Why the Belo name bellows

I was already late into the grades when I discovered that the fridge where we stored perishable food had a more formal official name — Frigidaire. But we all casually went on our daily ways saying fridge, fridge, fridge when it should have been ref — short for refrigerator.

Frigidaire is a brand, but Pinoys kept saying “pridyider” to the point that Ishmael Bernal was inspired to do a Shake, Rattle & Roll episode called Pridyider that was about a murderous refrigerator.

I was aware, however, that Colgate was just a toothpaste brand and not the consumer product that it is — thanks to the equally heavy advertising of its competitors: Close-Up and even Appeal.

But the toothpaste brand I fancied was called Kodomo, which called out to me from the supermarket shelves by showcasing its various fruity flavors: Orange, banana and cherry. By then, Colgate had already created a huge public impact that Close-Up, Appeal and even my favorite Kodomo were all listed down as Colgate on that sheet of paper we brought with us to the grocery.

For detergents to wash clothes, everyone always said Tide even if the consumer was actually using Breeze that some laundrywomen preferred since it produced more bubbles.

And who doesn’t beg for Coke at the first sign of thirst? Any soda that is cola (the flavor of which comes from kola nuts) will always be Coke. This brand had always been in the taste buds of several generations past and despite our being more health conscious now would live on and on. 

In our current world — where youth and looks count for so much — those embarking on beautifying themselves say Belo or “magpapa-Belo.” Belo had become a byword in this country.

The first time I realized this was when I was watching a Dolphy comedy sometime back. While talking to another character whose looks weren’t exactly of Miss Philippines standards, he told her: “Bakit hindi ka magpa-Belo?”

The King of Comedy has a barometer when it comes to determining the pulse of the masses. His better half, Zsa Zsa Padilla, wasn’t even a Belo endorser that time and yet he used that as a punch line. It was then that I found out that Belo had already become part of our everyday language. It now bellows all over the country.

I doubt very much if Dr. Vicki Belo even dreamt that someday her adoptive surname (she is biologically a Cancio) would be famous, especially not in the beauty business. Her legal father, the late Enrique Belo, was a legal luminary, after all (but he actually wanted her to become a doctor and brainwashed her into it by buying Vicki toy medical kits as a child).

When Dr. Belo decided to specialize in dermatology, all she wanted was to help the pimply ones among us get rid of acne and enjoy nicer skin.

But she was bold and daring and took her profession a level or two higher. She went into liposuction and she would forever be identified with this procedure. Yes, it was her pioneering spirit that brought the name Belo to where it is now.

However, as I always love to say: The most difficult part about success is maintaining it — even enhancing it. The next step is to go down — or plateau at best.

Vicki loves to fancy herself as somebody lightweight, fragile and weak (female qualities she knows are attractive to men). But if you open her up, her toughness would sissify those tough-as-nails stevedores at both the north and south harbors.

Although I pretend to know her well, I have to admit that I am still in the process of trying to discover how her brain works. I may never be able to analyze the wires in her head, but I am sure she always wants to be ahead. No wonder it is Belo that first had an impact in the business of youth and beauty even if there were other (older) dermatologists who came before her.

After she made her mark as the first doctor to build a beauty empire as huge as the Belo Medical Group, she didn’t stop there. She has it in her to go even bigger. This involves investing on new machines and studying new procedures — the latest abroad.

There is really no rest for her. However, she is smart enough to realize that to keep going and continue climbing the next level is the only way to have the Belo name perennially shining.

The truth is, she can already afford to relax a bit and enjoy the name she had turned into a trademark. At least in this country, Belo undeniably is already up there — along with Frigidaire, Colgate, Tide and Coke.

And yes, even with the monosodium glutamate seasoning the cooks among us always refer to as Vetsin.