The Christmas tree--a decorated evergreen tree or an
artificial tree of similar appearance—is an iconic symbol of Christmas. The putting
up of Christmas tree to celebrate Christmas began in Germany when Christian
peasants began bringing in trees trimmed with paper flowers, fruits and tinsel—inside
their homes in the 16th century.
The custom caught on with outside of Germany in the second half of the 19th century, including America, thanks to the German settlers.The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s put up by these new immigrants in Pennsylvania.
The American brought the Christmas tree tradition to the Philippines during their occupation of our islands. By the late 1920s, Filipinos were putting up Christmas trees in their homes, along with the ubiquitous native parol. The tradition became popular among Filipinos, that they localized the holiday tree—using walis tingting or tambo, dried twigs and branches (with added cotton to simulate snow), and even strings!
Like the Parol, the charm of the brightly-lit and
decorated Christmas tree became a design inspiration—integrated in ad layouts,
and appearing on print advertisements during the Christmas season. Here are a
few examples:
FILIPINAS LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY was founded on 27 April
1933, as a subsidiary of Filipinas Compañia de Seguros, in response to the
Insurance Commission’s ruling that insurance companies must have separate life
and non-life business divisions. The parent company--Filipinas Compañia de
Seguros—had been founded earlier in 1913 by Antonio Melian with brothers-in-law Fernando Antonio and Enrique Zobel y de Ayala.
The business was briefly interrupted by the war, and when
FILIPINAS LIFE resumed its operations, it would flourish and become a dominant
name in industrial life insurance for over 30 years thru the 1970s. All the
more when FILIPINAS LIFE began advertising on radio, using a high-recall jingle
first heard on the airwaves in 1977.
LISTEN TO THE FILIPINAS LIFE JINGLE HERE:
Advertising icon Greg Macabenta of Advertising and
Marketing Associates (AMA), penned the lyrics, which was produced by Rusty
Velila. Music was provided by the famed
D’Amarillo Studio Orchestra while the singers were billed as “The Filipinas
Singers”.Needless to say, the FILIPINAS LIFE Jingle became one of
the most widely-heard jingles in the country, catapulting the company topmost
in the minds of Filipinos.
In 1990, FILIPINAS LIFE became Ayala Life Assurance Inc.
to underscore its transformation into a full-service life insurance company. Twenty
years later, it would be renamed BPI-Philam Life Assurance Corp.,( BPI-Philam ) following the
sale of BPI’s stake in Ayala Life to Philam Life.
Despite its new name, oldtimers still recall the insurance
giant’s former name through the strains of a memorable jingle that woke everyone
up in the early morning, singing along with its catchy chorus—FILIPINAS…FILIPINAS
LIFE…FILIPINAS LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY!!
SOURCE:
Macabenta, Gregg. How to Make a Benta: Anecdotes,
Lectures & Articles from the Advertising Wars Paperback – March 28, 2011
youtube, Filipinas Life (famous 70s jingle), posted by limva123, April 9, 2013.
