32. My First Brand Group

The brand group that I was assigned to was Toilet Soaps. My new boss, Ato Maningat, was probably three years older than I was. He was a product of one of the better-known business schools in the US, the Wharton School of Business. His undergraduate schooling was with the Jesuits and he remembered one of my brothers in school as being his classmate. He struck me as being on the serious side and slightly aloof. Despite his fine academic credentials he didn’t seem eager to flaunt it and had a rather unassuming quality about him that was reassuring. I was beginning to feel out of place because everyone here seemed to have awesome academic backgrounds.



Joe Montemayor, Ato Maningat, Peter Bachelor, Tony Marquez, Ed Roa



There were two other guys in the group; Boy Trillana, a brand supervisor just like me and a newly hired management trainee, Joe Montemayor. Another brand supervisor, Tony Marquez, whom I would discover to be my cousin would join us a month later. My cousin was a graduate of Denver University while our marketing assistant graduated from New York University. When Joe left the company Fredrick Dael replaced him. Fred, a graduate of Silliman University in the Visayas was the loquacious sort and would volunteer an opinion on just about anything if you allowed him to. This earned him the sobriquet “The Dumaguete Lip”. As it turned out he really did have something to say. He became an executive of Pepsi Cola International as regional head of Asia and of the latest account he headed IslaCom, a telecommunications company.

Boy Trillana, who was there ahead of us all, though not from a stateside university, was a product of De Lasalle University. Lifebuoy was his brand. He had his hands full thwarting the relentless offensives of a major entry by P&G. He was the right man for the job. Determined and aggressive he staved off their swamping efforts and gave competition a run for their money. He had a curiosity about advertising and knowing that I have had experience in it he kept asking me about it every time he had the opportunity.

After PRC, he and his wife, Sonjie de Ocampo, also a former brand manager in the company, embarked on marketing ventures with Chris Barber-Lomax, our marketing director who stayed in the Philippines after his retirement from Unilever. Boy and Sonjie had other successful business investments one of which was the ownership of Lintas (post Hemisphere affiliation) one of the largest agencies locally. A fairly recent venture of theirs, Go nuts Donuts seem to be off to a good start. Other achievement of sorts is his stable of fine race horses and his appointment as the head of the Philippine Racing Commission at one time.

Manoling de Leon succeeded Hank Nijk as Advertising Manager of PRC. He had within his group the Media, marketing intelligence and Advertising Budget sections. Tito Claudio was the Media Manager, Nilo Santos was in charge of marketing intelligence while Mel Lagman was the budget supervisor. Rene Ranjo was in charge of marketing services which at that time was limited to field promotions. Some of the marketing trainees at that time were Bong de Guzman, whose dad was the mayor of Baguio City at that time, Jes Asuncion, Hernan Reyes, whose family owned the popular UFC banana ketchup and joining later, Josie Gregorio, one of the few female marketing recruits then.

31. Day one In Unilever

It was towards the end of the first week of January, on a Monday, that I drove my tiny Italian job, a Fiat 600, a small excuse for a car that was even smaller than a Volkswagen Beetle, to my new appointment in Philippine Refining Company. At the parking lot I asked the security guard if I could park in any of the vacant spaces at the yard fronting the main building. Eager to start I was quite early in coming and there were still a lot of empty parking spaces. I knew that in companies like PRC parking spaces were reserved for the company biggies and I didn’t want to get into scrapes no matter how trivial on my first day. The guard pointed out, rather harshly, a space where I could park. I was to find out later that his name was Sgt. Marcelo and was the head of the security guards in the company. He was a gaunt faced elderly man with a wiry frame, bow-legged and with a comic looking squared moustache that partly hid a jutting solitary front tooth. Being used to the bigger cars of the PRC managers the tiny little car might have seemed incongruous to him. Still, I was thankful to him for finding a space for me to park.

Vic Ferriols, Ed Roa, Chris Barber-Lomax, Peter Bachelor, Frankie Gonzales,Tony Tolentino, Joe Feliciano, Ray Harrison, Tony Uy & Ato Maningat

My first stop was the Corporate Affairs Directors office where I was given my familiarization program. Rey Alejandro, the Corporate Affairs Director gave a quick overview of the company’s organization and also the range of products in the company’s business portfolio. He apologized for the scantiness of the information he was able to give but he said that the various departments that I will be visiting in the course of my familiarization program would amply fill in the gaps of the cursory briefing he just gave me.

Before being led into my new boss’ office I had to do the obligatory stop at the Marketing Director’s room to say that I am now here and reporting for duty. Chris Barber-Lomax was on his way out and said that he will catch up with me in the afternoon but for now he had to leave for a meeting with the ad agency. I was eager to impress him and was mildly disappointed that I could not talk to him on day one. I would find out later on that he was a demanding taskmaster and it was not easy to get into his favor. In an effort to make a good impression, I remember having bought a book on increasing one’s facility for mental calculations, the Trachtenberg method, because he was one to get impatient during financial discussions. He was quick to snap at brand managers whenever responses lagged, despite their trusty Monroe calculators, to his queries on costs and margins. With this I might have gained an inch towards his looking kindly at me.

