436. Retro-Story: IVORY SHAMPOO & CONDITIONER TVC, 1995, by Chairmom Merlee C. Jayme

ANG GAAN-GAAN NG FEELING, with Ivory model Bianca Araneta, 1995

MTV’s golden age lasted from the early 1980s to around 1992, but endured longer in music-loving Philippines. At its peak, MTV had a significant impact not only on our music landscape, but the format was also borrowed and used in advertising production. Agency creatives would often propose executions “a la MTV” to capture the interest of youth who were very much into music videos popularized worldwide by the MTV cable network.

WATCH AND LISTEN TO IVORY'S"ANG GAAN-GAAN NG FEELING" MTV, 1995 HERE:

Courtesy of Merlee Jayme, uploaded on youtube 30 Dec. 2021, 

One of the most memorable campaigns that used this longform MTV format was the IVORY Shampoo and Conditioner campaign created by Ace-Saatchi & Saatchi in 1995 for Procter and Gamble. It spawned a jingle-- “Ang Gaan-Gaan ng Feeling”, which became a hit pop song for the singers DV8, a fairly new music band. It also introduced us to a fresh new model, Bianca Araneta, whose mother (Maritess Revilla)  and grandmother (Paquita Goyena)  had strong Procter & Gamble ties, being former Camay Girls.

Chairmom Merlee Cruz Jayme, then copywriter for IVORY at Ace-Saatchi& Saatchi shares her recollection of the now iconic music video, with the hit jingle that turned into a mainstream monster hit, ruling the TV and radio airwaves for quite awhile, nationwide.

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As a Copywriter in Ace Saatchi & Saatchi, I worked on the launch of IVORY Shampoo & Conditioner. IVORY is gentle on hair and scalp with no harsh and heavy ingredients. So, hair feels light and not weighed down.

It was the 90s, and music videos were a big thing. Targeting young teens, I started writing a song. When I wrote the first line, “Dati ang aking buhay ay kulang sa sigla…” I tried to set the mood for heaviness and the need for lightness. Then the mood changes with a happy, catchy, breezy refrain that perfectly captures the feeling of lightness: “Ang gaan, gaan ng feeling.” The famous composer Jimmy Antiporda did the melody.

We searched and discovered the perfect talent to embody the pure, gentle, and light brand persona: the 14-year-old Bianca Araneta, the daughter of the 70s actress Maritess Revilla and businessman Iking Araneta. I remember that day when I had to go to their condominium in Mandaluyong with my Accounts Director to convince her parents to allow her to be our Ivory girl.

The music video made her an instant star, and her signature hair shot. She was blowing her wispy bangs away.

Today, what surprises me is the fact that carolers and choirs sing “Ang gaan, gaan ng feeling” during Christmas. I didn’t think the lyrics I wrote for a shampoo had a deeper religious meaning.

 About the Guest Writer: MERLEE CRUZ JAYME is the Chairmom & Chief Creative Officer at Dentsu Creative Philippines and Chief Creative Officer APAC at Dentsu. Before that, she co-founded  DM9 Jayme and Syfu. She started her illustrious career as a Copywriter at Ace-Saatchi & Saatchi advertising, where she met and married her colleague, Timmy Jayme, then an account executive. They have 4 daughters. Merlee is also a founder of a school, The Misfits, a training camp for autistic and deaf creatives.

 CREDITS:

AGENCY: ACE SAATCHI & SAATCHI ADVERTISING

COPYWRITER: MERLEE CRUZ JAYME

ART DIRECTOR: JAKE TESORO

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: MELVIN M. MANGADA

ECD: JIMMY F. SANTIAGO

PRODUCER: NANETTE RAMIREZ

 CLIENT:PROCTER & GAMBLE PHILS.

BRAND MANAGER: CHRISTINE ANGCO

CATEGORY PRODUCT HEAD; CITO ALEJANDRO / ISCA  ABAYA

 PRODUCTION HOUSE: UNITEL PRODUCTIONS

PRODUCER: MARIJO CLAUOR

DIRECTOR: JOEY AGBAYANI

MUSIC COMPOSER: JIMMY ANTIPORDA

 MANY THANKS to Ms. Merlee Cruz Jayme, for the background story of the Ivory campaign, and for the use of her youtube video.

