Advertising Catch-22

I noticed these past few days that television commercials (TVC) shown in Philippine TV stations are becoming more and more meaningless. The first ad I spotted was this Lucky Me Pancit Canton video way back in 2006. Here’s a copy of the said TVC:

I admit I do love eating Pancit Canton, but I would never, I believe even you, be this desperate to do such thing. Let us say this is just a commercial, for fun, yet there are many creative ways to tell the audience that this product is delicious or whatever. (When I constructed a good suggestion, I’ll post it here.)

On the other hand, there are a lot of TVCs who deserve to receive a recognition. For instance, there is this Thai video I have seen from the internet. Since I do not understand the language, I asked a Thai friend to help me translate it and I discovered it has a remarkable message. Watch the video and read the translated plot of the TVC below.

IAmPunisher left a comment about the video and (s)he said:

I was moved, and I would like to interpret the story in my broken English.

That Thai lady begged the doctor to help her giving birth to the baby on time. The doctor asked, “Why?” “I’m running out of time”, said the lady. After the baby was born, the lady rushed to a guy’s ward with the baby.

The guy is the father of the baby, and he’s dying of brain cancer. The lady wanted him to touch his own son before passing away.

The clip you have watched is a Thai Life Insurance company’s TVC. What struck me the most is its effectiveness to show us what Thais value. (If you’ve seen the TVC , you now why I will not state it here.) There are a lot more TVCs out there that carries worth watching, worth deciphering messages. I hope they’ll serve as an example for Filipino ad makers and they will produce TVCs that are not only after  the money, but after the quality as well.

Magsaysay’s Endless Direction In Achievement

Looking around us, we can see there are so many stuffs that show life as what it is. People are trying every means to convey themselves wherein they can find relief and peace of mind. Yet, what is it to express? What is it to be heard? My friend, to simply communicate means you’re dreaming; to simply dream is to be alive. Let me give you an example.

Back when I was in Fourth Yeas HS, our English teacher gave us this project of interpreting Homer’s The Iliad into a theater production. However, it was only the month of August and all of us in the class were not familiar with each other. In short, we’re not that bonded.

There are days when our class was divided into different groups, having their own discussion about the project. No one initiated to do the first move. But because we all have the same goal, we speak, we express, and we united. The tasks were divided; the casts were revealed.

It is in this project when I recognized the significance of different media. In order for us to have our own understanding, we read books, we watched films and we read commentaries, all telling what The Iliad is to their own view. Finally, we came up with our own conception. It started with us talking to ourselves, asking what will make our presentation unique. Then, each individual shared their ideas to their friends and later on, to the whole class. Each idea was discussed and was combined.

More than that, I was given the chance to know every one in our class - as the production’s director. We are no longer strangers; some have developed more than friendship. What’s important in here is we live up our dreams. Media, let me say, was “Magsaysay’s Endless Direction In Achievement.” We won because we understand each other. We won because we are one.

Production posters found in this page.