30. The Interviews

Rey Alejandro, Ed Roa

After the preliminaries I was scheduled to talk with Dr. Rey Alejandro, the Corporate Affairs Director. I was told that if I hurdled this I still had to be grilled by the Marketing Director, and then, as proforma, the Advertising Manager. The Corporate Affairs Director was Filipino. My first impression of him was that he seemed a bit stiff and exuded a rather studied air. In the course of the interview his being a Yalie with a Doctorates degree in Law just happened to come up. He spoke well but in a somewhat stilted manner. Later on I would discover that he was truly sincere and would offer support to those under his aegis. His mannerisms were just a question of preferred style that his detractors took to mean as arrogance. Naturally he asked me about my experiences in advertising. He seemed amused with the way I earned my spurs on the job. When asked about the campaigns I worked on I was quite effusive talking about the high profile brands I worked on. The brands in my portfolio of experiences were household names…Suki Soy sauce, Philip Morris, Sarsi, Volkswagen, Papa Piccolino, Sola cooking oil and Solacreme margarine White King cake mixes, Radiowealth appliances, Ajinomoto plus a few others that I was involved in either solely or part of a team in the two ad agencies I worked with in my three-year advertising career. I talked about them with the enthusiasm and exuberance of a winner.

Of particular interest to him was the additional competence I had in media work. I was not sure if I made a positive impression. Sometimes glibness turned off people, but I felt good having been able to cram my short career into twenty minutes of interview time. After the interview I had a sinking feeling that I won’t make it. I knew that recruitment practices tend to create a fraternal circle of like minds because the decision-makers’ criteria were based on qualities that more or less typified their own personalities and backgrounds. An ivy leaguer with a doctorate degree would epitomize such a decision-maker and may be the least sympathetic to someone with a spotty academic background like mine. Some form of perpetuation of the species dynamics could be at work here.

My interview was a success. A day later I received a phone call making arrangements for two more consecutive interviews towards the end of that week. This was it. I felt even more anxious this time because the possibility of being taken in was so real and the fact that the next two interviews would be from expats added to my apprehension. I have never been interviewed by expats nor have I ever had interactions with foreigners. Deep within me the “the hewers of wood and carriers of water” mentality that was at rest was stirred.

The interview with Chris Barber-Lomax, the Marketing Director, was a repeat of the things that I talked about in the interview with the Corporate Affairs Director. He struck me as someone who was hard to impress. While he allowed me to talk uninterruptedly, he had put on a mien that made me feel that he was disinterested and somewhat indifferent to what I was saying. Perhaps it was I who was at fault. I couldn’t muster the same kind of verve in my tone of voice as in the earlier interview with the Corporate Director. When he turned to more personal things his demeanor changed abruptly. It was fascinating how he could have turned friendly and fatherly almost, segued without a transition device as it were. He asked about my family, wife, children, siblings and preferences in entertainment and how I spent my leisure time. It amused him to find out that I had media celebrity brothers and a famous movie star as sister in law. Finally he asked me if I played soccer and basketball. I said I played a little soccer in early high school but I did play a lot of basketball. He was glad that I had athletic inclinations because they were trying to put together a team to play in the company intramurals. That was the other surprising thing in my having qualified for the position. I could have played the center position in a basketball team of midgets and I had a scrawny frame that “athletic” would seem to be a farfetched description.

My interview with Hank Nijk, the Advertising Manager, was brief. I learned from him that he was about to leave Unilever in a few days. He was among the many Jewish people who have volunteered to work in the kibbutz in the young Israeli nation then. Jews like him who were successful businessmen, executives, scientists and others left behind their lucrative practices and comfortable lives heeded the call to help in building their nation. I was very impressed at such nobility of heart.

Immediately after the interview I was asked to go to the Personnel Department building where I was informed by Ted Teodoro, the Personnel Manager that I will be taken in at the start of the New Year, but before then, I was to undergo medical examinations to make sure that I was fit to work.

Oh what a glorious day it was! As I stepped out of the portals of the PRC main building the sun outshone itself for me and the people in the cars out there in the traffic of United Nations Avenue seemed to be cheering…Bravo! Well done, Ed!”

29. Going Through the Gauntlet

It was on a day in early December that I had a scheduled second interview in PRC. This was a few days after my first appearance. I had taken the preliminary interview with a supervisor in Personnel and was administered the usual routine of filling up information about myself and the basic tests prior to being interviewed by the higher ups.. I told my wife to say a prayer to help me make a good account of myself with the interviewer. This interview would be one among the many that I went through in addition to the IQ tests and other tests that the Personnel Department subjected all applicants to.

From what I heard the selection process was a rigorous one. I was not worried about the IQ tests. I knew from previous tests that my level was way above average. I remember that a lot of the questions asked were easy and I guess they were more a gauge of comprehension more than anything else. The semantics and the spatial relations portions of the tests were a cinch. The numeracy portion proved to be a challenge but somewhere embedded in the shirrings of my brain my father’s genes stirred and came to the fore and got me through the tests. I got this interview by answering an ad in the newspaper that said that they were looking for aggressive young people who have had experience in advertising to handle the marketing of consumer brands. The position was supervisory, a grade prior to becoming a manager. My advertising experience was extensive. The absence of a job description in the small ad agencies that I worked in contributed to my well-rounded advertising savvy. I would never have had this opportunity had I applied for a management trainee position, which was the usual entry point of would be brand managers in a multinational marketing company. A management trainee position in PRC was one of the most coveted jobs among the best and the brightest graduates in the country. They said that the whole screening process is summed up by just two screening questions. After answering the question”… Ateneo, Lasalle or UP?” this would be followed by… Summa, Magna or Cum?” Although this was said in jest the response to this is taken with more than just a grain of salt. I was kicked out from a premiere learning institution and completed my education in a downtown university. The only qualification I had was my advertising experience. This was why prayers had to be in earnest and answers desperately and urgently sought for.

