110. Brand Stories: COSMOS (SARSI) of Cosmos Bottling Corp.

COSMOS 1963 print ad. At its peak, it was the no. 1 sarsaparilla soda in the market.

One of the more popular alternative soda brands in the Philippines after the war was a product of the Manila Aerated Water Factory, located on Misericordia St., Manila. It was founded way back in 1918 by Wong Ning, a Guangdong native who migrated to the Philippines. He would be arrested and jailed by the Japanese during World War II for his association with the Kuomintang government, where he would tragically die in prison.

VERY EARLY COSMOS AD. 1955. Only 5 centavos per bottle!

The eldest of his 7 children—Henry Gao-Hong Wong—rebuilt the business post-war and renamed it in 1945 as COSMOS Bottling Corporation.

THE BEST SARSAPARILLA!

Its main product was a flavored beverage called COSMOS Sarsaparilla. Sarsaparilla—similar to root beer—is made from the roots of the sarsaparilla vine, and is considered as a tonic drink with medicinal value. The flavor is not alien to Filipinos, as root beer was introduced by Americans in their regime; Royal, and early soda brand, carried the same flavor.

'SARSI' IS COSMOS. This 1968 ad calls the sarsaparilla drink--Sarsi!

Print advertising was begun in the mid 1950s. Soon, COSMOS found its way to Filipino homes and became quickly a favorite, holding its own against leaders Pepsi and Coca-Cola. The company, would prosper under the management of  the Philippine-educated Henry, who was armed with a doctoral degree in Economics from the University of Santo Tomas. COSMOS Bottling Corp,,under his helm, became the second largest manufacturer of soft drinks in the Philippines.

SARSI AD, Featuring the 1968 Miss Asia, Macy Shih,  and her court, ca. 1969

This paved the way for the Wong family to put up the COSMOS Aerated Water in Hong Kong in 1947, with its own plant on Castle Peak Road.  COSMOS, too, became a favorite brand, and soon, they expanded their plant and equipped it with state-of-the-art bottling machines that could produce 3,000 bottled Cosmos per hour, in Sarsaparilla, Orange, Cream Soda, Lime, Lemon, Mulberry, Grape and Pineapple flavors. The Hong Kong operation was taken care of by younger brother Hubert and Freddy Wong. After 1966, the COSMOS Hong Kong business seemed to have faltered, although its corporate registration is still active today.

SARSI AD. With Miss Asia 1969, Wong Kyung Suh of Korea as endorser,

THE SARSI SOCIETY, With Miss Asia '69 and her court. ca. 1970.

The sarsaparilla flavor of COSMOS was such in demand by the late 1960s, and consumers by then had started calling it “Sarsi”—and so the name stuck, even though the bottles still bannered the COSMOS name up front. COSMOS in orange flavor was relaunched in the early 70s as SUNTA.

CHRISTMAS AD, With the 1969 Miss Asia. ca. 1969

LET'S SARSI TOGETHER! With India's Zeenat Amman, Miss Asia '70.

By a cruel twist of fate, the brilliant Henry--only 53-- died of a stroke caused  by his brain tumor in 1970. Several family members were unprepared to fill in the leadership vacuum left by the patriarch, as there was no training for succession.

THE SARSI SOCIETY, With Carolyn Masibay, Mutya ng Pilipinas 1971.

Still, advertising and promotions continued through the 1970s, with colored ads featuring Miss Asia and Mutya winners (COSMOS was into events marketing; it was a major sponsor of Miss Asia and  Mutya ng Pilipinas). One of its most memorable commercials was the “SARSI with Egg” TVC presented by imported talent Danny Vanni, who endorsed an unconventional usage for drinking Sarsi—with a raw egg stirred in, yolks and all. Such a combination supposedly ensured heightened energy.

THE SARSI SOCIETY. ca. 1971.

The business floundered until, in RFM Corporation acquired it from the Wong Family in 1989, thus ending the Wong family’s hold on COSMOS which they have had for 7 decades. The products were briefly revitalized by a new “Bagong Tunog” (all-Philippine music) campaign conceptualized by Basic Advertising.

GET IT TOGETHER WITH SARSI. Print Ad. ca. 1974.

In 2001, Coca-Cola Bottlers Phils. (under the combined control of San Miguel and Coca-Cola Company) would acquire 83% of COSMOS Bottling from RFM, to give it ownership of 90% market share of the Philippine soft drink market in the Philippines. It was delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2013.

PSST. PASS IT ON! Sarsi Print Ad, 1975.

At its peak, COSMOS Bottling Corp., were the makers of Sarsi (Sarsaparilla), Sunta (Cosmos Orange Flavor), Sarsi Light,  Pop Cola, Cheers Lemon and Orange, Jaz Cola and Sparkle.

COSMOS PRODUCTS RELAUNCH. by Basic/FCB Advertising. 1989.

