sábado, junio 24, 2006

when i rant, i bitch

no, this is nothing really serious. the title's just there to get your attention. nyahahahaha

after what's been a pretty long time coming, i finally had the energy to pick up the remote and turn on the tv. i finally saw the hed and shoulders ad my brother daniel was telling me about. the one where the likes of sugarfree and up dharma down, among bands that i and my brother really like (and actually listen to on my mp3 player) singing in chorus (and in turns) about some cheesy guy liking angel locsin because of her dandruff-free hair or something to that effect. which reminds me of the song-and-dance phenomenon in manila's advertising.

i'd like to compare the parallels of this to others, including nina for goldilocks (who can forget that nail-scratching, silently caterwauling voice making birit "happy birthday"? scary), rocksteddy for close-up (i like the visual styling in this ad, except for sam milby. he's quickly turning into a jay-r. and not in a good way), the hellomoto bus (featuring a shitload of bands. i like how they did the whole graf-art thing to the styling of the ad, but it just gives me this cartoonish aura. i'm just not sure). and of course who can forget barbie almalbis' slightly annoying "summer day" for sunsilk? i liked her when she was in barbie's cradle. i have all her cds. but when she turned away, gone solo, and married that honasan scion, things just weren't the same. and not in a good way. (it somehow makes me want to believe that the aiza rumors were true. and make her go back to that stage. then again, it's an equally scary thought a well)

i'd like to reiterate a point i made earlier. the whole song-and-dance thing in most ads i see this season just give me this whole cartoonish vibe, like the filipino target market is one big bunch of "conservative," shallow, tight-wedgies who had too much okay ka fairy ko, estdyante blues and mid-80s commercial movies where no 30 minutes would pass without a production number a la bjork's "it's oh so quiet," except thati t would be done with no sense of taste. (btw, that eight o clock ad with the kid prancing all over the place like she was on red bull and steroids? definitely "oh so quiet." no question). it's not a bad thing to have a little light(headed) fun, but when it's too much, it's just too much.

but there are better ads i've been seeing these days, like that new hapee vignette about kids absenteeing themselves and eventually dropping out from school because of (gasp) toothaches and tooth decay. reminds me of a michel gondry visual styling with sofia coppola melodrama. except that this one found a connection with dental care without looking like it tried really hard to. and it didn't even act like a sneaky press release with an arrested climax and an abrupt hardsell of the product. no,they didn't do that. it just showed the logo. and i like the subtlety.

and now that we're on the hapee subject, there was another campaign that preceded that one, the a la joucy fruit smile campaign, where supposedly poor people (minimum wagers like you and me) try to allay the frustrations of the comfortable middle class by making an air-stenciled smile. i really like how it tried to do a class act while at the same time stayed true to its target market.

hapee is so cool for me now, that i might just forget the horrible "smile mo, kita ko" jingle ad nauseam days of rainier castillo (when he still looked like a circuit queen with that trying-hard f4 hair) and angel locsin. it was so horrible, i found myself singing the jingle to class. it's that bad.

what agency worked on the new campaigns? anyone who knows, please drop me a line. hapee's so cool now, i might buy a tube just to demostrate that the ads were really good.

of course, nothing still beats alice dixson's "i can feel it" days, back when palmolive wasn't corny.

when i flipped the channels to fashion tv, i chanced upon the campari ad i've been seeing in a while, one where a female model pours campari cabernet sauvignon all over the tuxedo shirt of a willing male model, licks part of the shirt, and gives the guy a dirty, cheeky grin. the ad is so racy yet to sophisticated that it's almost a sin to let my eyes see it in song-and-dance philippines. in fairness to us, there have been really nifty attempts at sophistication, like fita (remember the red sports car?), pepsi (bamboo's almost-pleading eyes are just hot), and dove (the cucumber bar ad just oozes classy to me). but the rest? look at krim stix, magic creams, that holiday thing (with the fat guy playing second fiddle to his friend, who was ignoring him because he's with his girlfriend), and well, many freaking others.

just got home from the freshman orientation party, where i spent the remaining 1/4th of the program smoking my lungs out with dunhill lights while catching up with longtime (pero definitely not freshie) friends ina, jean, ana a. and mike (kuya, may ginto na ba po sa bahaghari ninyo? i just love that line. sorry took it out on you. hehehe). when i had to do online work and surrender the den remote to my dad, daniel told me on my way to my room that there's this new ad by dennis trillo for some brandy (i forgot) that's allegedly kinda bad, like in the tradition of emperador brandy with the vignette of contrived, convoluted portraits of excess in a country full of abcesses. i won't have time for that right now. maybe tomorrow, when i accidentally flip the channel to star talk and wait for the commercial gap.

god, i'm so outdated right now. this thesis is driving me nuts. so i'm taking it out on the ads. nyahahahahaha

xanananananana