28. Career Change

With the arrival of our first baby, Eric, exactly nine months after the wedding, I began to seriously consider other career options. Irregular hours and frequent production work nights will be terribly unfair to my young family. I also found out that my earnings were not enough to give my wife and my son what I would consider a secure and sheltered place under the sun. It was something that I could not talk about with the people in the office because there were no immediate prospects. Some friends in media advised me that marketing would be a good alternative. I was young and already had considerable advertising experience in fast moving consumer goods.


Youth and experience was what most marketing companies would pay a premium for. As an almost instinctive reaction I started reading up on marketing. To my surprise I seemed to have enough knowledge of the subject. Attendance in client meetings during my earlier employment, the exposure to the product launch preparations of seasoned marketing men and later, the discussions with clients and the digest of their advertising briefs were pragmatic sources which contributed to the extent of my knowledge of marketing.

The opportunity presented itself in a want ad that Philippine Refining Company, a Unilevcr subsidiary, posted in a leading daily. The company was looking for brand supervisors to handle the numerous brands in Detergents, Personal Products and Foods marketing areas. I composed my application letter and sent it to PRC. It contained a resume that played down my educational background but loaded up on my advertising experience. After two days of no response I began to doubt that I would even get to an initial interview. I found out that one of the guys in the office, Ely our guy in film production, also sent his application to PRC. When I told him that I too sent an application he was quick to tell me to kiss my application goodbye because he was sure to be taken in. Although said in jest it made me a bit anxious. At that stage any form of discouragement could shatter my self-confidence and increase my anxiety level.

On the fourth day I received a wired summons to be in PRC on a certain date and time.

27. The Plunge

I didn’t mind the late hours and the frenetic schedule that marked our typical livelong day. The late hours seemed to be the time that we collected back our sanity. Manila was full of nightclubs that could offer our frazzled minds and bodies a restorative balm. This lifestyle, as I found out, was subject to the law of diminishing returns. The rate of restoration was progressively slower than the rate of diminution. I asked Lucky for a rest before I completely got burned out.

I made use of the period of respite to make plans to wed my girl friend of more than three years. The object of my endless fascination…that lovely girl in the once upon a time magical wonderland that was the radio room, have now agreed to share my future. She was finally mine. She was mine to share my accomplishments with…and to be an inspiration for glories to come. Emboldened by the good progress of my career I felt that I could now afford to start a family of my own. Besides, the lifestyle that I was then enjoying was breakdown-bound not only in my health but also in my love life.

We were wed in simple rites in the Saint Francis Church in Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong with my cousin Ric Roa standing as best man, two copywriters Ronnie and Gary and my media assistant, Dennis Corpuz, as secondary sponsors. The General Manager of Cosmos Bottling Company, Pabling Tolentino, and some rich relatives from both families acted as principal sponsors. The reception was not lavish. We were working on a budget that was not princely and so the venue and the food were just… right. My father did not tell me until the last minute that he would pay for the reception. Had I known this, this event could have been a bit more memorable. My wife remembers it well but not with enthusiasm. Anyway, it was good to be budget conscious as a first step into married life.

26. TV Bloopers

I was happy with my life. I had a satisfying and fulfilling career. The agency was humming with activity. A stark contrast from the time I joined. My boss did not renege on his promise to make the place jumpier and noisier. The noise level was up as the account wins started to come. Also, existing accounts were persuaded to resume their advertising activities through continuous proposals for restages and relaunches.

 Front: Pablo Tolentino, Sal (Mafinco), Lucky Borbon back: Wainwright Rivera. MFCO Mgr, MFCO Mgr, Ed Roa

In the meantime Lucky was able to recruit more people into the agency. There was Ely Mansor who was also an FEU drama student during the time of my older brothers. He was taken in by Lucky because he seemed handy with a 35 mm camera and could help develop a commercial film production capability for the agency. Ging Montealegre, a friend from radio room days together with Ding Pasaylon came in as client service executives. Jing would become a vice president of Advertising and Marketing Associates, Tony de Joya’s ad agency (AMA would be headed by Greg Makabenta, another habitue of the FEU radio room during our college days). I was becoming very busy on both media and client servicing. Lucky recruited Wainwright Rivera to assist me in client service. Wainwright later on became the commissioner of Public Estates.

Sarsi

One of the major wins was that of the Cosmos Bottling Company the maker of Cosmos Sarsaparilla the leading entry in the low price end of the softdrink market. It was operating in a niche market where there were really no serious contenders to the Cosmos leadership. We renamed the brand “Sarsi” and waged a vigorous television campaign using “live” TV commercials featuring Caucasian male presentors. For the placements in Channel 2 (ABS-CBN) our talent was Hal Bowie, a well-known newscaster and anchorman of special media events. The very popular Uncle Bob Stewart, the owner of Channel 7 did the Sarsi “live” commercials in his station. We had a certain Reverend Williams, a long necked pastor from a Protestant ministry doing the commercials in TV stations other than Channel 7 and Channel 2 (ABS-CBN). I could picture an effervescent Sarsi cascading through his long esophagus. The imagery tempted me to use the line, “Sarsi, a long, long refreshing drink” but Lucky groaned.

Uncle Bob's Lucky 7 club

Bob Stewart

“Live” TV commercials were something I would wish on my enemies. Anybody doing this kind of commercial production would have a severely shortened life expectancy from the devastating effects of bloopers committed on air. A slightly inebriated Hal Bowie coming from his usual “one drink” at the MOPC before going to the studio once ended the Sarsi commercial with “…so why don’t you reward yourself with a tall glass of San Miguel beer”. Bob Stewart almost always did not require a script. I just told him the message I wanted conveyed and sometimes a story line and he took it from there. I cannot forget the time when Bob Stewart in an inspired moment, took a cute little girl from the studio audience and asked what her favorite softdrink was. “Coke” she said, “You mean Sarsi, sweetheart”, “Nope…Coke!!” and no amount of enticement and pleas by Bob could make her renounce her loyalty to Coke…on air. I aged five years when Hal did the Sarsi with egg commercial and had inadvertently used a rotten egg. You can’t tell an egg’s goodness from the outside. Some inventive camera movements were employed to allow Hal to throw away the contents of his glass out of frame to save the situation.

