Thursday, September 19, 2024
486. Long Lost favorite: MAGNOLIA ICE CREAM CAKES AND ROLLS, 1979
Thursday, September 12, 2024
485. 1988 Creative Guild's Radio Ad of the Year, ROYAL TRU-ORANGE "Ganito Talaga Ang Buhay", RC 30s
KID STUFF. In 1988, the Radio Ad of the Year
was part of a best-selling campaign that hepled endear a softdrink to its young
Pinoy market in an unprecedented way. The softdrink was Royal Tru-Orange,
a purebred Pinoy product of faithful old McCann Erickson client Coca-Cola
Bottling Co. The campaign debuted in TV and introduced a character destined
to be one of the immortals of local Philippine advertising, an amiable, wonderfully
regular adolescent named Joey, played by a charismatic young La Sallite
named RJ Ledesma.
The very first ad began with the jingle strain: “Ganito talaga ang buhay…”, and the first words of Joey’s lighthearted, causally delivered flashback narration which proved to be the durable and permanent opening salvo for a series of ads harping on the natural goodness of the product and how it fitted in, just as naturally, with the ups and downs of a wholesome young protagonist’s life.
The campaign extended into radio advertising , of which the winning “Mantika” was an involving example. As he McCann creative director Letty Javier recounts, she and copywriter Kathleen Mojica collaborated on a scenario straight from everyman’s childhood experience.
The TV ads have Joey mingling with friends, going to school, and eventually falling in love and maturing over a span of several memorable years. RJ Ledesma practically grew up under the consumer’s watchful eye.
The radio commercial however, harked back to those embarrassing, pre-pubescent moments where every boy would die before being caught running a sissy errand for mom in this case, buying a bottle of cooking oil from the neighborhood sari-sari. A bottle of Royal Tru-Orange proves the ideal cover-up in the presence of Joey’s pal, Jake, who, it turns out, was set to buy something just as sissy—bagoong. The pals are on equal footing, such all too familiar chores and the very real feelings of apprehension and relief, and the viewer concludes, are part of growing up. It’s a good thing that the softdrink is around to provide company, or even security, in the face of the possible bad trips of this complicated age.
Even without the powerful TV visuals, “Mantika” effortlessly captured the awkwardness, as well as the little triumphs of Filipino adolescence, and softdrinks guzzlers everywhere were invariable touched.
CREDITS:
CLIENT: Coca-Cola Bottling Co.
Product: Royal
Tru-Orange
AGENCY: McCann Erickson, Phils.
Executive Creative Director: Emily Abrera
Associate Creative Director: Letty Javier
Copywiter: Kathleen Mojica
Producer: Jing Abellana
SOURCES: PERFECT 10: A Decade of Creativity in Philippine Advertising, published by the Creative Guild of the Philippines,1995. Written and edited by Butch Uy and Alya Honasan.
Monday, September 2, 2024
484. 1960s LAUNDRY SOAPS THAT BECAME WASHED-UP BRANDS
Four laundry detergent brands from the 1960s decade no longer with us. For one brief, shining moment, FAS, GLOW, SUNLIGHT and MARVEL had promising benefits that soon got washed away, for reasons we do could only assume as poor sales due to marketing, promotion, product or company issues.
1960 SUNLIGHT Print Ad |
SUNLIGHT, introduced in 1960, was Lever Bros. brand that
was created back in 1884, the world’s first packaged product. Despite being
touted as “the world’s largest selling household soap”, it did not catch on
with the public”.
FAS, 1966 Print Ad |
FAS, with “the fastest cleaning power” was a product of
Philippine Detergent Products introduced in 1966, but was killed when their
other brand “Marvel” made greater strides in the market, so resources were put
behind that brand instead.
GLOW, 1965 Print Ad |
GLOW “Fights Stubborn Dirt” was the very first laundry product manufactured and launched by Peerless Products Manufacturing Corp. (est. 1963). It did not last long in the market dominated by Tide and Breeze. The company had their biggest success in 1977 when it launched “Champion” detergent, which continues to be a pillar of laundry care products for the company,
MARVEL, ca. 1967 Print Ad |
MARVEL , a brand of Philippine Detergent Products introduced
in 1967 had better success as it was pushed with TV commercials and print ads (“Relax
Lang” campaign) that saw it thru the
early 1970s, before it fizzled out.