One in a Million

Just when I thought that this world couldn't get any more self-centered, I was wrong.

For the past few months, with everything that's been happening to our society, to gas prices, to crimes and scandals, I knew something was terribly wrong. People are becoming more self-centered these days.

In business, the petrol companies would know by heart (if they really have it) that people living on the poverty line are feeling more and more the pressures of daily living. Gas prices have soared to all time high and has no signs of slowing down soon as world gas prices soar. Understand that they are in this business for profit no less but then isn't there really anything that they could do to cushion these pressures? I know we cannot alleviate it, but perhaps there must be an easier way to break it to us gently, yes? Or perhaps even offer alternative fuel that will be affordable enough? All for money.

Or self drumbeaters. Those who just talk about themselves in public. You know who I am talking about - celebs who have nothing better to do than talk about themselves like they are the center of the universe.

Last night was different. Ria and I were supposed to go to Emerald Avenue to go to the Night Market. But she noticed that her car was about to overheat again. So we went to stop by Shell. As soon as we pulled over, I looked for water to douse the engine. The guard gladly pointed out where I can get water. After several attempts, parang there was not much change.

Then a gas boy and a bystander came. They gladly helped us and gave tips and observations on what could be wrong. Mr Bystander said that the engine fan wasn't working. Several discussons after he asked if we had extra wire so he could fix it. At that late an hour, no hardware was available. We were getting ready to just leave the car there when he went to check his car if he had extra.

When he came back, he did have an extra wire. Not only that he wired the engine fan himself! Good samaritans still exist apparently.

Nice one. Talagang one in a million. So meron pa palang taong ganyan.

Thank you sayo. 

Lessons from Miss Universe

Gone are the days when beauty pageant contestants dish out "World Peace" 100 times per minute. In fact, I have not heard this statement for some time now. Blame the movie MISS CONGENIALITY for perpetuating such bimbette stereotypes to those ditzes.

But never did I imagine, in such YODA-proportions that Miss Universe will become such an interesting piece of event to my advertising life.

Sunny Thursday and I was rushing to make it to my meeting with our Client Service Directors at the Ex-Com Conference Room. The smell of coffee seemed very inviting for a non-caffeine drinker like me. The air-con was just right. The yellow walls inside the room seemed more yellow and brighter than usual. It was a lovely morning. Until we started meeting.

No Agency life is ever complete if you do not compete. In this case, competing with the rest of the world. It was that time of the year when entries have to be sent to New York for the NYFestivals aka AME Awards. I cannot be prouder. Imagine showcasing all the hard work you put in a campaign? Isn't that exhilarating? Yes!

But that meant more work. More work meant nothing since I am a stress puppy but what killed the excitement was that we only had a few hours to do it. Apparently bureaucracy set in and red tape killed it. And now we're cramming.

I would have wanted to put in more time and thought to the contest piece as this could be IT for me. But how can I do that when I have meager resources in my hands? Almost no time, no writers, no budget, no motivation. It had nothing (hearing Whitney H belting any moment now).

And we started bargaining and complaining. Maybe this, maybe that or can you tell him this, or maybe that. All sorts of excuses so we didn't have to do it. I know it's bad but sometimes you just need to know which battles to fight.

Until Nandy came. We gave him ten thousand excuses. He offered us one answer. 

'Sa Miss Universe, lahat sila duon magaganda. So hindi question kung maganda ka ba o hindi dahil pare-pareho kayo. Ang dapat mapansin ka. Hindi pwedeng maganda lang, dapat mapansin ka. Find a way." This wasn't verbatim, but the point being you have to build your case. And make it work!

Tim Gunn couldn't have been more appropriate when he told designers it's crunch time and they needed to make it work in time for the show. We are now making it work.

Breaking protocols and standard lead times, yes we are getting somewhere.

Strangely, that same night as I was briefing my creatives, I was also told the same thing. Citing Miss Universe, there are dark horses and there are crowd pleasers. Others will make it for sheer publicity and others for sheer politics. But whatever it is, they still made it. So we have to come up with something that's enough to get us in. Sounds like a plan. Can I ask Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt make a cameo in this video?? :-)

And then we say Miss Universe is just a beef-parade? Or a commercial extension of Mr. Trump's empire? It does stand for something. Or something to the other people in the office.

PS: Another creative in the office has a proud collection of all Miss Universe pageants through the years. Could it be possible that he has been getting his insights and executions from those VHS?

SUNDAYS AT THE BAY

When we were younger I remember that my parents used to go jogging in Luneta and then hit to Binondo for a quick breakfast. They would normally leave home early to avoid he mad rush and that means waking up really early. I remember too that we would also bring with us bottles of water and sandwich as we go “brisk walking”. All that is passed already and we have not done lately.

