504. Is That Who I Think She Is? MISS RITA GOMEZ for LIASAN Feminine Hygiene Products, 1974

MISS RITA GOMEZ, for LIASAN Feminine Hygiene Wash & Spray, 1974

In 1974, LIASAN Feminine Wash was launched, the first intimate hygiene product in the market. It was one of the hygiene products of the German firm, Sagrotan, that was established in 1912. Appearing in the ad was the 39 year old RITA GOMEZ ( b. 22 May 1935 /d. 9 May 1990), a veteran actress, known for her strong, feisty female roles. Behind that façade, however, was “a woman who enjoys being a woman with elan and poise…an actress, a mother…whose femininity springs from the rituals of beauty she cultivates.” That of course includes feminine hygiene.

Gomez was a journalism student at the University of Santo Tomas when she was discovered for the movies by character actress Leonora Ruizi, who recommended her to the Santiagos of Premiere Productions. But it was when she moved to Sampaguita Pictures that her career picked up as a drama actress. In 1958, she won a FAMAS Best Actress award for “Talipandas”.

Turning into a freelance actress, Gomez appeared in variety of roles—which required her to be bold, controversial and daring. She appended “Miss” to her name amidst the Bomba scene, and thereafter was billed and addressed as Miss Rita Gomez. She won another Best Actress trophy in 1970 for “Bakit Ako Pa?”. Her association with director Ishmael Bernal produced the critically-acclaimed “Pagdating sa Dulo”, which further cemented her reputation as a fine, veteran actress.

Gomez was also looked at as an intellectual artist, a good writer, and an excellent English speaker. Son Ronald Bregandahl with Ric Rodrigo was a Caltex Spelling Bee runner up in the 1960s. She was a sought after speaker in schools, on TV talk shows and even judged a beauty pageant, known for her witty, but brutal frankness. The loud, eye-brow raising, cigarette-wielding, land opiniated actress easily became an icon of the gay community.

No stranger to advertising, RITA GOMEZ was one of the first beauties of  Camay who appeared in print ads in the late ‘50s. It would take over decade for her to bag another only her second product endorsement with LIASAN. After doing some 80 movies, she retired in 1983 and moved to the U.S. with her children, until she passed away from cancer,  just 2 weeks before her 55^th birthday.

503. INSULAR LIFE, 50th Year Anniversary “Amorsolo” Ad Series, 1960

INSULAR LIFE ASSURANCE COMANY LTD. was incorporated and organized on November 25, 1910 as the first Filipino life insurance company, and met instant success. In the 1930s, it had its own building at Plaza Morga, then a premiere business district. Not even the war could stop the company, as it was allowed to operate due to its esteemed reputation. In 1943, it assumed the business written by the Filipinas Life Assurance Company. Insular Life recovered from the war through the government rehabilitation program. It grew even bigger in the 50s when it lowered its premiums and, in one of the largest transactions in the Philippine insurance industry,  assumed the business underwritten by the Occidental Life Insurance Company of California.

In 1960, Insular Life Assurance Co., Ltd. marked its half a century of service by coming out with a series of 6 corporate ads, featuring the works of the celebrated artist, Fernando Amorsolo, which are part of the company’s commissioned art collection. Under the thematic line “Building Our Nation”, three ads are shown here:

EARLY TRADERS FROM ACAPULCO (4^th of a series), featured above, pictures the galleon trade of the Philippines and Mexico. The traders were enterprising pioneers, in much the same way that in 1910 that pioneer businessmen founded Insular Life, which, by 1960, had paid out over 26.5 million pesos to policy owners and their beneficiaries

PRINCESS URDUJA AND HER WARRIOR MAIDENS (5^th of a series) show the legendary princess Urduja, who was known for being fearless and courageous—the same traits that served the founders of Insular Life well when they ventured with fortitude when they put up the company.

THE BARGAIN OF THE GOLDEN SALAKOT(6th  of a series), depict the first colonizing event in the country, when Bornean Datu Puti made a deal with Datu Marikudo, to make a colony on the coastal shores of Panay. Marikudo agreed, and asked for a golden salakot in return. This “first” in history parallels that of Insular Life’s—the country’s fist Filipino-founded insurance company.

