Touching Christmas Commercials

Christmas is very much around the corner. Anywhere you go, you see the spirit of Christmas depicted in various ways.

This is also the season when I love to be a couch potato because it is during this time that advertising agencies try to outsmart each other in coming up with heartwarming TV commercials to endear a product more to its target market. That Jollibee ad, wherein a father, who is a toll collector, sees his whole family arriving with goodies from the fastfood chain when the clock strikes midnight to signal it's Christmas, is very effective and very emotional. The same with last year’s with the Muhlach family making the pitch, with focus on their twins, Atasha and Andres. Coca Cola’s ad this year--the one I love to call “ iba na ngayon eh”--is also very good. There is also that Goldilocks teledrama aired over GMA-7, wherein a woman gives birth and the couple’s circle of friends are around, and then someone suddenly suggest that the occasion calls for a celebration, is simple yet very meaningful.

Anyway, last week, while I was vacationing in my hometown, I had enough time to just lie in the sofa and watch TV all day. It was when I saw this commercial for a telecommunications company, showing a “yaya” in a telebabad scene and suddenly blurting out, “Jun-jun I told you not to go but you go to.” I find it disappointing, if not offensive, because it’s wrong.  Yes, it's funny, effectively transmitting the message that the company wants to spread--endless, but economical conversation. But how many times do have to make “Inday” a laughing stock because she speaks Carabao English?

We cried foul over what we described as the “racial slur” uttered in that very controversial Desperate Housewives episode months ago because it degraded the medical profession in the Philippines. But clearly this commercial is a discrimination to the Indays out there--yet what are we doing to correct it and protect the feelings of Inday? Well, I haven’t seen this commercial this week, maybe somebody came forward and had it removed. Or maybe it's still on TV until now but I just did not get the chance to view it again. If it's still there, then it's about time for Gabriela and other women’s groups to look into that because it's degrading to Filipina househelps, also otherwise known as “kasambahays.”

What I don’t understand is why some communication firms make fun of other people just to get the message across. Television nowadays is the most effective medium of communication that is why commercials of various products abound in the hope to fully reach their target market or audience. If in broadcasting there is the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas and the National Telecommunications Communications to monitor what goes on air, then there must be a body that should keep an eye on the commercials shown on TV. I understand there is an annual advertising awards and one criterion there is that it should depict Filipino values. But I think there is nothing that prohibits the airing of offensive commercials.

Well, Smart and Globe commercials especially those featuring families of overseas Filipino workers are very laudable. But remember two years ago, when the Cebu Provincial Board passed a resolution calling for the removal of that communication firm's commercial showing a girl talking over the phone to her boyfriend who is abroad and said, “ It's raining out there, aren’t day?” Oh, yes, our officials at the Capitol objected to that, particularly the chairman of the committee on education. So, why can’t they do something about this one?

Or maybe our legislators should take a crash course from Inday, that English speaking maid in "Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan" played by Patricia Ismael, before they could pass a resolution? After all, Inday, based from “blogniinday.worldpress.com" presented this educational background: a De LaSalle University (Business Management, scholar), Ateneo de Manila Law School, Asian Institute of Management, Training Center for Culinary Arts (affiliate chef), University of Santo Tomas (BS in Nursing) and Oxford University (BA in English and Literature - 1 year only). Very funny indeed, but I think should that commercial should take the cue from this Inday, and there would be a better memory recall for the product.

Merry Christmas!

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