Packaging

Back in January, I showed you Coca-Cola's fake headline news in the newspaper The Philippine Star. Last Friday, another company came out with a different kind of advertising gimmick. The newspaper was delivered to our house in an Acer envelope with a die-cut window for the masthead and headline. It constantly amazes me how much creativity—and money—companies spend just to try to make us buy their products.



On a side note, Acer's new local brand ambassador is Derek Ramsay, a half-Brit half-Filipino actor and model. Just between you and me, I think he's the hottest of all the hot local celebrities. This photo does not do him enough justice, or maybe I'm just not used to seeing him in a suit.

Another first

The Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC) is an international Christian radio network that broadcasts programs in 130 languages. Founded in 1945 by Americans John Broger and Robert Bowman, it set up its largest Asian base in the Philippines and it went on air in the country in 1948. The offices, homes and dormitories of the missionaries of FEBC Philippines are in Valenzuela, one of Metro Manila's northern-most cities, bordering on the province of Bulacan where their transmitters are located. (This is just a back-up transmitter.)




I have to say that blogging about Metro Manila has given me so many new experiences this past year, not the least of which was getting invited by FEBC (702 DZAS in Manila) as a guest in one of their radio programs last week. Meet Lem and Lj, the hosts of the Monday to Friday "Pinoy Espesyal" (Filipino Special) program. Lem and Lj are so natural that the interview felt just like having a discussion with friends. I think I still sounded nervous though, because that booth is cold and I couldn't stop shivering!




When they were winding up the show, I was able to take a photo of CJ, their radio technician, in his booth. It's a good thing I keep my camera's shutter sound off—I didn't notice the 'on air' light until I downloaded the photos.




I'd like to thank Lj for this singular experience, and I hope I didn't do too badly. It was great meeting so many nice people in FEBC and it was wonderful walking around their large and green compound. It didn't feel like it's in the middle of busy and crowded Valenzuela City and I'll post photos of it soon.

Kapamilya

ABS-CBN is one of the largest radio and television broadcast and entertainment networks in the Philippines. It owns The Filipino Channel, an international broadcasting service whose two million subscribers are mostly overseas Filipino workers and their families. Its head office is located in Quezon City and the ELJ Center, one of the buildings in its huge compound, houses the executive offices and a few cafés on the ground floor. It also has a very good restaurant on the 14th floor named 9501 and I took this picture from the roof deck just off the restaurant. And if you're wondering about my title, "Kapamilya" is the network's slogan and it means "a member of the family."

Headline news

Yesterday, Coca-Cola took out a special 6-page ad in one of our national dailies. Printed in full color on thick, bright white paper stock and laid out to look like the newspaper's main page—it even had the paper's masthead! It was folded as if it truly was the headline page since it was on top of the real newspaper. And it was the second day in a row that Coke had a similar special ad. They did the same on December 31 though that only had 4 pages. It's crazy. Do newspapers in your country lend their mastheads for ads like this? At the very least, I hope Coke's headline comes true.