557. Creative Guild’s 1989 TV Ad of the Year: SIME DARBY, “Asal Hayop” TV Series

CLAY CULPRITS, pioneer in claymation animation.

J. Walter  Thompson scored a consecutive victory the following year with another pioneering ad, this time using the delightful, painstaking Claymation technique mastered by the Alcazaren brothers. The campaign “Asal Hayop “ series involved four 15 sec. public serice plugs by the manufacturer, Sime Darby.

There was an urgent need for the ads to be different, Pitargue recalls. “Sime Darby was a latecomer in the business of advertising,” she recalls. “Goodyear and Firestone had established reputations in terms of technology, and they had been advertising for quite awhile.” What little material Sime Darby had so far had been very product-oriented, and the brand lacked the human touch, which Goodyear was then exploiting in a major way in its “Coming Home” commercials full of emotionally-charged reunions scenes.

The decision was to go for a public service campaign , and Pitargue looked to the streets of Manila for an idea that would work well with the envisioned Claymation execution. The creative team agreed upon the subject of bad driving habits. “People don’t behave like human beings when they drive,” Pitargue explains, “so we singled out the most interesting prototypes.”

 WATCH THE 1991 TV AD OF THE YEAR "Asal Hayop" HERE:

Source: Youtube, Sime Darby "Asal Hayop" uploaded by Miguel Alcazaren, 25 Apr. 2012.

The four ads, which all ends with a specific piece of advise (like “keep a safe distance”) and an exhortation from Sime Darby—“Mag-asal Tao. Drive Intelligently”—stars 4 different creatures with distinct personalities, demonstrating different dangerous habits to the accompaniment of graphic Pilipino copy by Nonon del Carmen and appropriate music by Charo Unite. The sleepy eyed green “pagong”—“Yung sobang kupad dumiskarte”—has his signature honky-tonk, comic music, while the flaming red “toro” (“Kahit pula na ang ilaw, sugod pa”) zoomed to bullfight music playing in the background.

Sime Darby achieved high recall because of the ads, which were immediately notice fo their novelty value, and which showed how an interesting execution could be used to gain attention for a basically staid, serious message.

 CREDITS

ADVERTISER: Sime Darby Philippines / PRODUCT: Road Safety Campaign

AGENCY: J. Walter Thompson Phils. / CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Socky Pitargue

ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Raymund Villaruel

COPYWRITER: Nonon del Carmen / ART DIRECTOR: Ghizelle Miguel

PRODUCER: Mila Bibat /  DIRECTOR: Mike Alcazaren

MUSIC ARRANGER: Charo Unite

PRODUCTION HOUSE: Lacelli/ Alcazaren Brothers

SOURCES:

Perfect 10, A Decade of Creativity in Philippine Advertising, published by the Exceutive Commitee of the Creative Guild of the Philippines, 1995, edited by Butch Uy.

Video Source: Youtube, Sime Darby "Asal Hayop" uploaded by Miguel Alcazaren, 25 Apr. 2012.