. The simpler they get, the easier the messages could be recalled. But when advertisers mistake them as leaflets or flyers, the headache intensifies.

Some billboards could really fall down from the weight of elements in their advertising. It’s common to spot a billboard with a hodgepodge of fonts, buffet of photos, bunch of copy sandwiched in between. You see them flying all over the layout they could crash down even without typhoons.

Some simply haven’t learned how to moderate messages to single-mindedness, turning the medium into a smorgasbord of words and pictures.

Very effective in making high recall and brand awareness, billboards have made millions worth of sales. Created with tact and done beyond the usual, they could be advertisers’ best brand selling medium.

FILIPINO ICON IN GLOBAL HENNESSY AD CAMPAIGN

Martin Scorsese directed hugely acclaimed films like “Taxi Driver”, “Raging Bull”, “Good Fellas”, “The Departed”, “Shutter Island”, “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and this year’s Oscar nominated “Hugo”.

Erykah Badu is known for her cerebral music style. Oftentimes, she is called the "Queen of Neo-Soul" music.

Manny Pacquiao is, who doesn’t know him?

All three global icons star in Hennessy’s “What’s Your Wild Rabbit?” ad campaign, the brand’s return to tv advertising after a 5-year hiatus.

Launched last month, it is the largest marketing investment by the world’s number one cognac brand in its 247-year history.

According to folklore, rabbits run wild in the French Cognac region. Though the animals are rarely seen, stories have been told that they drive people to chase for success.

Chasing a wild rabbit is about pursuing your dreams, never tiring no matter what the difficulties are, never giving up even when the doors have been seemingly shut and life has almost knocked you down completely.

Many stories had been told about Manny Pacquiao’s humble beginnings, a harsh life of debilitating poverty after his father left his mother for another woman.

Life as a construction worker, janitor, cigarette vendor, bakery helper, bread peddler, he did many other menial odd jobs to keep body and soul together.

He ended up in the boxing ring, brutally maiming his opponents at every mandatory countdown. A devastating knock out during his early boxing career almost exterminated the Manny Pacquiao we see today.

But life has a way of rewarding back those who keep on walking, err, running.

Directed by Johnny Green, the Manny Pacquiao part is about his wild rabbit chase, condensed into a gut wrenching 90-second spot, of grit, determination and something to mull over long after the last boxing bell had fell into deafening silence.

It is not by luck, nor by any chance that the new Pacquiao commercial came out as an inspiring advertising.

No less than David Droga, founding chairman of Droga5, last year’s Cannes Lion Outdoor Grand Prix winner and past competition head of jury handled it. Together with his equally stellar Executive Creative Director Ted Royer, he made sure it would be.

Both Droga and Royer were frequent Manila visitors during the mid-90s as part of their regional roles, overseeing Asian Saatchi and Saatchi agencies’ creative output.

GLOBAL TV COMMERCIAL

The ad begins with a dramatic close up shot of young Pacquiao (great casting) in an outdoor setting.

Cutting interspersely between a wild marsh and lahar desert, the opening scene establishes him as a metaphoric hunter, running after the proverbial wild rabbit.

A rabbit in a tropical country like ours? Don’t blink you might catch it, but it doesn’t matter if it’s real or not, the chase is symbolic enough.

The juxtaposition of scenes into Pacquiao’s frenetic training is beautifully executed. The camera chases him, too, as he pounds a desolate road on daybreak.

Chronicling his difficult life in GenSan seems accurate, the local color is authentic, and the writers, indeed must have done good research.

The trophies sitting on a wooden shelf under a roof of a shoebox house evoke so much pathos.

The foreboding flock of sparrows roosting for the night, darkening the skies is a cinematic gem.

“It’s almost too beautiful to be considered “advertising” says, Fil-Am creative director Joel Villaflor on his Facebook wall.

The wanabe-Pacquiaos queueing in a local boxing gym, inspired by Pacquiao’s life story are beyond words.

Seeing the Manila MRT line captured in Hollywood filmic-quality makes you smile.

The cut-to-cut of pinoys from all walks of life, cheering from an over populated alley, a jampacked cockpit, a billiard hall … to millions of homes across the nation tells you something: we’re a one big united country without a doubt.