278. Creative Guild’s 1986 Print Ad of the Year, P&G Phils., IVORY “Purity”

IVORY "PURITY" PRINT AD,  1986 Creative Guild Print Ad of the Year

ISA MUNANG PATALASTAS CONTINUES  ITS  TRIBUTE TO MR. RAMON R. JIMENEZ JR. (14 Jul. 1955/d. 27 Apr. 2020),, or simply MONJ to his colleagues, whose passing at the age of 64 is mourned the Philippine advertising industry that he inspired. After his illustrious career, he was named as the Secretary of the Department of Tourism, promoting the country via his well-received and hugely successful campaign “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” . Before he left Ace-Saatchi & Saatchi in 1988 to join wife Abby in their agency, Jimenez &Partners, MonJ was a VP-Creative and Executive Creative Director at Ace-Saatchi & Saatchi. One of his blue chip P&G accounts was IVORY Soap. Here is the story behind the print ad he helped create with his concept team, and which went on to bag the 1986 Creative Guild of the Philippines Print Ad of the Year.

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In 1986, clients and agencies wth a prevailing fear of white space were thrown off their swivel chairs by what appeared (or, in this case, didn’t appear) in several major newspapers. The full page was prited in special white paper and bore the headline, “You are looking at IVORY PURITY”. The text was printed, in an appropriately delicate  type, and the visual was simply a blank space framed by thin black border.

Ivory Phil. Ad, 1930s

The ad, “Purity”, was Ace Compton’s second winner, and was made possible by the fact that “ we were feeling a lot braver,” says Jimmy Santago. The client was global manufacturing giant Procter & Gamble, a Compton client for some 38 years  at the time the revolutionary ad was run, and this was the company’s third attempt at launching IVORY SOAP. “After two failures, it was no longer that sensitive a product.” Recalls Santiago. “The market was tired of it.” Santiago credits the brilliance of "repositioning” with reviving public interest in IVORY and taking its Philippine sales figures to unprecedented new heights.

The first two times it was launched , IVORY had been marketetd first as a soap for teenagers, and then as a family bar. The provincial teen markets, accustomed to heavily perfumed toiletries, also didn’t take too well to IVORY’s non-existent scent. Plus, the agency had to reckon with Filipnos’ completely different—and for the product, potentially damaging –-concept of “purity” at that time. “Pure was understood to be harsh, or concentrated, like a detergent,” Santiago recalls. The description was giving everybody the wrong idea.”

The time came to launch IVORY anew as a baby soap and an exceptionally pure product. The creative team was likewise in a fix about presenting a baby soap wthout unleashing the babes. Baby-filled ads were already the specialty of main competitor Teneder Care—“and we certainly  didn’t want Tender Care to sell any more soap!”Santiago says.

All of Compton’s creative teams were thus invted to pitch ideas for the xciting new projects, and art directors instinctively began by doodling babies—until Santiago declared it was time to leave the babies to someone else. He suggested a blank piece of paper, whiter than standard ash-colored newsprint, whose dirty color simply wouldn’t get the message across. Art director Melvin Mangada, then a fresh college graduate, framed the page n the simple black border, and writer Isabel Gamboa provded the straightforward copy highlighted by the brand logo. “The PUREST SOAP there is,” the copy reads, key words were capitalized for effect, and readers looking down at the white expanse couldn’t help but agree that, yes, this was as spotless as you could possibly get.

BACK TO BABIES. Ivory Ad, late 1986

The ad was a complete surprise. It broke several rules, not the least of whch was the tried and tested procedure of sung a baby to sell a baby product. The absence of a cute face seemed like a sure step towards marketing disaster. Also, client Procter & Gamble was an advertiser traditionally averse to wasting space or departing from bestselling formulas. “Cases like these are exceptions,” Santiago says, because you’re out there to jolt the market. Procter & Gamble’s  General Manager was pleasantly jolted himself, enough to call the ad “brilliant” and refreshingly “discontinuous”.After a time, however, client “got worried,” Santiago recalls, and eventually succumbed to convention by running more baby ads. “But after ;etting us come up wth the ad we wanted, it was alright,” Santiago laughs—especially after “Purity” won a Clio citation.

CREDITS:

AGENCY: Acre Compton Advertising, Inc.

ADVERTISER: Procter & Gamble, Philippines

PRODUCT: Ivory Soap

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Mon Jimenez Jr.

COPYWRITER: Isabel Gamboa

ART DIRECTOR: Malvin Mangada