432. Pilipino Advertising Klasiks (PILAK): CAMAY SOAP, “Ang Barko, Pres. Roosevelt” TVC, 1967

In 2002, the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of the Philippines (4 A’s) chose 25 Best Ads out of 100 nominees. The nominees were culled from hundreds of commercials spanning 5 decades, and these went  through the gruelling scrutiny of 3 generations of creative minds and advertising practitioners, sieved through their stringent standards and critical sensibilities. The 100 nominees were later pruned to 40. 

CAMAY "Pres. Roosevelt", one of 25 PILAK Awardees

The final 25 merited the distinction of being called “PILAK: Pilipino Advertising Klasiks”. One of the 25 is the CAMAY SOAP commercial of Procter & Gamble PMC, produced by Ace Compton Advertising Inc. It created quite a stir in 1967 as the first commercial to be shot on board the  SS President Roosevelt American President Luxury Liner. The commercial was also unusually long (over a minute!), with a cast of mostly foreign talents—except the lead, Camay Girl TINA ARTILLAGA, one of the country’s top-ranked fashion models.

 WATCH THE 1967 CAMAY "Pres. Roosevelt Lines" TVC Here:

“Ang barko….President Roosevelt. Ang dilag…kahali-halina..”

Thus began the commercial where the creamy-complexioned Tina walks past male passengers on the ship, entrancing them with her “malinis, mala-kremang kutis”—repeated several times for emphasis! “Ang lahat ay napapalingon…” (everyone wants to take a look..) became a memorable line from the TVC , and was retained in future CAMAY commercials.

THE COUNTERPART PRINT AD OF CAMAY "Pres. Roosevelt" Campaign

Inexplicably, the print ad counterpart featured another model, but published in the same year. It had the feel as the commercial and even bears the logo of the American President Lines to lend further credence to the ad. 

TOP MODEL TINA ARTILLAGA AT HER PEAK

Camay Girl TINA ARTILLAGA modelled for Pitoy Moreno in his fashions shows abroad. In 1968, she travelled to Europe and walked the runways in Moreno’s creations, along with Maita Gomez, Cherrie Pie Villonco, Pearrie Arcache, Jean Margaret Lim, and Joji Felix Velarde. That same year, she joined Bb. Pilipinas and placed 4^th to winner Charina Zaragoza. She did a couple of movies in the mid 1970s like “Alas 5:00 ng Hapon, Gising Na Ang ga Angel”, “Hoy Mister, Ako ang Mrs. Mo”, “Sekretaryang Walang Silya” (1976) ,and  “Ako si Emma, Babae”, (1977)

 CREDITS:

AGENCY: ACE COMPTON ADVERTISING, INC

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: CONNIE REID / COPYWRITER: KEITH GAMBOA

DIRECTOR: TONY SMITH / PRODUCTION HOUSE: A.D. SMITH PRODUCTIONS

Many thanks to 4A's for the use of their youtube channel where many of these TV features were sourced.