Sarsi with egg

There were other prized bloopers with lessons to be learned. Bob Stewart singed his hand when a fireproof paint burst into flames upon applying a lighted match to a plywood board that he just brushed the paint on (Lesson: it becomes fireproof when the paint has dried), an Olympia typewriter boasting of sturdiness was dropped atop a table to show that it can take rough handling. As soon as the typewriter touched ground its carriage was sent flying like a Scud missile (lesson: the carriage had to be locked before you drop). There was the case of the “live” demo of a fogger appliance that refused to fog because we used water instead of an oil-based liquid. We couldn’t use insecticide unless we were ready to die of toxification or asphyxiation. The visual effect I wanted was to fill the small promo booth with fog and have Freddie Cochran groping around, then emerging like the monster from the Black Lagoon while he did his spiel. The fogger did not fog. All it did was spray water on the wet and hapless Freddie who was not making sense with his spiel (lesson: oil based liquid fogged while water just sprayed). I don’t recall how Freddie and I got out of that one. The commercial slot must have been on a hardly watched program and our client did not see the blooper. In another occasion I asked Freddie to do a Papa Piccolino “live” commercial. The adhesive that held his false moustache gave up and he ended up doing the commercial with only half a moustache. The other half fell on the pasta plate while he was demonstrating how “al dente” the macaroni was (lesson: sew the false moustache on the talent’s skin). I did a regular “live” commercial for Mafinco’s Mystique, a hair spray brand. Mystique had one placement a week in the Wild, Wild West the first colored program on television. The commercial required a different model each time. We had some of the loveliest girls in Manila as models in these commercials. As amateurs in TV commercial modeling they needed intensive personal coaching (lesson: be patient, “live” commercial production has its moments).

I distinctly remember Hilda Garchitorena as one of the models for Mystique. It was not so much her loveliness, though she was truly attractive, that made her stick in my mind, it was the rumored relationship she had with the late Banjo Laurel that would not go away from my mind. Although Banjo was my classmate in the Ateneo Grade school it did not give assurance that he would look kindly at guys who are engaged in a night job with his girl.

Scratch Pad II (Pete Roa)

I would like to have a break from the serializing of Look Back in Joy and do some reminiscing of the exploits of a young Pete Roa, my brother.

Senador Endong Roa

Pete is the sixth child in our family of eight. There is no special significance in the position of being the sixth child of eight children and yet he stood out as a self assured boy even at an early age. You would expect strong personalities developing from the eldest of families or a special caring for the youngest who in their development get used to having their way leaving all the other middle children disgruntled over the small but numerous advantages that the Kuya or Ate and the bunso usually get. As the seventh in the family I was next to Pete. An unenviable position I can assure you. There was hardly any sibling rivalry between the two of us for I was quick to concede his being better in so many ways. I, in fact idolized him in the same manner that I idolized Dado, another brother who was older than Pete.

I remember when we were small boys Pete would be the favorite of our vacationing tios and tias from Cagayan de Oro. They fondly called him Endong and would always have something special as pasalubong on their arrival from the province. On their departure they would give us a few pesos but Pete would always get a peso more than the rest of us kids.

Pete was the favorite of Tio Anton Cosin, a Chinese mestizo, who was married to Papa’s older sister, Tia Iling. He was the Mayor of Tagoloan, a town west of Cagayan de Oro. He had an adopted son, Dongkoy who later on would become a congressman in Misamis Oriental and at present is the Mayor of the much expanded city of Cagayan de Oro. Dongkoy Emano comes from a well to do family in Tagoloan. It was just the whim of the old man Tio Anton who took a liking to the young boy that persuaded Dongkoy’s mother, Tia Mamen, his close kin, to agree to the adoption. I am not sure if it was really a legal adoption. In the province a young child can easily be taken in by a close relative stay with the “adoptive” parents without the necessary documentation.

Whenever Tio Anton would be in Manila the first thing he would do was to look for “Endong” and talk to him about what he wanted to do during his stay. Pete was just about twelve years old at that time but you could see how much confidence Tio Anton had on him.He would ask for suggestions from Pete and somehow Pete always had the right thing to say and would invariably know what to do, where to go. The old man would sit back on the old sulihiya chair and would caress Pete’s head and say “Endong, you will become a senator someday.”

Being a photography buff he took a picture of Pete and typed a caption on the lower part of the picture “Senator Pedro Roa”. Whatever favors that Pete would get from the old man would really be deserved ones. Pete acted as overall guide and factotum. There were some things that Pete and Tio Anton did that was beyond the ken of Pete’s young and inexperienced mind which led to disastrous consequences …disastrous yet really funny in retrospect.

During one of his visits, Tio Anton requested Pete to accompany him to the Inday theater, a sleazy, smelly bedbug infested place for stage productions of girlie shows which at that time was referred to as “burlesk”. I don’t think they had these extravaganzas in Tagoloan. He must have heard of these forbidden delights from friends coming home from Manila. Being a photography buff he planned on taking pictures of the stage performance. It was a no-no to take pictures of “burlesk” performances. Even at that time the producers of these showx knew that photos of their shows could be used as evidence against them during a raid by the police.