CLIMACTIC SCENE

Pacman, the raging bull trains like mad. The knock out machine is power-packed solid at the punching bag, punch-for-punch, blow-by-blow, hard hitting to the core.

Soon, he is ready to rumble. We are transported to Las Vegas’ Madison Square Garden as the world watches. We get a glimpse of Pacman as a human being, fervently praying by a small corner.

Pacquiao wins his 10th world title in 8 different weight classes. As he raises both hands, the ad cuts back to his long and lonely journey in slowmo, making the moment an emotional powder keg. Certainly, director Green knows how to squeeze more tears from the audience.

“Fighting the fights that really matter. That’s my wild rabbit,” Pacquiao says, as he peers from a window of his palatial home.

You’d want to see the ad over and over again, whether you’d been battered by life or born with a silver spoon in your mouth, or simply love a great inspiring ad.

NEW YORK AGENCY DROGA5

David Droga is listed as one of advertising’s “Ad Geniuses” who began winning Cannes Lions at age 22.

He led Saatchi & Saatchi’s Asia operation, based in Singapore and made the agency the best in the world in 1999.

He was ECD of Saatchi London when the agency was named "Global Agency of the Year" in Cannes in 2002. Promoted as Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of the whole Publicis group, he has won more than 50 Cannes Lions, over 20 One Show and 7 D&AD Pencils.

He established Droga5, an avant-garde, independent ad agency network in New York and Sydney in 2006.

THE MASSACRE OF BILLBOARDS

By Roger Pe


In the deep, inner sanctum of the metropolis, one cannot escape three things: wide and narrow streets flooded with people, smog that competes with the blaring noise of maddening traffic, mirage of colors exploding from billboards of varying sizes.

Much had been said about congested cities and traffic bedlam, let’s talk about the last one.

Welcome to Tarpaulin City, or so it seems. Stop, look and listen to the products they are selling. Notice the way they’re mounted from one block to the other. Is anyone minding the zoning plan?

Not only are they slowly strangling every block of the city, they’re beginning to cause some people migraine.

When advertisers mistake billboards as leaflets or flyers, the headache intensifies, you’ll probably need acupuncture or a dose of ibuprofen.

Some billboards could really fall down from the weight of elements in their advertising. It’s common to see stuff that look so obese with a hodgepodge of fonts, buffet of photos, vignettes, bunch of copy thrown in between, sandwiched with subheads, blurbs, a whole cacophony of violators, taglines, all flying all over you could get crushed down to pieces.

Some billboards don’t know the definition of tact. Some simply haven’t learned to moderate their messages to single-mindedness.

Some have turned the medium into a smorgasbord of words and orgy of pictures. A firing line of logos is daily fare. In instances, boom, accident on the road.

As a medium, billboard has been with us since time immemorial. As years went by and technology improved, varying degrees of sophistication developed - from handpainted to digital to 3D to creative, witty, funny, compelling (or otherwise) executions.

Effective out-of-home medium and maximized to the hilt by many marketers, billboards have made many brands’ cash registers continuously ringing.

But when the contents defy the senses of propriety, we are, indeed, being choked.

HUMOR SELLING

The commercial opens with a Malacanang state dinner for US President Barack Obama.

“Thank you, that was a lovely dinner,” ‘Obama’ says in his opening line.

“Oh, we’re not done yet. Try our kare-kare, it’s oks!,” says impersonator Rene Pacunla, popularly known as “Ate Glow”, as he gamely portrays former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

And for dessert, “Ginataang mais … it’s corn, but we use our coconut,” she says, pointing to her head.

Bummer, Obama suffers indigestion and ruins his foray into Pinoy cuisine.

“Impatso, ‘yan noh!,” Ate Glow says, mimicking even the former president’s Pampanga accent.

She rushes towards Barack in a way that makes the scene even funnier: like she has trolleys under her feet.

“Ang Motilium! Dyspepsia will disappear in 30 minutes, noh!,” she yells.

Cut to happy ending. With a glowing smile, Ate Glow offers Obama a cup of Batangas coffee and delivers the punchline: “Kape, Barak?”

The script is peppered with double entendre: oks (ox), coconut (head), Barack (barako).

