Tuesday, July 5, 2016

67. Creative Guild TV Ad of the Month, Dec. 1987: KNORR REAL CHINESE SOUP


The film, “The Last Emperor”, was making waves in Hollywood in 1987 when Pacifica Publicity Bureau produced a memorable  KNORR REAL CHINESE SOUP commercial with lush imageries inspired by the said movie, which the agency entitled "Kowloon"
 
KNORR SOUP, with Richard Tan. Print Ad, 1987

Knorr Chinese Soups, with their one of a kind flavor-- captured the authentic taste of the real thing—with just the addition of one egg! The product was The commercial this came alive with  a jingle-based commercial that came across as genuinely Chinese.


There was a character who looked suspiciously like PuYi  (the last emperor) garbed in similar costume mouthing a memorable line, “GoodAh!”, a court attendant with a high-pitched voice (a eunuch?) and a pleasant singing presentor who cracks an egg on the head of an attendant who sounds like a high pitch court eunuch.


Then, there's a Westernized Oriental in the person of singer Richard Tan (before he added an extra “n” to his name), who looked dapper in a tuxedo.

LISTEN TO THE ORIGINAL
KNORR CHINESE SOUP JINGLE HERE:
Source: aianchan, uploaded 19 Sep. 2017


A 30-second version waslater created to ride on the momentum of the ad's popularity, entitled "Last Emperor", minus Richard Tan.

WATCH THE KNORR CHINESE SOUP
TVC 30s(2nd version "Last Emperor") here:
Uploaded by MultiJLambo, 5 Mar. 2012

The  popular Knorr Chinese Soup (“Kowloon”) commercial, with the Crab and Corn flavor as lead variant, was directed by well-known director, Boldy Tapales. It was voted by members of the Creative Guild of the Philippines as the best as the top ad for December, and by the year’s end, competed against an array of monthly finalists—including favorites, won by the sleek, technically-produced TVC of Shell Brake Fluid.

CREDITS
AGENCY: PACIFICA PUBLICITY BUREAU
CREATIVE HEAD: Joy Cortez
ART DIRECTOR: Danny Arada   /  COPYWRITER: Carmille Agana
ACCOUNT: Anna Domingo
PRODUCTION HOUSE: Electromedia
DIRECTOR: Boldy Tapales     /   ASST. DIRECTOR: Mae Paner
CLIENT: California Manufacturing Corp.

Sources: 
1987 Creative Guild Ad of the Year Program
de la Torre, Visitacion. History of Advertising in the Philipiines, Torre Publishing. Manila.
youtube, 1988 Knorr Chinese Soup featuting Ruchard Tan,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XujASMlQqmA, Uploaded by aianchan, 19 Sep. 2017.
youtube, Knrr Real Chinese Soup,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hDs3FkFdw4, uploaded by MultiJLambo, 5 March  2012.

7 comments:

  1. Not until today when View on the 3rd (Jojo Balion) finally uploaded the "Kowloon" commercial on his FB page.

    Still waiting for a YouTube reuploaded video.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sir Alex, This is the Kowloon ad that was re-uploaded by Aianchan. Thanks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XujASMlQqmA

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the notices of the updates, The article has been updated with proper citations to the video sources.

    ReplyDelete
  4. but there was a first knorr real chinese soup tvc that was made, shot in RS in parañaque. that was the launch tvc

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  5. This is all about the winning Knorr ad of the month.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is still NOT the first/original Knorr Real Chinese soup commercial. We (ie our team in Pacifica where I was the account executive then) launched the campaign sometime 1986 I think.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What was the sequence of the first Knorr Real Chinese Soup TVC?

      Delete