I don’t know how Pete was able to get through the “takilyera”. Even in long pants he definitely looked like a preteener. But then again this was Pete. He always had a way of getting things done. So the dynamic duo went into the cinema hall, squeezing through a lot of sweaty and redolent male crowd to get to a photo vantage point. I think Tio Anton was already past sixty at that time but he had the agility and strength to haul himself up to an elevated portion on a wooden overhang about three rows of seats away from the stage. As soon as he gained a comfortable footing on his perch he took out his camera from his jacket and started making the necessary adjustments for aperture openings, shutter speed and fixing the flashbulb and was soon poised to record the anticipated spectacle. At that juncture one of the theater “bouncers” now euphemistically referred to as crowd control staff, saw the old man with a camera at ready. He was shouting at Tio Anton as he weaved through the throng of a restless and agitated crowd, getting nearer and nearer his perch. He was a dark and burly man who didn’t have to frown to look menacing. As he was nearing arms length to Tio Anton the stage curtains suddenly parted. It took everyone by surprise because there was no usual drums and trumpet fanfare to accompany the grand entrance of the show. Instead of skimpy clad dancers there was this big man at the center of stage wearing a bright red shirt with hands on his hips and in a booming voice roared, “this is a raid”!

I suppose Tio Anton’s guardian angel although aged was still as vigilant as before in keeping his ward from harm’s way. He was about to be grabbed by the”bouncer” when the feisty mayor of Manila, “Arsenic” Arsenio Lacson made his appearance a’la deus ex machina emergence. As soon as that happened there was pandemonium as everyone in the hall made a mad dash for the exits, audience and theater staff alike. Many made good their escapes but the very young and the aged could not break through the police cordon.

I am sure my uncle was really disappointed with the way things turned out. He was not able to get a memento, in his mind or in print of the leggy performance of the famed Inday “Burlesk” dancers. But I guess we should be thankful that nothing untoward happened to him, a close call with the bouncer or a night in jail which was the usual penalty for the audience of these shows to discourage them from patronizing these shows. I don’t really know what happened to Pete while all this was going on. He brought Tio Anton home and that was all that really mattered.

Pete, the Melancholy Dane

Theater was one of Pete’s earlier passion. He was into a wide range of performing arts. Dramatics was his forte but he also excelled in the terpsichorean arts. As a high school student in Far Eastern University he choreographed a full length musical staged by the Girl’s High School of the university. It is not too well known that he once danced with a modern dance group and was a prodigy of the master Lucio Sandoval. Even before getting under the tutelage of Sarah K. Joaquin, one of the leading lights of Philippine theater in the sixties, Pete had already acted in stage plays in High School and had stints with the Barangay Theater Guild and the Tambuli Playhouse and other theater groups I cannot now recall.

Pete was never the ideal student. This was something I still cannot understand up to now. My mother was a stickler for discipline and expected good scholastic performance from her children. In the Ateneo Grade School I struggled from year to year and I know that Dado treaded the edge too. But Pete was something different. He was the one who made my mother proud. He had medals for outstanding scholastic performance and my mother walked proudly as she went up the stage to pin these on his precious one. But that is history, Pete never made good in his studies from High School onward. Pete had to leave the Ateneo in High School and like myself transferred to FEU. All throughout his post Ateneo schooling he hardly stepped into a classroom. His home was the auditorium and the Radio Room of the university. His drama skills were honed during this time but since his academic life was almost nonexistent even a lenient Far Eastern University could not condone this behavior and soon he had to leave the university. It was fortunate that my father was among the founding members of the National Teachers College in the Quiapo district. The National Teachers College was a venerable and respected institution of learning for education. It has a heritage of imparting to its students the nobility and the importance of the teaching profession. Pete enrolled in NTC and as before neglected his academic responsibilities and again busied himself with school dramatics and the school’s radio station. Despite the disregard for academics Pete was able to complete his High School in NTC and would soon move back to FEU as a Speech and Drama student.

Pete, as he was wont to do, would leave an indelible mark on the school. This little lark to my surprise was still being talked about by the board members of the school after the passing of decades. After several years I represented my father during board meetings and some of the older members still recall the memorable event and would ask about Pete.

Now what did Pete do that could be so memorable? I was not a first hand witness of this and may not be able to supply as much detail as I would want to. From stories coming from his friends and those related to me by Dado it seems that on that day Pete had too much to drink while manning the radio booth of the school's radio station. It may have coincided with some girl problems but knowing Pete, girl problems would be the least suspect to get him into a depressed mood. In his drunken state he mounted the NTC clock tower, as Hamlet would mount the Elsinore Castle ramparts all the while delivering the soliloquy of the melancholic Dane…”To be or not to be, that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrow of outrageous fortunes…the heartache and the thousand natural shocks…for in that sleep of death what dreams may come…” he went on to finish unerringly every word and spoken trippingly in the tongue as Shakespearian lines should be spoken.

A crowd of students began to gather in front of the tower and soon joined by the firemen of the Tanduay Fire Station whose handball game was interrupted by oratory of my brother. Since he was drunk and dangerously flirting a fall from the tower window the school security had to end the performance, even if it was a tour de force one. There was no applause, the students dispersed and merrily wended their way back to their classrooms and the firemen resumed their game of handball. Truly a waste of genius. It is, as the apostle Matthew said, casting pearls before swine.