Great copy, irreverent and funny, this is perhaps the funniest Filipino tv commercial done over the last three years.

The team of TBWA Santiago, Mangada and Puno went as far as overseas to find the perfect guy to play the role of the American president.

34-year-old Indonesian photographer Ilham Anas, a dead ringer for Obama, was discovered by the ad agency for the role directed by filmmaker Eric Matti.

It is not easy to become talk-of-the-town but the tv spot became a massive hit after a few weeks of airing.

Who has ever heard of Motilium before? Word-of-mouth fanned the buzz the commercial generated, brand awareness increased. The spot went viral and won major ad industry awards.

Joy Ultra Dishwashing Liquid is market leader not without Campaigns and Grey’s sustained campaign using humor on radio.

In 2009 Araw Awards, the agency created the Philippines’ most awarded radio ads.
All of them used humor.

“Amoy” and “Grasa” won Golds for Best Radio Copy and Silver for Best Radio Ad. Both ads also bagged silver in 2010 Kidlat Awards (Best Radio Ad category).

Back in 2005 Ad Congress, Campaign’s humorous radio commercials: "Chugs", "Haller", "Tagalog" and "Manash" each won a gold for Ligo and helped the brand win the “Advertiser of the Year” award.

The agency’s funny radio ads for AMA Computer College also won golds, making Campaigns’s amazing comeback to the winning-agency circle complete.

Humor has been Campaign’s creative bailiwick and since then, the agency’s unstoppable.

BBDO-Guerrero’s comedy-drama for Bayan DSL “iWant TV” gave it top-of-mind awareness and recall after parodying a famous Sharon Cuneta-Cherie Gil confrontation from a hit Tagalog movie.

In her supposed-to-be debut, Lola Techie gives party gatecrasher Gil a scathing tongue whacking after the latter accuses her as lover-snatcher.

She fires back: “How dare you, din po!” then unleashes Gil’s famous venom: “You-are-nothing-but-a-second-rate, trying-hard-copycat!”

Seething with anger, Gil throws in the magic word: “Copycat!”

In the US, who could ever forget the long-running “Real Men of Genius” radio campaign made by DDB Chicago for Bud Light?

Client Anheuser-Busch previously had second thoughts about the ads irreverent style but subsequent consumer testings proved it wrong. The rest is history.

The Bud Light series, conceived by copywriter Bob Winter in 1998, now counts to almost 200, a prolific harvest that also included an incredible number of Gold Lions, including the Grand Prix for Radio in Cannes and Clio.

As of late 2010, American Comedy Network was producing parodies of the ads originally conceptualized as a “tribute to men in overlooked professions with humorous or eccentric habits.”

Is humor good or bad for a brand? Let’s hear what people say:

“Humor in advertising is actually tough. It may be funny to some but corny, even slapstick to others,” says a communication arts professor.

“Humor is like charm in people. We are drawn to people who make us laugh. We are charmed by those who have sense of humor,” says copywriter Raymund Sison of BBDO-Guerrero.

Sison, who wrote award-winning Joy radio ads for Campaigns, says: “You need to make people laugh if you want their eyes and ears, including their hearts.”

For some clients, humor can create immediate recall but not exactly purchases.

“It can make you laugh all the way to the awards show but not necessarily to the bank,” says a marketing director.

“Variety is key to a successful humorous campaign,” says Marl Levitt in his funny, wacky “Comedy Writer For Hire” website.

“Once an ad wears out there's no saving it. Humorous campaigns are often expensive because they have to be constantly changed,” he says.

Levitt stresses a good point in saying - a commercial may leave one person rolling on the floor with laughter but it may also leave a “bad taste” in another’s mouth.

Some Pinoy ads love to poke fun at people with self-deprecating humor. Done in good taste, they can be funny and entertaining.

Want to try humor? Here are a few tips from Levitt:

Seriously think if it’s appropriate to both product and people you are targeting. Remember that the balance between funny and annoying can be delicate. Ask if it’s going to be relevant to the product.

So does humor sell? Of course, yes.
Yes, when it attracts, not distracts.

While purist marketers say our business is to sell and not patronize ‘clowns’, people don't buy ‘sour’, unsmiling and grouchy’ brands either.