SOURCES

Insular Life website, https://www.insularlife.com.ph/about-insular-life

 

502. THE SHOES WE WORE IN THE 1980s-1990s DECADES

BANDOLINO. You're a Step Ahead, 1984 Ad

Along with the fashion crazes of these decades—the Preppy, Oversized, Neon Colors, Streetwear, Baggy—came stylish shoes of  to go along with the hip, cool look. Local shoe stores like Confetti, Cardam’s, and Mendrez carried an array of popular brands that found favor with the young Makati working class. There were Sperry-copy cats, Doc Martens look-alikes, penny loafers a la Bass that could be found in Makati and Greenhills. Here are a few brands and their ads:

BANDOLINO SHOES, 1993 Ad

Bandolino Shoes Philippines was a local shoe store founded in 1983, and not to be confused with the U.S. brand. Now known as BND.

BULLDOG SHOES by Colours, 1993 Ad

Bulldog shoes were carried by Colours Handcrafted Shoes, created  by J.T. Manufacturing inspired by the British originals. 

ITTI Shoes, 1994 Ad

Itti Shoes Corporation was a retail business in the Philippines that sold footwear, clothing, and bags under the Caterpillar trademark. Later, itti was enmeshed  in a lawsuit with Caterpillar over trademark violation issues.

SWATCH SEASIDER, 1994 Ad

Swatch Seasider is the flagship brand of a legacy maker of men's casual and dress footwear in Marikina City, the shoe capital of the Philippines. All of their shoes are handmade using top-grade leather, particularly their signature boat shoes and sandals. Distributed by Trident International Trading, Corp. 

501. PLATINUM AWARD, 12th Philippine Advertising Congress, COCOBANK “Origami” TVC, 1990

COCOBANK "Origami" TVC PHOTOBOARD, 1990

First United Bank Phils. , founded in 1963 was the forerunner of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB), more popularly known as COCOBANK. It was meant to cater to the needs of the coconut industry, especially its planters/farmers who need credit, but it also served a wide-ranging clientele.

COCOBANK grew to become one of the biggest banks in the country, and along with other top banks, formed MegaLink, one of the three main interbank networks in the Philippines. COCOBANK was one of the earliest banks to institute ATM services in the 1980s. It invested heavily in advertising, tapping Ace-Saatchi & Saatchi to handle its product and corporate promotions.

One such well-known campaign was conceived in 1989 promoting the simplicity of its banking processes. The project was assigned to the creative team of veteran art director Mario Monteagudo and young copywriter Merlee Jayme.

Merlee Jayme, who rose to found her own agency and become the only woman in the 20 top creative directors in Asia, recalls the conception of that campaign after being briefed by the account person of the bank’s proposition—“banking made simpler”.

"PIGGYBANK" Print Ad, Part of the COCOBANK "Banking Made Simpler" Campaign

“Mario in our brainstorming came up with the “Piggybank” TV  and print execution”, she said. “. I was soooo pressured and stressed out when he asked me to come up with another one. It had to be a visualization connected to banking of course. Then it hit me-- being part Japanese, I love origami…I tried folding one hundred peso bills into a caterpillar and turtle—perfect symbols to show slowness”

“Then I drew the board and showed it to Mario the next day. He smiled and that was my reward”.

 When the storyboard was presented to the COCOBANK clients, it was met with approval despite the unexpected visuals –origami insects, of all things!-- that were not readily bank-associated. “They were amused and curious how we will pull this off”, Merlee continued. “Remember back in the 80s we didn’t have innovative ways of shooting these kinds of boards.  Just a simple stop motion technique was used to shoot the COCOBANK ad”.

WATCH COCOBANK "Origami" TVC 30s HERE:

The creative team’s biggest reward though was at the 1991 Philippine Advertising Congress when the COCOBANK “Origami” TVC scored the biggest victory at the Araw Awards night. “That was my very first TVC ever --- and it won the Platinum  Award at the Phil Ad Congress!” she enthused.

 COCOBANK enjoyed many more decades of further success. In 2020, the government increased its ownership of the bank to 97%, thus resulting to more control. In 1 March 2022, COCOBANK  merged with Land Bank of the Phils,, its name becoming defunct.

CREDITS:

AGENCY: ACE-SAATCHI & SAATCHI ADVERTISING

ART DIRECTOR: Mario Monteagudo

COPYWRITER: Merlee Jayme

ACCOUNT; Jonjie Arnobit-delos Reyes

 CLIENT: United Coconut Planters Bank

 SOURCES:

UCPB, Wikipedia

UCPB-Cocobank Origami TVC, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_4OK-H-ZfQ, uploaded by Merlee Jayme

FB communication, with Chairmom Merlee Jayme