The man behind the brand: A tribute to the humble visionary that is Ben Chan
MANILA, Philippines - The first time I met Ben Chan, he was laughing.
It was a peculiar scene then, a dead serious studio in the midst of a campaign shoot with an international pop star (Bruno Mars) — already low on time and high on stress — suddenly erupting in laughter. Logistical problems, scheduling problems, first aid kit problems — and in the eye of the storm, the man behind Bench, the country’s most iconic retail brand, had managed to laugh and break the ice — in his own way, reminding us to appreciate the moment and see the fun in it.
Last night, Bench once again staged its now legendary biannual underwear show, this time titled The Naked Truth. This year, they pulled out all the stops, hiring talent from all over the world — with credits ranging from Cirque to Katy Perry — to help realize their vision. Marian Rivera, Enchong Dee, Daniel Padilla, Ellen Adarna, Solenn Heussaff, Kathryn Bernardo — the country’s whole galaxy of A-list talent was, as usual, tapped to headline the show. And as always, the man behind the brand was in the eye of the storm, inexplicably with a smile on his face.
TWO STEPS AHEAD
It’s that sense of humor that’s allowed him to escape any controversies with nary a scratch. Three years ago, when a public official deemed Bench Body billboards featuring the Philippine Volcanoes “offensive” and had them dismantled, the company responded with trademark aplomb—instead of merely covering up the offending bulges, they ran the same billboard with the same blue background and the same text, only without the rugby players there. It seemed like the rugby players had had enough of the hypocrisy and jumped off the Guadalupe billboard and straight into the Pasig River.
Recently, when other officials took offense at the taglines for The Naked Truth campaign, they covered the “offending” lines with blinding red tape instead of taking down the whole billboards — calling attention to the hypocritical censorship more than anything.
“Your message can only be truly effective on a large scale if it can filter down to every Filipino,” longtime endorser and entrepreneur in his own right Borgy Manotoc told me in a previous interview. “And Bench has always been able to speak to all demographics.” From the controversial Volcanoes to the recent unveiling of Marian Rivera as “Her Royal Beauty,” the brand and the man have long mastered the art of shaping the zeitgeist in their favor. They’ve managed to cut through social classes and made everyone from the Polo Club-going society girl to your friendly neighborhood taxi driver care about their star of the moment.
Even the recent proliferation of foreign endorsers for local brands — everyone from K-Pop stars to the Hollywood hunks of the moment — was innovated by Bench, with F4’s Jerry Yan way back in the Meteor Garden days.
FAMILY MAN
In the documentary Mademoiselle C, the now legendary former French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld is described as the kind of person who treats the people she works with like family and treats everyone else — from waiters to the lowly fashion assistants — as well as the people she works with. Contrary to the bitch-eat-bitch fashion world stereotype, Carine affords everyone the respect and decency they warrant as people.
In the same way, the man is the brand and the brand is the man. When Bench and Ben Chan spotlight the concept of family in a holiday campaign — as they did a few years ago with the likes of the Gutierrezes and actor Luis Manzano with mom Vilma Santos — they mean it and you believe it. This is a man, after all, who treats everyone he works with as part of the bigger Bench family.
LOYALTY AND LOVE
It’s why you’ll readily hear the likes of big-name endorsers from different backgrounds and generations — from Richard Gomez to Georgina Wilson to Daniel Padilla — readily professing their loyalty and love for the man. It’s why the best of the best of the industry — behind-the-scenes dynamos like photographer Mark Nicdao and makeup artist Juan Sarte — only have deep respect and admiration for a man who built a retail empire from a humble stall in SM Makati.
Always imitated but never duplicated, as an army of foreign retail brands continuously charge into Manila, the retail scene has only gotten more competitive. Bench continues to flourish because it knows what it is — a brand for the Filipino by the Filipino. “It is not just a business, it is born out of a real love by Ben and the Bench family for fashion, for the Philippines, for good taste,” Bench stylist Noel Manapat said in a previous interview. “I think the market has grown to realize that Bench is their brand — with a sincere desire to make good design affordable to all. To him, good design is for all — from the elite to the masses, no distinction.”
* * *
Tweet the author @raymondangas.