SOURCES:

Cosmos Aerated Water – in Hong Kong from 1947

http://industrialhistoryhk.org/cosmos-aerated-water/

“The Fall of the Once Mighty Cosmos Soft drink Company”. https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/panay-news/20160720/281990376871997

63. Creative Guild's 1989 TV Ad of the Year: SARSI, 'ANGAT SA IBA' TVC 45s

SARSI, ANGAT SA IBA, 1989 Creative Guild TV Ad of the Year

“Big, brown & beautiful…”

The stunning 1989 ad of the year remains an industry classic and epitomized the kind of assignment that every creative person dreams of one day finding in his pigeonhole.”That was a fluke,” declares Nonoy Gallardo, former basic/FCB executive director and now, president of Creative Partners.

“Our clients gave us complete freedom, it was a new situation, and we were experimenting with a new sound. Serendipity talaga. There will never be another account like that again”

The account was Cosmos Bottling Corporation, an old softdrink manufacturer with such an image problem, Gallardo recalls, citing the mountains of research conducted by Basic/FCB in preparation for the five-agency bid, that store owners were actually ashamed to carry the brand. “All they remember was the SARSI with egg. The brand needed a complete overhaul.”

The overhaul began when Cosmos was newly acquired by the Concepcions, who wanted it relaunched in a big way. “Suddenly,” recalls the SARSI copywriter and now Jimenez/DMB&B creative director Teddy Catuira,”there was this brand with a heritage, but with very poor communications that wanted to go against the giants.”

It was decided early on, Catuira says, that music would be the main weapon of choice. “What better way did you have of reaching the youth?” explains Gallardo. “But if we came up with a typical Top 40s song, luma kami sa Coke and Pepsi.”

Serendipity proved to be the savior because, at the same time, Katha, the organization of songwriters of which Gallardo is an active member, had been toying around with the concept of genuinely Filipino music, searching for an amalgam of influences and northern and southern  rhythms that could be considered distinctively Pinoy. They called it “Brown Music,” and Gallardo and his collaborator, composer Ryan Cayabyab, suddenly found themselves with a perfect venue for experimentation. “We took Ryan and his keyboard to the presentation.” Gallardo laughs,”and we lectured the client about the lack of dictinctiveness of Filipino music.”

Soon, a series of commercial heralding the advent of the “Bagong Tunog” was in the works, featuring independent ads that gave unique personalities to SARSI, Cheers and Pop Colas as Basic/FCB plunged into a flurry of activity. The Creative Guild chose SARSI’s “Angat sa Iba” 45 seconder as the TV Ad of the Year.

The SARSI material, Catuira says, was written in a flash---as in, about 10 minutes before Cayabyab had to put the words to music. With SARSI being “neither here nor there, east meets west,” as Catuira explains it, it was the angle of versatile superiority that ultimately drove the ad.

WATCH SARSI "Angat sa Iba" TVC here:

Director Jeric Soriano, art director Egay Oliva and the whole creative team “poured on the creativity,” Gallardo recounts, and holed up in a studio to shoot what became a colorful celebration of departure from the norm.

Swimmers and dancers leapt  joyously out of acrowd of carbon copies, while precision dancers and kabuki masks provide the uniform assembly-line backdrop for the welcome upstarts. The proposition was simple  and not too presumptuous: try this product if you’re tired of the obvious two-faced big brand monopoly—just for a change.

“Ganoon nga ba talaga?” the a capella beginning chorus questioned, “pare-pareho na lang ba?” before thumping into a vibrant and triumphant “Mag-SARSI ka para ma-iba!’ It was definitely high-gloss softdrink advertising, with a strong Filipino heart, and the audience could tell the difference immediately.

The timing was also perfect, Catuira recalls, as “there was still this post-EDSA hype about being Filipino.”  This “upsurge of nationalism.” Gallardo adds, filtered out to the rest of the industry, as other agencies and production houses cheered the team on.”Everyone was excited and everybody saw it as an industry accomplishment. They wanted to show the Hong Kong people that we were just as good at production as anybody else.

SARSI skyrocketed back into the national consciousness, reappearing in restaurants and stores. The erstwhile snooty storeowners were begiing dealers for cases of the “Bagong Tunog” softdrinks. And, Gallardo claims, the ad remains a reference for the creative advertising that did its job very well.

CREDITS:

AGENCY: Basic/ FCB

ADVERTISER: Cosmos Bottling Corporation

PRODUCT: Sarsi

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Nonoy Gallardo

COPYWRITER: Teddy Catuira

ART DIRECTOR: Egay Oliva

PRODUCERS: Mario Sarmiento, Roby Ablen

DIRECTOR: Jeric Soriano

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Rody Lacap

PRODUCTION HOUSE: Production Village

Source:

PERFECT 10: A Decade of Creativity in Philippine Advertising, published by the Executive Committee of the Creative Guild of the Philippines, an affiliate of the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of the Philippines. Manila, 1995