Good deed, Good deal

The 15-second TV commercial was first shown the night AB Communications Inc. celebrated its seventh anniversary early this month. The commercial, which advocated for peace in Mindanao, showed a soldier’s dog tag. In Pilipino, a child’s voice over said his mother told him his father was a hero. The child goes on to say –while a second dog tag with a bullet hole in it replaces the first–he just wanted to know when his father was coming home.

The commercial was produced for P20,000. The storyboard under AB Com’s creative director Boots Sison was done was free. The voice talent, Sison’s son, Anton, didn’t charge a centavo. Production supplier, Creative Station, charged P20,000 for materials used instead of its usual six-digit figure. AB Com president Tom Banguis paid the P20,000 from his own pocket. Television stations provided free air time.

Something old, something new

Advocacy is not new in the Philippines nor does it come cheap. Top 100 companies such as Nestle Phils. Inc., Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and the Development Bank of the Philippines have championed causes from value formation to entrepreneurship with multi-million-peso campaigns.

The "Pray for peace in Mindanao" campaign is, however, unique because it was initiated and implemented by players within the advertising industry. "Everybody did it because it was a good deed rather than a good deal," Banguis said. "If, in the course of our advocacy, we find corporate sponsors willing to reimburse our costs, then well and good. Many local companies still have to be convinced that they have a stake in the country other than profit."

Banguis has already gotten back his P20,000. Zest-O Corp., a client of AB Com, liked the commercial and reimbursed Banguis for the production cost.

The advocacy for peace in Mindanao was one of several issues raised during an internal survey done among the 60 employees of the advertising agency. "Within the agency, we asked ourselves what we were good at," said Banguis. "It wasn’t a hard question to answer. We’re good at making simple messages which can move people to buy or do things."

Major issues

From knowing its core strength came the messages the company wanted to make. Aside from peace in Mindanao, favorite issues are attitude formation, getting street children out of the streets and good driving habits.

"Advocacy has to start with a strong idea which can excite people to action, an idea that is within the people’s realm of control," Banguis said.

Splash Corp., another AB Com client, is interested in the agency’s storyboard which uses insects to illustrate the need for national purpose and unity or bayanihan.

The storyboard for good driving habits uses matches that sound like they have powerful car engines under their wood. This is the project of creative director Rommel Cortez, who was nearly side-swiped by a careless driver. That driver, however, hit a child.

There are also three storyboards homing in on the message that turtles, sardines and, yes, even matches have it better than street children.

Advocacy is not new to Banguis. A couple of years back, he put together a government campaign for water conservation at the height of the El Nino phenomenon.

"Advocacy is an outlet for creativity," Banguis said. "It gibes with the agency’s culture of making things happen. We believe that concerted action and determination can make things happen. EDSA 1 and 2 are examples that miracles can happen when the public sector and the private sector put their minds to do something." – MJGrey