The next time I had spent decent time by the bay area was when Baywalk happened to Manila. I admire ex-Manila Mayor Lito Atienza for bringing back the life to Manila Bay. I thought that was brave. Personally while it had environmental impact and all that, bringing the people back to Manila was what’s admirable. Manila among my age range was already considered uncool and dead. Until that all happened. Suddenly, it breathed new life. That was on until the new Mayor came in and the baywalk died.

I had not gone back after that. But today, the cinemalaya brought me back to the bay area. 

As I await the screening time of my next movie, me and a friend braved the rains to have a quick bite at Pancake house. Then I saw beauty. Beautiful and a sight to see were my exact words. Down by the bay was the world-famous sunset of Manila bay. It was fantastic. Beautiful is not enough to describe. Maybe breath-taking and awesome would give better justice. But it was like God showing me how beautiful life can be. And take note, even if it was raining there I saw the sun-setting. Magnificent.

The smell of the bay gives a distinct feeling. The smell of fresh and salt made it a sensorial delight. Just disregard the smell of cigarette smoking, otherwise it would be back to nature. Though the water is not as pristine as we would want it to be it’s fine. The docked yachts and pier and the Manila skyscraper add texture and feeling to the otherwise picturesque scenery in Manila.

I made a conscious decision to come back again today. I really wanted to witness the Sunday with the Bay. Time to reminisce and just admire the beauty. I could see the birds flying, and clouds forming right before my eye. And as an extra perhaps is being seated next to a National Artist, Mr. Bienvenido Lumbera, completes the whole feeling of relaxed and easy Sunday. And mind you, the breeze is just fine. And it’s not as humid as I expected.

I might get used to coming here, with my computer, ipod and then starbucks, as this really is my idea of an easy day. Come to think of it, maybe  I will go back here next week and just stare at the beauty of God’s creation.

 

Until next week.

Delaying it

I've been wanting to write an entry about the cinemalaya movies that i've seen. but i haven;t had the time to write it yet.

looks like i am spending another weekend here in the office.

hope not.

if not, then i can write my entries na. and post the one i wrote last week too.

hell.

Irresponsible Journalism

GMA has always brandished itself as station that practices responsible journalism. They defined this with three main points:

Balitang Walang Kinikilingan (No prejudice), Walang Pinoprotektahan (Protecting no one), Walang Kasinungalingan (Truthful), Serbisyong Totoo Lamang.

This is the company's editorial ethics in as far as fair journalism is concerned. And through the years they have more or less proven that they have been "fair" with their brand of news. I am skeptical though.

The difference is on perception

In my mind they launched this editorial tagline to underline the perceived difference of news reportage between ABS and GMA. ABS has long been accused of biased reportage. This came from previous incidents where ABS reporters have been caught in the middle of highly controversial and editorialized news stories. Remember stories linking Julius Babao to terrorism, or Korina being commissioned by certain drug house to go against other Glutha drug houses, or the network being pro or anti government. This even after their damage control efforts to ban their newscasters from endorsing products. Remember Mel Tiangco was fired by ABS for endorsing Tide.

Perception was key. Do people really think that their newscasters become biased for accepting endorsement contracts? Or is it because their newscasters should remain as ambiguous as possible? Remember, newscasters are not celebrities; they are news readers and editors/anchors. Where does credibility come from? From being ambiguous or from standing for your own belief?

News is Business

ABS is one of the more popular brand and company (the other would be Meralco) in the roster of companies owned by the Lopezes. And since ABS has business interests and stakes in other forms, it is very easy to assume that they can be using their own media to promote their interests. On the other hand the Jimenez's and the Gozon's do not have strong presence in other business investments.

There have been accusations in the past where people have accused ABS of using their network to manipulate public perception. We do not know if this is true or not, but it seems that it is somewhat to convenient to use your own network to promote your own business interests.

But news is business. Whoever sounds more credible at the end of it will likely get the bigger of the pie. Is it still about perception? Somehow, news programs that have more credibility will never get human interest. We will respond to news that we like to hear. That's why there's so much interest and hype on sensationalized news and like. That's why there are human interest stories in supposedly hard hitting news. News if taken as is is just 30minutes of bad news. Would you really want to listen to bad news for the next 30 minutes or so?

If you want people to watch you, you better put something interesting there. Otherwise you will get canceled no sooner than you expect. CNN may have the reputation of delivering news on the dot, but there are a bunch of news anchors there too who are red necks and not too bright. Some of them just cannot ask the right questions without the right script.

