GREENWICH PIZZA
is associated with Jollibee Corp. today—along with Chow King. But the country’s
favorite Filipino pizza chain was started by a private individual—Mrs. Cresida
Tueres—who put up a tiny pizza shop in Greenhills Commercial Center way back in
1971. She is credited with popularizing pizza with Filipino consumers,
particularly budget-concious students—who found her pasta good, the pizza
great, and the price right. Word spread of her special pizza and the stores
that she put up --“first in fast pizza”.
In 7 years, Mrs.
Tueres grew her business to a total of 20 outlets in Manila, ad with provincial
outlets in Bacolod, Baguio, Batangas, Dagupan, and Iloilo. By 1994, her stores more
than double to 50 branches.
All the while, the Jollibee Foods Corporation under the Tan Cak
Tiongs, was keeping watch on this rising local fast food star. The giant food
corporation offered a deal that the GREENWICH owners could not resist, and thus
acquired 80% of the pizza and pasta company in 1994.
The operations and
marketing savvy of Jollibee Corp. were put to effective use that yielded
amazing results. Within the year a spanking-new GREENWICH branch opened at Ever
Gotesco Commonwealth. Innovative products and flavors were introduced, packaging
were redesigned and a new logo was launched reflecting the spirit of the new
company, now known as Greenwich Pizza Corporation. With just 53 stores, Greenwich had more than
doubled its last year’s sales from
Php100 million to Php200 million!
By 1996, TV advertising, starring young teen star Rico
Yan, pushed GREENWICH to greater heights, followed by the success stories of
John Lloyd Cruz’s commercials. When the year ended, stores had grown to 80
branches, with sales off and sales of nearly
Php500 million. GREENWICH PIZZA—which
started as a humble pizza counter in Greenhills 50 years ago—has made history
by joining the ranks of the biggest and
best fast food chains in the country today.
Celluloid pocket mirrors were favorite advertising
giveaways of establishments like Plaza Lunch, a Manila restaurant established
in 1914, touted as "The Only Place In The Orient"--whatever that
means.
Though popular in its time, I have not uncovered much information about
Plaza Lunch, but a lot can be told about its manager-founder, American Fred M.
Harden. Harden married Filipina Esperanza Perez in 1917, and together they
started several successful businesses, acquiring prime real estate and valuable
property.
In 1938, they stopped living together. In connivance with another
Filipino, Fred spirited away cash and assets from his wife, thus committing
fraud in the administration of their conjugal ownership of properties. Sued by
his wife in a case that reached the Supreme Court, Harden was subsequently
jailed at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa.
The image of Santa Claus that the world is most familiar with,
was largely shaped and influenced by the SANTA CLAUS in the Coke ads that were illustrated
by Haddon Hubbard "Sunny" Sundblom (b. 22 June 1899/s.10 Mar.1976),
of Michigan, an artist of Finnish and Swedish descent. He was commissioned by the Coke advertising agency, D'Arcy Advertising to provide the illustration. Sundblom was inspired by
Clement Clark Moore's 1822 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (or "'Twas the Night Before Christmas) for
his initial studies.
COKE SANTA AD, 1950
As the Coca Cola Company wanted a SANTA that was realistic
and wholesome, Sundblom designed one that was just that—a pleasantly plump,
smiling SANTA with a warm personality like no other. Sundblom’s SANTA CLAUS first appeared in Coke ads in 1931
in The Saturday Evening Post, the Ladies Home Journal,The New Yorker and
National Geographic, from where these ads came from.
WATCH 'The Legend of Coca-Cola & Santa Claus" HERE:
Sundblom’s SANTA CLAUS appeared on holiday ads from 1931 to
1964, distributing toys to children, playing with kids, checking on
refrigerators, reading letters. The Coke SANTA was used in many merchandising
materials—from lifesize standees to calendars, billboards and even dolls—now pop
culture collectiles. Over time, Sundblom's creation became the quintessential image of the most recognizable Christmas character in the world.