Wouldn't we rather buy a brand that is charming, forever smiling – and one that makes us laugh?

YOU CAN JUDGE AN AGENCY BY THE PHOTOGRAPHY IT KEEPS

You probably know why you want to own a Giorgio Armani. Photographer Jerry Avenaim did a great job talking to your senses.

Millions of consumers around the world love Nike advertising. Bold, impactful, gutsy. The brand uses photography as a convincing weapon to make you buy.

Famous photographer Annie Leibovitz shot for Nike, good reason why more and more women around the world are joining the running bandwagon.

Some of the world’s best photographers like Howard Ruby, Florian Schulz, Jeffrey Vanhoutte, Brian Smith, among others have helped sell millions of dollars worth of brands.

Photography can make or break an ad or any medium that utilizes it.

The image you see on a piece of advertising is the single most important element.

An image is usually a photograph used to sell a product.

An ad can sometimes be an all-photo campaign. It can sell a brand by itself, even without words.

Selling lifestyle, food, fashion or a destination? Never overlook photography. It matters deeply.

And if you can push it beyond the ordinary, you’re in for some big surprise.

You can judge a good and bad agency by the quality of photography it keeps.

The best ad agencies invest much time and money on photography and overall look of their ads. How their campaigns look like in public is a matter of serious concern for them.

What good is an ad if it has great copy but bad photography?

“Copywriters may spend hours crafting a compelling, mindset-changing headline, but it’s the image that first attracts the viewer,” says an award-winning Art Director.

When you have great copy supported by a great image, it’s precedent setting. It’s creating a standard and raising the bar.

A creative ad cannot have bad photography. A campaign cannot be as effective if it used images with sloppy lighting, no depth of field, bland contrast, and no effort done to enhance their raw beauty.

As you turn to the next page of a newspaper, which element of an ad do you remember? The image.

Through the years, technology has helped produce cutting edge photography via use of digital imaging, photoshop (within the bounds of reality), computer manipulation, color calibrating and other experimental tweakings.

Needless to say, the marriage of art and technology in photography has made brand selling more exciting.

But it is also making local photographers anxious.

STOCK PHOTOS, STOCK OF WORRIES

With the continued marginalization of some sectors in the ad industry, how are local photographers, previously making a killing in the lucrative business doing?

“Bad”, says a veteran photographer, once most sought-after for his product and talent shots.

“We may run out of jobs soon and become endangered species,” says another.

In today’s frenetic scene, where some ad agencies have little time to do production preparations and extra budget to spare, stock photo companies rule.

But what if they don’t? They rely on images on the Internet with royalty-free usage, others crawl the net for copyright-free photos.

Forced by the current market squeeze, some photographers cannot help but lower their fees and adjust to budgets that come their way, making lesser-known photographers barely eke out a living.

Asked on how local photographers are surviving with the proliferation of stock photo providers, Myrvee Ortega, McCann WorldGroup Philippines’ Production Traffic Manager say:
“The expansion of many image companies, (like Getty, which recently bought Photolibrary) does not exactly pose a threat to local photographers. It actually challenges them to be more creative. They are measures that can help them survive the business,” she says.

Ortega says, “being creative” means enriching their crafts, upgrade their skills and get familiar with the latest trends in photography.”

While stock photo companies are on the rise, 100% of local ad agencies still use creative local photographers because of stock photo cost concerns,” Ortega says.

In Manila, the top 5 photographers mostly used by agencies are Marc Nicdao, Jay Tablante, Xander Angeles, Adphoto (John Chua or Gnie Arambulo), Jake Versoza, Francis Abraham and Raul Montifar.

To cut on production costs, some ad agencies develop their in-house photographers. For simple shoots, their own Art Directors do the work.

Jeff Dytuco, former AVP for client services of a multinational ad agency, is one of the many advertising people who had ventured far, joining established camera clubs to promote the art of photography and imaging.

He himself was elected President of Zone Five Camera Club, one of the Philippines’ most prestigious and oldest independent clubs of photographers from various professions, all united with the ideal of building on their passion for photography as an art form.

The club was inspired by famous photographer Ansel Adams’ classic zoning exposure system that formed the basis of exposure degrees or zones used in classic photography.