For me, news has to be delivered the way I want to hear it: pleasantly and yet moving. Empathetic anchoring works for me. Cold news reporting really turns me off. At the end of it, I want to hear news that's relevant to me, the way I want it.

In the morning while I dress up, I open my TV but put it on mute. Mute because I do not want to hear all that gory bad news in the morning. But if there's something interesting I'd turn on the volume.

Did ABS really use its own network and programs in defending their interest in Meralco? Did GMA use its own network and precious airtime when it decided to go against ABS and fire tirades against other network?

Only the Truth and Nothing But...

Of course. Why would you lie? I guess more important to mention here is that you need to get both sides of the story. Then expose it.

And the point is:

This morning on the way to work, the cab driver was listening to Arnold Clavio's radio program. The topic was about the rising cost of Meralco rates. Admittedly this news was silenced a few days after Winston Garcia flipped his wig. Then we didn't hear anything anymore.

This morning they brought the issue up again in light of the pending proposal of Napocor to increase their price. Blah-blah-blah. They made loose canon comments about Judai's informercial and Meralco's "greed". But what caught my beef was when Arnold Clavio gave irresponsible comments and incomplete information about electricity usage.

He questioned why his electric consumption during summer spikes significantly as compared to christmas when he never changed his electric consumption pattern/usage. He would spend as much time at home or at work during summer and during christmas, so how come? He pointed out that he asked the girl from the meralco counter why this was so and the girl answered because of his appliances. He dissed the point like it was such a brainless answer. He pointed out further that how can that be when he had the same pattern?

The answer may have been lacking but as a responsible journalist, that question seemed legitimate to ask and even investigate further. But instead he dissed it. He was quick to assume that something was wrong with the metering and charging of Meralco.

I am not engineer nor an inquisitive reporter, but I bothered to ask. I am supposing that he has cooling and warming appliances around his house, be it toasters, refrigerators, coolers or water dispensers. In principle, appliances require more energy when its hot so it could run efficiently. When the room is hottest, compressors work double time to suck the heat out of the room to cool down temperature. That makes the consumption go up. The same goes for refrigerators.

The thing is, a lot of people are listening to him and take his editorials seriously or worth considering. If he is not careful with his comments, people might believe him and follow his line of argument which is wrong. I believe that proper research should have been done before he gave that comment or allusion.

In any case, I think none of the local networks are clean when it comes to journalism. Some of the broadcasters are too pro-government or anti-government, or in this anti-ABS? I am really concerned that for a network that's supposed to be number one and is superior in claims, they are really defensive and agog to quash competition. Further, they do not practice what they preach.

This is not a paid spot. This is just my thought only.

WhattaWednesday

There are days when you know you should have just stayed home and stayed dry. Today is certainly one of those days. I really wish I didn't have to leave bed, at all.

Though I am not feeling sick or anything, it's just that I really feel low today. My usual energy is not there. Well strings of bad vibes, I guess made it go away. And the weather - that didn't help at all. When I woke up this morning, rain was pouring heavy as if it were telling me to just go back and sleep. And when I finally got up, did my usual routine and all, rain still has not stopped. A few minutes after, that's when it stopped.

I had a little time to talk to mom since I didn't get to talk to her last night. That's when another news broke in. I don't want to get into details but everything was just downhill from there. I had never taken a shower so cold even with heater on.

Well I dressed up nicely today because I was supposed to go out tonight. But my eyes are pretty sore. I am not too upbeat today pa so really, it's kinda useless to go pa. And that's supposed to be a movie date sa Cinemalaya. Oh well.

And then all these revsions and changes that had to be done. We had to turn it around no sooner than possible. So syempre ngarag na naman. But then that's fine, I am quite used to it already.

At the end of the day today, I just want to go home and drink a happy pill. I think I just want to go on hibernation and just sulk for one night. Just one night.

But before this entry ends so gloomy and all, time to remember that it's Jing Atienza's birthday today!!! Happy Birthday Jing Jing!

Ssssshhhh...

There are things that one should not say, whether out loud or say at all. Key word there is not say. So instead I am writing about it. And that's why my title reads, "sssshh". Because you are not supposed to hear it from me.

Well, this is nothing controversial naman. It's just that I am blogging while at work. It's down time. And Nandy said it's okay to do personal things during down time.

I've been seriously thinking of going to the beach - to Bohol or Boracay. Parang it's just so nice to go the beach now, get red (since i don't get tan) and just soak under the sun. Or hold someone's while walking down the beach side under the afternoon sunset.

That or just cozy up inside the airconditioned room, to stay away from the heat of Manila.

But I can't. I won't. I will not for now.

Or maybe until my impulsive midn takes over again. hehehe