MANILA, Philippines — Hollywood superstar Chris Evans wants to visit the Philippines as soon as travel restrictions ease and it is safer to travel.
In a virtual press conference held by Filipino telecommunications company Smart Communications earlier today, Evans told the press about his plans as a new Smart brand ambassador – and that includes visiting the country.
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“I’ve heard great things. Great beaches! I’ve heard that today, actually. I heard great food. Wonderful people. I mean, every time I am in any sort of Asian territory it’s always hard to leave because it is incredibly welcoming and aesthetically beautiful so I am eager to visit,” he said.
“Actually, we had a conversation with him. I told him that he has an open invitation to come to the Philippines, visit the islands. We can even bring him to Amanpulo if he wants to. Hopefully, if travel restrictions were lifted and it’s safer to travel, we could talk to him to visit us soon,” enthused Alfredo Panlilio, Smart Communications’ President and Chief Executive Officer.
According to Evans, it was not hard to say “yes” to the partnership with Smart because he and the Philippine company fit like a glove.
“Well, I’ve always liked the idea of working with a company in the Philippines. It’s a great part of the world and Smart felt like a very forward-thinking company so it felt like a good fit.”
After successfully tapping endorsers from the Philippines and other parts of the East, Smart decided to get an endorser from the West to uplift Philippine content into the global stage.
“What we do is to make our endorsers speak ‘Simple, Smart ako.’ It elevates a Filipino brand into a global stance. My friends have been telling me, when they hear the tagline in Tagalog being spoken by a foreign endorser, it gives them goosebumps,” explained Smart Corporate Marketing Head Lloyd Manaloto.
According to him, while their other endorsers serve as faces to promote the company’s products like pre-paid or post-paid plans, Evans stands for the Smart brand itself and its advocacies such as helping thousands of students and teachers cope with both online and offline distance learning, and training different generations of farmers improve their harvests and livelihood using technology.
“From the first moment I saw the script, I was fascinated by the strong statement Smart wanted to make to really empower people to do good things and I think that’s exactly what we need in these extreme times and it’s a message I can get behind as a director 100 percent,” Pascal Heiduk said of the TV commercial he shot with Evans for Smart’s “Live Smarter for a Better World” campaign.
Heiduk worked with Hugh Jackman and Lewis Hamilton and did commercial film work for BMW, Montblanc and Mercedes Benz AMG. Evans’ Smart TVC was shot last January in Boston.
“The idea is to go on a journey with Chris Evans from stunning nature to a room filled with screens visualizing various inspirations as we’re listening to his thoughts and ideas. So we were facing a lot of challenges in pre-production because having a world-class actor like Chris Evans as an ambassador requires an extremely safe shooting environment," Heiduk shared.
"It was really a great experience for me to work with a company that sets a great example in these times not only with the audience but also themselves: Should we do good or should we do better? So I hope you enjoy this inspiring campaign and see you all soon," he added.
“Well I would say that I can’t wait to get out there. I can’t wait to visit,” echoed the star of Hollywood blockbuster “Captain America.”
“I have heard nothing but amazing things and this partnership only makes me more excited to come and say, 'Hi!'.”