Remember that tasteless Bayantel billboard ad photo which I blogged early June ? Surprise! The new Bayantel ad now shows a cute kid happily eating ice cream. Very wholesome ad that touches any mother’s heart. Awwww… It was my daughter who pointed the new billboard. I never notice billboards because I drive and they just distract me.It’s good that the Bayantel and their ad agency changed the billboard to a more PG rating ad. I know Bayantel read this entry because I had an informal talk with one of the brand managers a week ago during the VOIP convention. Whether the ad campaign was effective or not, I told them it doesn’t sit well with parents like me who are their likely customers. They called me early this week to try their Bayantel internet service but I told them I am moving out of Makati . Besides I have two internet providers already :Smart Bro and Destiny cable. Maybe I will try it out one day when I move to my new place.
See the difference from the previous ad?
BEFORE (June 2006)
NOW (July 8, 2006)
Wow! This proves that bloggers can make a difference! Maybe you can help our fellow blogger with his mission?
http://racoma.com.ph/archives/one-great-way-to-improve-the-philippine-economy/
Probably someone also called them up. Bloggers and the general public. Who knows? Just glad bayantel billboard ad was replaced to an acceptable one.
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now why don’t i see any complaints here that this ad is irrelevant? there’s still no picture of a phone here, is there? hmmm…
Still no relation to the “satisfaction guarantee” other than the image symbolizing satisfaction. At least it’s not offensive to me. So why should I complain?
You don’t have to show a phone just because you are a telco company. Lets open up our minds. Good advertising is also about being unpredictable. Unexpected. Again there are at least a hundred billboards in edsa. I like BayanTels approach of being irreverent. It represents cutting edge ideas just like the info technologies today.
BayanTel’s billboard is different. It doesnt mean It’s irrelevant. Great ads does not need to spell out everything for an intellectual consumers like most of us.
Kiku: how much is Bayantel paying you to comment on my blog? You don’t even have a proper email address. Most legitmate comments in here come from bloggers.
These are your stats: You own a MAC and using Bayantel internet.
125.212.122.45 IP Address 125.212.122.45
Date 10 Jul, Mon, 16:15:54 Net Speed Dial-Up
Organization Bayantel DSL Infrastructure Browser Safari
Continent Asia Operating System Mac OS X
Country Philippines Screen Resolution 1024×768
State / Region Bulacan Screen Color 32 Bit (16.7M)
City Diliman Javascript Enabled
treble: it’s the sex that made it irrelevant, not the missing phone.
mars: i’m just gonna assume you didn’t read well noemi’s previous entry. otherwise, i’ll just consider your comment irrelevant.
noemi: agree. not offensive to others, and indeed very very cute. i’m actually hoping it’s a series of “satisfaction”-themed billboards. if it is, i’m excited to see their next image analogy for satisfaction.
Treble: True, their “satisfactionâ€Â-themed billboards is something to look forward to. Maybe it will be a teen next time.
On the June 2006 ad: where’s the phone, you ask? Use your imagination. A phone can vibrate right?
But seriously, why was there an uproar over the first ad? Because sex was involved? For all we know the lady was taking a pee…
Does a child eating ice cream make it any better? Doesn’t it promote obesity?
IMO, I like the first one because it was…well…daring and creative. Controversial, maybe, but now we have brand recognition, which I think was what Bayantel wanted to achieve.
The second one was lame and cowardly. If they started their campaign with this, it wouldn’t have been that effective in generating buzz.
Treble: I’m just gonna assume that you ran out of things to say and, judging by your stellar comment in the previous entry,:
“*irrelevant just because it doesn’t show a phone* or other telco product anywhere in the picture? why? do we expect all ads to be explicit in what product is being promoted? where’s the challenge in that? can’t bayantel, or any other company for that matter, assume that we are discerning (and humorous) enough to get the point?”
that you completely missed the point.
The issue here is the unnecessary use of sex in advertising, not “just because” there was no phone. There is nothing orgasmic about Bayantel, making sex completely unnecessary and irrelevant.
BTW, I was the one who pointed it out to my mom (noemi) and took a picture of the billboard in the first place. That’s why my take on this subject has a little less to do with my mom’s entry and opinions, thankyouverymuch.
buwayahman : i was surprised they changed it but I think they didn’t want to incur the ire of the general public. Besides it generated the publicity already.
Noemi: Hi I’m back. Lets stick to the issue of what is being reasoned here. This is a blog. Every opinion should be heard. It doesn’t matter where it comes from. This is my opinion. It’s not fair and childish to be tracing source just because one opinion is different.
Mars,
“The issue here is the unnecessary use of sex in advertising,”
No such thing…sex will always draw eyeballs and it is one of the most effective tools, if not the most, for advertising.
Buwayahman: Sex in advertising is inappropriate in a very public setting i.e. billboards in a high traffic area. BTW, I am not singling out Bayantel. It just happens that my daughter took a snapshot and thought it was worth talking about. I’ve also blogged about Bench ads in another entry. Other bloggers and forums have already discussed other ads that have unnecessary use of sex in advertising.
noemi: So what if kiku works for bayantel? Is he then not allowed to express an opinion here? So what if he has underlying motivations? Don’t we all? Does that somehow automatically make his arguments wrong?
“it’s the sex that made it irrelevant, not the missing phone”
hmmm… naputol post ko. let me reconstruct:
“it’s the sex that made it irrelevant, not the missing phoneâ€Â
I’m sorry, but that’s not just narrow-minded, that’s simply wrong. You can say that sex made the ad offensive (although i don’t find it to be so), but if sex is irrelevant, so is the pleasure of ice cream.
Perhaps such an argument is a way for you to reconcile your view on this ad with your otherwise liberal thinking — it’s not just that it’s indecent, it’s irrelevant too. Then perhaps the statement above is true in a more profound sense.
But let’s face the truth about advertising, there is no such thing as irrelevant in ad campaigns (except the ones that flop). Their function is to sell stuff, principally by associating ideas with companies and their products. Wholesome, family, sexy, edgy — these are all ideas that drive gut-feel decisions. And sadly, most people make their purchase decisions on gut-feel.
If you really want to change advertising, push for better product disclosure. Make it easier for even the laziest consumer to make informed decisions. Then maybe companies will throw as much money at the engineers as they do at the commercial models. (The salary of models is something that I find obscence and offensive.) Otherwise, if your contented to just sit back, laugh at the funny ads and be touched by the sentimental ads, then prepare to be offended by some sexy ads too. Companies have to earn a living, like you.
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Enough about commercials. “Satisfaction guarantee”, yeah sure! satisfaction guarantee by whom. In my case satisfaction is to bayantel alone but not to subscribers because I believe always a customers who should tell if the company will satisfy their needs. Great commercials bad SERVICE…. Most company do today…. Don’t just say it! Do it!