Ads & Ends
Nanette Franco-Diyco
“THE AD Foundation’s Araw Values Awards is the only competition in the whole world that recognizes the importance of values in creative and marketing communications that advocate the 7 Cornerstone Values, namely (1) Love of God and respect for all religious beliefs; (2) Commitment to truth, honesty and justice; (3) Love of country and respect for national customs and traditions; (4) Reverence for family unit or marriage or responsible parenthood; (5) Respect and care for human life and dignity and the rights of all; (6) Respect for law and authority and the promotion of self-discipline; and (7) Concern for and preservation of the environment,” revealed Aye Ubaldo, editor-in-chief of AdEdge, a publication of the Philippine Association of National Advertisers.
There are two Platinum awardees that I personally salute. First is PLDT’s Gabay Guro 60-seconder, a pro-bono television advocacy of creative agency Ace Saatchi & Saatchi and production house Filmex.
I first viewed this spot during National Teacher’s Month, in 2014 (Araw Values awards are handed out every two years). It shows a little boy in his school uniform seated by himself. The action begins with his mother taking the boy’s hand, walking outside, and him over to his teacher. He is carried, embraced with care, handed by one teacher to another across country paths, roads and bridges.
This continues from teacher to teacher, the boy literally growing bigger and older, as he is passed among hundreds of teachers, all in an endless row. The scenes behind the teachers also slowly change, evolving from utterly rural to urban, as the school locations change, culminating in universities in the cities.
At the end of the commercial, the boy, now a young man, is laid down by the portals of a university. The next scene shows him, now a full adult and a professional, in the recognizable white doctor’s attire with a stethoscope around his neck in a hospital, briskly and confidently walking into his brand new world.
Then pops the line: “On average, it takes 200 teachers to take us to our dreams.”
The frame that follows is soul-stirring, “How many have you thanked?”
The material was entered by Filmex under “Respect for Law and Authority and Promotion of Self-discipline.” As Saatchi stressed, “Teachers have a profound effect on our lives. They stand as guides along the road of our educational journey. They propel us towards the person we would eventually become.”
The other platinum awardee is Publicis Jimenez Basic’s (PJB) direct communications and activation categorized under “Love of Country and Respect for National Customs and Traditions.” Its entry clearly explained that the average time a person is put on-hold every time he calls a company’s trunk line is two minutes.
PJB, the agency with the most number of Philippine brands, wanted “to turn those two minutes into airtime to promote Philippine literature.”
Its core idea, dubbed Poem Calls Bu PJB, is using phone lines for poetry lines. It replaced its phone line’s waiting music with Filipino poems. Twelve Filipino poets, including National Artist for Literature Rio Alma, were commissioned to write poems about waiting. Their actual voices were recorded for the effort.
As reported, the project earned praises from the academe, literary groups, poets and writers. More importantly, “in just two minutes, every caller’s appreciation for Filipino poetry increased exponentially by giving them a poetic experience they can hold on to for far longer.”
By the way, you can still call Publicis Jimenez Basic’s trunk line right now and grab this poetic experience!
Finally, I would like to particularly cite the winner of the Tanglaw ng Araw Values Special Award, which “honors a deserving individual or organization in recognition of outstanding contributions to the growth, development and enhancement” of Araw values in advertising — industry leader and foremost values advocate JJ Calero.
Linda C. Gamboa, Ad Foundation’s executive director, stressed that it honors select and deserving individuals and industry leaders as well as entities over the years in recognition of pioneering initiatives and sustained dedication on the promotion of values advertising and positive values for social change and nation-building.
Take an extremely low bow, Mr. Calero, PLDT Foundation, Saatchi, Filmex, and Publicis Jimenez Basic.
Nanette Franco-Diyco ended her 15th year advertising career as Vice-President of JWT, segueing into the world of academe, currently teaching communications at the Ateneo de Manila University.