25. Writing Copy and Copywriters

with Gary Flores

In the Copy department there were four people doing the writing chores. Three of them were full time while the fourth one was a temp who was waiting for the results of the bar exams. I wasn’t sure if Ronnie Zamora was writing ad copy or PR articles for the Davids. Ronnie was a very bright fellow who eventually topped the bar, a feat that he aspired for to equal the track record of an older brother. He went on to a successful practice and later ended up in politics. One copywriter, Jorge Arago, was much too offbeat and literary for comfort. His writing style did not have any use for punctuation marks. His reason for this was he did not want to impede the fluidity of his expression by extraneous technicalities of grammar. I thought that it was carrying “stream of consciousness” to another level…to an extreme. The two others, Gary Flores whose brother, Rico, was also in advertising and Cynthia Reyes, the daughter of the then Press Secretary, were good writers in English but their lifestyles and backgrounds were from safe havens and comfortable middle class cloistered habitats.

Copy writing is a unique trade. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Maugham, Thomas Mann, Vonnegut great writers that they were will find it hard to write effective copy to the mass consumers. The successful copywriters have lifestyles that are attuned to the classes of people that they write their appeals to. They would be the best persons to know what their audiences would like to see, like to hear and know what symbols would be meaningful to “Aling Mila” or “Mang Ponso”. Being able to write stylishly and grammatically is good but not enough and at times it may even be irrelevant. Copy and visuals are inextricably intertwined…a combination of coherent sounds, symbols, situations and replicated sensations is needed to create a compelling piece of advertisement.

I was hired because I had a degree in English literature and was looked at as a potential copywriter. That was the thinking in the sixties. I wrote reasonable ad copy but they were not close to the works of the truly great copywriters in the industry like Minyong Ordonez, Ben Kanapi, Tony Mercado or Greg Garcia who were spawned during that era. These copy greats had an uncanny and unerring feel of consumers’ likes, dislikes, aspirations and angst. With this they were able to establish a friendly rapport with consumers and were rewarded by a positive response to their advertising pleas.

These copywriters, even then, already knew in their guts what are now being espoused in communications. The advertising world has moved on from that time and had introduced a lot of enhancements into the practice. Those tasked to create advertising are now required to have an in depth understanding of the day-to-day existence of their audiences. Living the life of consumers is urged through immersions both by marketing and advertising people to help them know the nuances in the life of the ordinary consumer. Lifestyle and personality rather than academic background would be given weight in choosing recruits for creative work.

 seated: Pablo Tolentino, Henry Wong, Bob Stewart, Lucky Borbon
 back: Ed Roa, Chiqui Ruiz

Thanks to the demands and cajoling of some multinational companies a bit of science has crept into advertising. Advertising has become accountable to set objectives as laid out in the marketing plan. These were evaluated and looked at against standards earlier set. You cannot manage what you cannot measure was the buzzword. Research became an integral part of the marketing effort. Clients were demanding proposition testing, copy testing and ad material testing before campaigns were launched. This was not only in creative but in media planning as well. With research, definitions of target markets and audiences were sharper and with the use of psychometrics, went beyond lifeless demographic descriptions. While advertising still sought the big creative idea, the marketing brief demanded that it satisfied commercial ends.

 front: P. Tolentino, Henry Wong, Anthony David
back: Rudy Martel, Mr Padua, Lucky Borbon, Ed Roa

   

One of the senior executives at Great Wall was Rudy Martel whose wife Aleta is the sister of Imelda Marcos. He was vice president for market research but soon left presumably to attend to their business holdings that were resuscitated with the advent of great opportunities. Rudy’s forte was quantitative research. While advertising made good use of statistics on demographic data for macro views it also helped the copy people identify who, how many and where the consumer groups are. Marketing research came of age and the demand for information went beyond quantitative data.

24. Great Wall

I joined former boss Lucky Borbon in Great Wall Advertising, an agency in Makati. I was making great progress I thought. A Makati office evoked bigness, sophistication and plush environments.

Lucky was an astute title giver. I couldn’t resist accepting the appointment to be Radio-TV Director and Senior Account Executive. I guess he knew me well and was wise to the fact that I was easy to please, a man of simple joys. The title and the doubling of my monthly pay were good enough reasons for me to join him.

I met the owner of the agency on my first day. We talked for about half an hour. She did most of the talking; a bit of corporate history, the company’s philosophy and some of the rules and terms of employment. Lucy David must have been in her mid forties at that time and was looking every bit the lady-advertising executive I expected. The executive office was tastefully modern with oriental accents. She probably was second generation Chinese, well educated and presumably enlightened to modern management practices.

Lucky ushered me around the office to meet the rest of the agency crew. I was a bit disappointed by the sleepy almost lethargic atmosphere in the lobby. This seemed to have permeated through out the whole establishment. I told the Lucky this and he agreed with me. “Look at it as a challenge. Between the two of us and other recruits who will soon be joining us this office will be noisy and jumping with activity”, he said almost apologetically.

The redeeming grace of the agency was its clientele. It had some of the biggest and oldest businesses in the industry in its list. I looked forward to getting involved in the servicing of the plum accounts. The owner was handling most of the big and established businesses herself. The reason for this was that she had personal connections with the Chinese families who owned these businesses and they were happy that the owner herself looked after their requirements.

23. Lessons From Half An Agency

I was not exactly sure as to what transpired between the owners of Bernard when one fine day it was announced that half of the staff will be moving out to new offices. What was once a small agency was further reduced by half. Our half was the Araneta side. We transferred to the White King building on Highway 54 (now EDSA) near the Guadalupe Bridge. This was so much nearer to their business offices. From then on we were only to do work for their brands and the other half, needless to say, worked on the brands of the other owner. I was lucky to be a part of the half that worked on consumer products but was sad to bid goodbye to the fun Beetle advertising.

The mainline business of the owners on our side was food products. They had a new venture, Republic Soya, which came up with cooking oils and margarine from soya beans. The management on their end consisted of hard-nosed marketing men, Cesar Macuja and Ed Sazon. They were ex Procter and Gamble marketing men. I admired their working style and learned a bit about fast moving consumer goods marketing which helped me in a job that I went into after advertising. The boss who came along with me on our side of the half was Bonggoy Verano. He was a fine advertising man. He was capable of coming up with great campaign ideas, which he presented very well. His temperament and lifestyle would be that be of a creative person which was great for creative output but not quite ideal for account work, an agency function that required a more disciplined working style. We also took with us Mon Gregorio as Art Director.

Bonggoy and I were bachelors and could squander time, which we both have plenty of for all sorts of inane and inappropriate after six behaviors. We used to go out nights together getting drunk and getting in and out of scrapes. He was one person who seemed to attract trouble. A rather garrulous person, he would have an opinion on just about anything, and spoke about them like he was an authority. He, also, thought that most women find him desirable and that he could have anyone of them if he wanted to. Even if he had nothing to do with the production of “live” commercials on TV he would often be at the set meddling with the production but mainly to try to score with the female talents. He had the proclivity to burst out in song without provocation and invariably the song came from some Broadway musical. I usually make myself scarce whenever he was in this mood. I could never get used to his pathetic imitation of Howard Keel.

Our client was worried about the slow progress of the Sola Creme margarine and Sola cooking oil projects. We could not be fired as an agency because our owners were also the owners of our client’s company. To make sure that their development projects will be on time they called up every morning to do some sort of a roll call to the agency staff. Client told me that our work was in the critical path of their network. Not familiar with the lingo I took it to mean that we were obstructing the progress of the project and was at risk of being run over…by events. To a certain extent it really meant that. After being laughed at by Bonggoy when I did a call report of sorts on the meeting I went out to buy a book on CPM (Critical Path Method). Having learned it I started to apply it on the routine processes in the agency. In a later appointment this piece of knowledge came in handy to progress the numerous projects entailed in the job.

A few months before the target launch dates of SolaCreme and Sola Cooking Oil a General Manager was hired in our office. I suspected that this was upon the behest of the client who presumably was becoming more anxious as launch day neared. I had a pleasant surprise when I found out that the new General Manager was Rene Lacson, an old friend, someone close to me and my older brothers. He was my brother Pete’s classmate in Ateneo and later on a regular habitué of the Radio Room in Far Eastern University as a Speech and Drama student. During those days we were regular customers of Ermita dives and every now and then would get into difficult situations but invariably got out of through sheer luck or brilliant brinkmanship. I knew I could work with him.

After the launch of the new products of our clients there was a lull of activities. Rene and Bonggoy were not getting along well and had frequent arguments. I did not stay long enough to find out how they resolved their differences or if they came to a resolution at all. Lucky Borbon, the guy who hired me in my first job had recently transferred to a new ad agency and talked me into joining him. It was really time for me to move on. It was no fun having to witness the almost daily squabbles between my two close friends and I also felt that the opportunity to learn has ceased in this office and I needed to seek new climes that would provide me with more latitude for progress.

22. Cutting My Teeth In Advertising

As an apprentice I had several bosses, Lucky was one, the boss of broadcast production, Noli Agcaoili was another and then there were the three Account Executives, Bonggoy Verano, Jes Lacson and Paul Ligones who sometimes asked me to do “gofer” jobs. I even had to do media work that consisted of calling up media reps to ask for the available airtime and to do a bit of haggling to bring card rates to a more reasonable level. In time I was able to put some organization to media work through a better understanding of how to place media and a feel for best audience time segments. This was done through observing the placements of the bigger advertisers who would have audience-rating data to back up their placements and the occasional chancing upon audience rating sheets from friends and media reps that have access to them.

Media buying principles were quite simple at that time. Clients just want to get assured that their brands were spending the least possible cost to reach the consumers within their target market. Given enough information I devised a system wherein it was possible to create standards by which media plans could be discussed more sanely and with less usage of gut feel which was the hallmark of advertising at that time. This was one step away from hucksterism. Audience estimates, haggling skills and good relationships with media reps and other officials of media houses helped in assuring our clients best placements and lowest cost for their brands’ media plans.

One of the more enjoyable tasks is television production work. My boss, Noli Agcaoili was among the pioneers and a master of the “live” television commercials. He was my mentor in this commercial genre that was popularly used in the early sixties until video tape recording made the practice obsolete. Noli, who was handicapped by polio at an early age would later found NOVA, a manpower institution which enabled the physically challenged to transcend their limitations and have gainful livelihoods.

Noli was a good mentor and soon enough I learned to go it alone. He quickly placed the whole responsibility of “live commercials” on my lap and concentrated on account management. Later I could understand why he was so eager to get out of it. “Live commercials” can be hazardous to one’s physical and emotional wellbeing. As his assistant I had to write scripts for these “live” commercials. “Live” commercials were advertisements that were aired as they were delivered in the studio. In the days when there were no video tape recordings and the cost of film production could only be afforded by the big multinational brands the “live” commercials thrived for a while but was doomed to extinction because of its predisposition to disaster. There was no room for mistakes in this type of television commercials. You don’t have the luxury of doing “takes”. The commercial went on air with mistakes and all. You would age five years each time a blooper was made on air.

