65. For a lot of charming--manicura! CARONIA NAIL POLISH

CARONIA FULL COLOR AD, 1970.

The early years of the Philippines’ most widely-known nail polish brand in the 60s are rather obscure. A quick check on the CARONIA website reveals that it was in 1968 that Don Vicente Ang and wife Belen, founders of Vibelle Manufacturing Corporation, launched the first locally produced nail polish brand in the country called, CARONIA. CARONIA was supposedly named after  the luxury ship, RMS Caronia.

EARLY CARONIA NAIL POLISH AD, 1959.

However, print ads of CARONIA have been appearing in magazines since the late 1950s, featuring hand drawn illustrations of the product.

CARONIA MAGAZINE AD, 1961

The CARONIA ads and the product labels, however, did not include the name of the manufacturer—but the familiar CARONIA font is consistent with ads from the 1970s. In 1961, CARONIA produced its first full-color print ads.

CARONIA IN COLOR, 1961

The first CARONIA TV ad I remember featured Japanese-looking mod models  in Twiggy haircuts and micro-minis dancing to a catchy Japanese-sounding jingle with nonsensical lyrics—sung by a clearly non-English speaking singer. The lyrics were all muddled up and to my ears, the words sounded vaguely like this:

CARONIA, CARONIA…ika bufini—manicura!

For a lot of charming—manicura!

CARONIA, CARONIA..

Confucius say, it’s CARONIA!

For many years, I thought that CARONIA was made in Japan, as the look of the TVC had a trademark Japanese look! The company website tells us that the TVC came out in 1968 on black and white TV. The copy of that memorable first CARONIA is long gone, but a local TVC version using the same jingle was produced in the very early 80s with star-for-all-seasons Vilma Santos now doing the dancing.

WATCH THE VILMA SANTOS

CARONIA TV AD HERE:

It was rehashed again in the mid-1990s, and the new commercial--choreographed by Douglas Nierras and directed by Fritz Infante—sought to replicate the success of the first commercial with Filipino dancers doing similar dance steps in front of a giant product mock-up of a CARONIA bottle. The jingle was reworded with a more sensible lyrics set to a livelier arrangement.

WATCH THE '90S CARONIA TV AD HERE:

CARONIA was beset with more competition in the next decade, but it chose to present its products judiciously outside of advertising. But in 2008, an all-new CARONIA commercial was seen on TV starring the band Imago. Along with the contemporary hip-hop dance moves and special effects was a new CARONIA jingle commissioned from the band.

LISTEN TO THE NEW CARONIA JINGLE

BY IMAGO HERE:

The completely new jingle was fresh and sophisticated alright, but there’s nothing as original as the first CARONIA jingle—nonsensical lyrics and all!

SOURCES:
Vilma Santos Caronia Ad, uploaded by STARSTAR
Caronia youtube videos: from Caronia Philippines