The Coke SANTA never appeared in Philippine ads, although
a plush SANTA doll modeled after Sundblom’s iconic illustration appeared as a
prop in one ad featuring actess Jeaan Lopez in 196
In the Philippines, there’s no Christmas without a Christmas
bonus—and with Filipino consumers having extra money to spare, it has been their habit to splurge
on the latest appliances for their homes (the smart phones, tablets and laptops
are still half-a century away from the 60s decade). No wonder, consumer durable
advertisers become busier than usual during the holiday season, as proven by
these ads from 1961,
YSMAEL STEEL was already already a byword in 1961, with a
reputation for making high quality home appliances, especially those under the
trademark “Admiral”. It was founded by the prominent Ysmael family, and was helmed
by Felipe “Baby” Ysmael Jr.after his mother passed away.
In its heyday, the Ysmael Steel factory along
España Extension had a spacious lawn on which a gigantic Ysmael Steel robot stood like a
city landmark. It also fielded a winning basketball team called Ysmael Admirals,
which competed in the MICAA (Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic
Association), the forerunner of PBA.
Also an established appliance brand was RADIOWEALTH,
founded in 1930 Camarines-born Domingo M. Guevara who took up a correspondence
course to become a radio technician. He took his one-man radio repair shop and
transformed it into an appliance manufacturing giant that made radio phonos, TV
sets, and music cabinet entertainment systems.
On the other hand, AVEGON was the brainchild of Engr.
Antonio Nepouceno Avecilla of San Fernando.
In 1953, noting the burgeoning radio industry thanks to its rising use as an
entertainment and marketing medium, Avecilla teamed up with a friend, Joaquin
l. Gonzalez of Baliwag, and pooled their money together to form a fledgling
manufacturer and importer of electrical appliances called AVEGON INC., coined
from their 2 surnames, AVEcilla and GONzalez. Their enterprise became a huge
national success.
These are some of their ads that saw print during the
season of refrigerators, air conditioners, stereos, radio phonographs, and TV sets--Christmas!!
The original founders of Manila C.O.D. were two Jewish brothers, the Ipekdjians, and the
store’s wide inventory included jewelry regularly supplied by the Rosarios of
Vigan. Due to import controls, the Ipekdjians had a hard time keeping the
business, so they offered Manila C.O.D. for sale to the Rosarios, which the
latter bought in 1948 for P100,000. Put in charge was the young Alex Rosario,
who—for the next six years, tried to keep the business afloat; general
merchandising in those days was controlled by the Chinese and Indians.
WATCH MANILA C.O.D. The Story of a Filipino Christmas
*Source: Living Asia Channel
But Rosario persisted by carefully choosing his products,
putting quality above all else. This was not lost on customers, who began
patronizing the store by the thousands. Even Rosario’s neighbors were impressed
that they began asking him to sell their products. By 1962, Manila C.O.D. was an established
department store.
MANILA C.O.D., 1962
However, the changing urban landscape of downtown Manila
threatened the business. So in 1966, Manila C.O.D. made a bold move of
relocating its main department store to then somewhat-barren Cubao, while
keeping the Avenida store as a branch. This made Manila C.O.D. the first
department store in the then-young Araneta Center which until that time only
had its 6-year old coliseum as its landmark. The little shop grew and by 1977, Manila C.O.D. had a workforce of 500
employees.
MANILA C.O.D. IN THE '70s
Because Rosario had no money for advertising, he devised
ways to drive traffic to his store by creating spectacular displays during the
Christmas season. The attention-getting moving displays had different themes
every year—from Barrio Fiesta Holiday, Simbang Gabi, to out-of-this-world Christmas
Galactica. These became perennial crowd drawers. Since then, there was no
turning back for its growth.
MANILA C.O.D. DISPLAY, early 1970s
By the 1990’s, Manila
C.O.D.’s existence was under threat once more, not to mention the whole
landscape of Cubao from changing urban landscape and lifestyle brought about by
bigger malls, the multi-chain ones especially. Sadly, there was no getting out
this time for the once-beloved department store.
In 2002, in the midst of an
overall decline of Cubao and in the department store concept, Manila C.O.D. closed down. But, after
16 years, the iconic animatronic tradition
of Manila C.O.D. made a comeback in
2018 (“Christmass Comes Home”), and 2019 (“Christmas in the City”), and wowed
crowds once more at the new Araneta City.
Originally written
for spot.ph, and expanded for this blog)
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:
