What's HOT from Coca Cola?

I like drinking Red Bull though it never gives me wings :-) But hey, Check this new drink out by Coca Cola, It's called BURN, yeah that's right! Burn Energy drink, now extra potent. I like the tvc and the print ads made by a Spanish ad agency (the logo looks like Zippo!). Anywho.. To me, this is one Hellish of a campaign. Burn, Baby Burn!

"Burn Dance"

"Burn Invitation"

"Burn Party"

"Burn Seduction"

Advertising Agency: Caldas Naya, Spain
Photographers: Mike Diver & Pedro Aguilar, London
Post production: Diver & Aguilar
Creative Director: Dave Buonaguidi
Art Director: Georgina Hoffmann

XPLOD ad gets Silver at the KAAA Awards!

The Ad we created for Sony Xplod wins a silver shield at the KAAA '08 last monday. I was expecting for the PS3 Bloodstream ad, but this baby just blows 'em away :-) Credit goes out to the creative team, Danny for the 3D, Maxwell for the copy and the Sony team! Rock N' Roll!

What The?!

I can't believe my eyes when I crossed over a blog and saw this one. At first, I thought it was a photo job, you know just for fun, but when I dug deeper into the text, it is in fact for real, F**king is a town in Austria. Can you f**king believe that? And I was wondering how does the residents of this town feel about the name? Don't their government had anything on changing it? Oh, by the way... How would we address the residents? “Are the residents called F**kers? What are the mothers called? What would you be learning at the F**king High School? Does the F**king Hospital help you with anything else? If your friend came from F**king, wouldn’t he be your F**king friend?” How could you not make fun of a town called F**king? Imagine the product endorsements this town could have?! Durex, KY and a variety of sexual connotation brands would be lining up, some could even make F**king their headquarters. LMFAO.

How to get a job in Advertising?

To get a job in advertising you don’t need a BA in Brand Communications, a Masters in psychology or even a CV that reads like an inspirational novel. All you need is a portfolio. Not just any portfolio, a really hot one! That along with a gimmick or innovative calling card is the fool proof plan to getting hired. Lecturers always told us about people who got jobs by being different.

There was one person who took along a tape player and played shit radio ads to the Creative director and once finished said, “That is what I won’t do.” Hired. Another sent a mannequin's arm and leg to the Creative Director metaphorically stating that they would give an arm and a leg. Hired. Another sent pieces of charcoal to potential agencies with a note stating how coal once ignited by the right catalyst creates fire. Hired. Now I ain't so sure if all these people got hired because of their gimmicks and portfolio or because they amused a CD with a short attention span but the point is, they all are different from the competition.

Cannes Lions 2008

And the Press Grand Prix goes to...... (drum roll)... It's DDB South Africa!!! The Press Grand Prix went to DDB South Africa for their Energizer batteries campaign "Paint, Pants, Park and Spit". Nine Gold, 29 Silver and 54 Bronze lions were also given by the jury. The Gunn Report 2006 has named DDB as the most awarded advertising agency in the world.




The brief was to increase sales of Energizer Lithium Batteries over the Christmas period. Target audience being parents, due to the amount of batteries being purchased over the Christmas period, namely for toys.

Advertising Agency: DDB South Africa
Creative Director: Gareth Lessing
Art Director: Julie Maunder
Copywriter: Kenneth van Reenen
Photographer: Clive Stewart
Published: December 2007

AD Agencies

Working in advertising is very stressful, but fun. Who can ignore the awards, the pay, the deadlines, the suits, the client, the product and the learning?! I've been in advertising for quite some time, more that 13 years, some were back in Manila and most of it here in Kuwait, I've worked with known brands, regional and international ad agencies as well. Speaking of international agencies, here's some of the agencies that I worked for.

For Your Eyes Only!

A portrait of Tica, a painting by Dru Blair

It's called Photorealism, To the human eye it is a photograph, but to Dru Blair, it is his exercise for a painting workshop in which he taught in 2005. Unbelievable! Dru is an aviation artist whose realistic paintings dramatically portray subjects that salute Man's greatest technological triumphs. His realistic aircraft paintings are often mistaken for airplane photos. While Dru's helicopter and airplane paintings focus primarily on high technology aviation and military aircraft, he has also been selected to portray many Star Trek novel covers, as well as such diverse subjects as the well known Budweiser Bullfrogs, and numerous magazine covers.


A Step by step process of the project.

Funny Equations

Fatboy Slim Music Video

Now, this is freaking amazing, A new music video by Fatboy Slim for the Brighton Port Authority. You'll hate those censor bars in the beginning but it becomes funny in the middle and ending of the vid. It's very clever and is going to be all over the web, definitely because of those naked peeps, I like the art direction, pretty hilarious!

Independence Day, just another holiday?

To all my Kababayans, Happy 110th Independence! Let us celebrate our freedom! (well, are we really free?) While browsing over at ABS-CBN, I bumped into this article by Jennifer Chan, check it out. It's worth a read:

It was on June 12, 1898 when Emilio Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence in Kawit, Cavite. One could only imagine the depth of emotion pouring out from every Filipino’s heart when the national anthem was sung and the Philippine flag waved. What mattered was that they were finally free of foreign dominion. However, 110 years later and it’s apparent that some things do change—and not necessarily for the better. It seems that Independence Day has lost its meaning among the people. The youth, in particular, don’t even care about what June 12 stands for anymore. Many of them regard it as just another holiday—the first break since summer came to an end. Sure, there is still emotion pouring out from their hearts but it’s obviously not the kind evoked by a sense of nationalism. Instead, it comes from the pure joy of having no classes for the whole day. But can they really be blamed? Most of the Independence Day celebrations are not catered to the youth. Last year, the day was marked with several ceremonies and Independence Day rites (mostly government activities) but none that were of any real interest to ordinary Filipino citizens, much less the youth. For example, in observance of the 109th celebration of Independence Day, a simultaneous flag-raising and wreath laying ceremony was held nationwide. While the idea sounds novel enough, the activity does not exactly hold any special meaning for the youth.


Switching dates

According to some students, perhaps holidays shouldn’t be moved around so much. When former President Diosdado Macapagal changed the Philippines’ Independence Day from July 4 to June 12, he surely didn’t intend to create long weekends. He did it purely because July 4 is an American holiday. After all, celebrating the Fourth of July hardly translates to independence. Meanwhile, his daughter and now President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is known for changing holiday dates. This year, she made June 9 a non-working holiday since it was the closest date to both the weekend and June 12. While it gave people a long weekend, such a move appears to be slowly robbing the nation off of their nationalism. And so for most students, June 12, 2008 will just be another regular school day. Compared to the Filipinos living in their own country, Pinoys abroad seem to be doing a better job of celebrating Independence Day. Could Aguinaldo have predicted that his heartfelt proclamation of independence will only be met with apathetic stares in the 21st century? And how long will it take before all sense of regard for Independence Day disappears?

(By Jennifer Chan abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak)

G meets Q

It was a great gig at the launching of the 2007 DMC Technics DJ Championships in Dubai, UAE! With the legendary Dj Qbert opening the event for the Middle East finals, I get to Jam with Q, we chill at the lounge and have my vinyls and slipmats tagged :-) Pretty cool guy, It was awesome watching him scratch live and of course, playing with him and using his sets! Yee-hah!


DjQbert working on his breaktionary mixes, awesome set!


This is me with my Kool & the Gang scratch routine.


G and Q chillin' at the VIP lounge at the MYX club, Dubai, UAE.

Wee Like A Man!

Hilarious spot by Clemenger BBDO Sydney for WhizBiz, An Australian company whose products give women the freedom to wee anywhere a man could, and the leaders in female urine collection technology. That's good news for all you women on the go, No bathrooms? No problem!

No Place Like Home

Endline goes: "The Philippines-Your home in Asia", Very true! Now I miss the Philippines more when I saw this clip from DM9JaymeSyFu for Smart-DOT Tourism campaign! Breath-taking scenes, colorful backgrounds and very well art-directed! Aaahh.... I wanna go home:-)

What's Your Game?

Featuring the Philippines' finest in the hard court, combined with street-style graphics, urban images and a graffiti-style strapline, this sets of print made for Nike by Ogilvy-Manila is pretty eye-catching. Designed by the country's top designers and photographer, this campaign is simply world-class!

Ad Title : My Game Is Made Outside Print, 2007
Agency : Ogilvy
Advertiser : Nike Philippines
Graphic Designers : Team Manila, AJ Dimarucot, 2720, Blue Rain Media
Photographer : Jake Versoza

Ping Pong-Matrix

These men in black really makes the impossible seem possible! Remember this one? This vid has been there for some time now, a lot of copies and rip-offs came out, but this original is a treat! I really love this one, just awesome! Check out the flying part and the ending celebrations, LOL!

Let The Wars Begin!

After a month-long delay due to the elections, The most-awaited ad awards nite has finally been set. The 2007 Kuwait Arabic Advertising Awards will be held on June 23, 2008 at the Al Rayya Ballroom, Kuwait. It's an annual ad wars hosted by the Kuwait University, showcasing creatives made by advertising agencies local and regional and by awarding the best campaigns in various categories. So, who's gonna be taking the shields? We'll see about that on the 23rd, My agency Pencil was shortlisted (fingers crossed) and hope to bring home some metals. We did submitted a handful of creatives! It's all up for the judges to decide, Good luck!

Small Toys For Big Boys

"Let's Volt Innnn!!!" I guess Filipinos my age remember this famous line by heart! Well, who would ever forget this amazing (back in the 70s) Ultraelectromagnetic Japanese creation? I really have to have this posted here, well, a part of my robot collections, it's a Voltes Five Soul of Chogokin Gx-31 Die-cast metal. Cool, huh? It's an amazing collection, a must-have for people who grew up with these series of robot-animes back in the days! For some of you whose not aware of the Voltes Five robot and how it works check this video out! (photos by Gilbert Semillano 2008)