Getting the ‘Beat’ right

For those who still haven’t gotten right the patty-cake moves of the latest Coke commercial, there’s an instructional slow motion VCD available. The person to call is, of course, The Coca-Cola Export Co. division marketing director Edwin Domingo.

The "Beat" commercial, which was meant to be a short pre-summer campaign, has had three versions since its launch last Jan. 2. A fourth one featuring students at the Philippine Military Academy has been approved and will be shown soon.

The popularity of "Beat" is very evident not only in the proliferation of TV spoofs but also in the sari-sari stores that account for about 65 percent of Coke sales nationwide.

Oh yes, copies of the commercial has already been seen by Coca-Cola organization in Asia and in the United States, a phenomenon when you consider that requests to see the most popular locally produced commercial before that – the "Magpakatotoo ka" campaign of Sprite – came in after the commercial had been airing for several months.

As everybody knows, that Sprite campaign lasted for five years and made celebrities of its original talents, Ryan Agoncillo and Patricia Javier.

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Just retired 1: Now that she is no longer executive director of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (effective end of business Jan. 30). Florecita Flores has been swamped with offers to serve as consultant from colleagues and friends she has met during her long stint as head of the legal department of P&G Phils. and as Ombudsman of the Board of Investments.

There’s talk that PCCI’s new president Noemi Lirag Saludo will not be looking for a replacement for Tita Flores. Instead, Ms. Saludo – whose family has strong ties to President Macapagal-Arroyo – will hold the position of executive director on a concurrent basis.

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Just retired 2: One of the first things Joel Valdes is going to do after resigning as president of the Trade and Investment Development Corp. of the Philippines is to drastically cut back on his foreign travels and spend some quality time with his son.

Part of that father-son bonding is, of course, reviewing for the dreaded final exams next month.

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Bank notes: There aren’t many former Far East Bank and Trust Co. officers left at Bank of the Philippines, which, as everybody knows, bought and absorbed FEBTC.

Most of the FEBTC officers can now be found in either Banco de Oro Universal Bank (former FEBTC executive vice-president Josefina Tan, for example, is a low-key consultant to chairman Teresita Sy-Coson) or Equitable PCI Bank.

At one time, FEBTC offered to buy PCI Bank and reportedly tendered a higher bid of P350 per share than the winner, Equitable Banking Corp.