Judy Ann falls in love with a fridge as she endorses appliance brand
ACTRESS and restaurateur Judy Ann Santos-Agoncillo is the new face of Turkish appliances brand Beko in the Philippines.
Beyond her professional acting achievements though, one of the factors for Beko’s choice was Ms. Santos-Agoncillo’s domestic prowess. “We want someone who not only has amazing rapport and impact on the lives of Filipinos, but is also a hands-on and hardworking mother and wife to her family; who can surely represent our drive and purpose to inspire living a healthy and sustainable lifestyle,” said Gürhan Günal, Country Manager of Beko Pilipinas Corp. during a Zoom press conference last week.
Ms. Santos-Agoncillo is married to fellow actor Ryan Agoncillo, with whom she has three children. She has had a long showbiz career, appearing as one of the title characters in the 1990s soap opera Mara Clara. In 2019, she won Best Actress at the Cairo International Film Festival for the film Mindanao.
She also happens to have a huge following on her YouTube cooking channel (1.68 million subscribers as of the time of writing), and owns the Angrydobo restaurants (with two branches: on Taft Ave. in Manila, and Alabang).
Ms. Santos-Agoncillo showed her own brand of humor during the press conference. Appearing onsite to sign her contract with the appliance company while it was streamed on Zoom, she asked the Beko executives if she could answer questions in Tagalog — and proceeded to answer them in a mix of English and Filipino. Asked how she felt when she was approached to be the ambassador for the brand, she said, “With every new partnership that we enter, I would always ask twice: ‘Are they sure?,’ because there’s always a feeling like, ‘baka hindi totoo (Maybe it isn’t real)!’.
“I know that this brand would represent me personally, because it’s very sleek — parang ako (like me). Naks!,” she joked.
At the same time, she raved about the appliances: “May Bluetooth connection iyong washing machine! How can you say no to that?”
She’s also enthusiastic about the refrigerators, one of which has a feature that claims to keep vegetables fresher longer due to a special lighting feature. “Ngayon lang ako uli nakakita ng ref na na-in-love ako (It’s the first time in a long time for me to fall in love with a ref),” she said. “Nakakaloka!” Turning to the Beko executives, she translated: “‘Nakakaloka’ is ‘crazy’… I’ll teach you!”
Her particular favorite feature of a Beko fridge, however, is its cosmetic box, for keeping face creams and such at the correct temperatures. “Pagbukas ko ng ref, maaalala mo maglagay ng cream sa mukha mo (When you open the ref, you’ll remember to apply cream on your face)!”
On a more serious note, however, she told media guests that she plans to use the brand’s air fryers and the ovens for her restaurants in order to save money. “We just have a small kitchen,” she said. “They have a lot of appliances that (have) inverter(s). We need that, especially when you have a business. You’re really trying to find ways on saving money.”
When asked how she keeps a tip-top shape, she said that she relies on the regular maintenance of kitchen equipment. “Taking care of kitchen equipment is like taking care of a child.”
Beko is currently available in All Home, Anson’s, Asian Home Appliance, Automatic Center, Fair N Square, Goldtech, Great World, HAT, Lazada, Manila Imperial, Robinson’s, Savers, Shopee, SM Appliance, and Western Appliance. — JL Garcia
