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.