One of the earlier but unforgettable booboos I committed was that for a launch commercial for a “bibingka” ready mix. This was the first time that a native cake mix variant was to be introduced to the White King mother brand, Republic Flour Mills’ established brand of cake mixes. It was a rather elaborate production. I had tinikling dancers at the background, a fiesta table setting complete with the papier-mâché “lechon” and the table for the product demonstration. The production was rehearsed a week before and everything evolved quite nicely. To lessen the odds for a mishap the script that I wrote only had a voiceover audio. There were no spoken parts between talents. No miscues, no buckling of lines, no tripping on props can happen. Twenty minutes before airtime my client called up to check on the preparations. I assured him that it was all systems go and I was going to do three more run-throughs with the blocking for good measure. After completing the run-throughs I still had ten minutes. In the rehearsals I was doing the voiceover because the voiceover talent was not yet around. At five minutes to go there was no sign of the voice talent and half in panic I readied myself to do the voicing of the commercial. Although I went through it several times during rehearsals I felt a dry constriction in my throat. The technical director gave his cue that we were now on air. I gave the signal for the action to start and as if carried by the momentum of the sequential movements in the studio I started to read. Less than halfway through the script I felt my confidence building up, and when done, I thought that I did a creditable job of it.

I congratulated the participants and thanked the cameramen, the technical director and other production staff for a job well done. As I was gathering my stuff I was told that I had a phone call. As soon as the voice on the other end came through I knew that it was my client, JCJ, the son in law of Salvador Araneta now better known as JoeCon.

Expecting a compliment I asked him what he thought of the commercial just aired. In a voice that was one octave higher he said “Roa…why did you clear your throat during the commercial! In a food commercial you are not supposed to clear your throat!” I had to clear my throat to manage a guttural apology. I was relieved that the booboo did not cost me my job. My boss received the brunt of our client’s ire, which he then relayed to me with even more intensity. This would not be the last of my tv bloopers.

In radio production I hired radio announcers as talents to do the voicing of the scripts that I have written and later on marry the sound background tape which may be a music bed or sound effects and oftentimes both. Some of the announcers that I have used who have gone on to prominence were Mari Velez, Dick Ildefonso, Nonoy David and Joe Cantada who were DJs of the now defunct DZHP. Radio commercial production was a source of extra income for me. I charged a twenty five-peso supervision fee for each commercial produced.

Our ad agency was so small that it didn’t even own a tape recorder. I had to borrow my dad’s bulky Ferrograph tape recorder whenever I did radio production work or when presenting the studies as well as the finished radio commercials to client. I was happy to be useful and also to be present in most client meetings. I was not about to allow the agency to have my piece of personal equipment be handled by anybody else. I could liken it to the little boy who owned the ball used in a game who threatened to bring home the ball if he does not get to play. I half suspected that the precious tape recorder was the reason I was retained by the agency. The management thought it would have been more costly to buy the equipment. That technological wonder was my ticket to attending important meetings and to get familiar with the discussions and decisions made at the top.

There I was, experiencing first hand the epic mental tussles and the eloquent arguments brought to bear on business decisions. Nothing beats learning coming directly from the great business thinkers and captains of industry. You also learn from the mediocrity of thought coming from the lesser lights in clients’ organization. I was determined to learn my new trade. I read all the books and periodicals on advertising and media that I could get my hands on. The readings had to be squeezed in to my busy schedule.

There was great interest and enjoyment in what I was doing. I said to myself that perhaps I have found my true calling. Little did I know that there was so much ahead of me. At 22 it was too early to say that that was it.

Work really mounted up as my “bosses” learned that I could do more things for them. With so many things being asked of me, I had to bring home some of them to cope with the burgeoning work. I did “live” commercials for Volkswagen and Radioweatlth with Tita Munoz as my talent and House of Ramie with Margie Santa Maria every week. I had fun doing Beetle advertising. It was a product that thrived on being made fun of. There was no limit to the abuse you can inflict on it because it was a smug and confident brand.

Tita Munoz, the unsinkable stage star of that time was a real trouper who made every Beetle script I came up with come to life. Even the worst scripts (god knows there were some awful ones) I have written have been saved by her performance. Margie Santa Maria, a top model then had her good looks to make up for her being an amateur in endorsements acting. I had to rehearse scripts with Margie several times before going on air. I heard that she got married to a gang mate of mine from Loyola Heights whom I have not seen since my college days but I have yet to confirm this.

I prepared media plans for all the clients’ products and sometimes visualizing print ads and was also given small clients to manage. After a few months I had a promotion of sorts and had the title of Radio-TV director. It did not entail an increase in pay but the title really gave me a high.

21. First Real Job

After college I went looking for a job. I would have wanted to teach but that would have required a master’s degree. What was popular then was to work in a bank. Alma, who soon became my girlfriend, was working in a bank and she said it might be a good idea if I can get into one too. I borrowed a couple of books in banking and pored over them for a week. I was trying to hothouse my becoming a banker through these two books. I applied for a management trainee position in the newly opened Merchants Bank. It was a disaster. I was hoping that my glibness would carry me through but this was not so. I met up with a panel that had put on a hostile mien designed to intimidate the most intrepid of applicants apparently to see how well they stood up to difficult situations. Intimidation plus not having a real understanding of what banking was all about, did me in. I couldn’t remember what I had said during the interview but I was almost sure that it was something that would not have shaken the foundations of the banking world. I was intimidated but I don’t see the connection between bravery and being a great banker. They missed their chance at having a great but cowardly financial whiz.

Still without a job six months after graduation I was feeling a bit desperate about my plight. My eldest brother, Cocoy, had a close friend, Lucky Borbon, who was the General Manager of an advertising agency. Lucky thought that my literature background might prove useful in writing copy for ads. He didn’t have any vacancy at that time but promised to call me as soon as an opening was available. I jumped at the opportunity by proposing that I be taken in without any salary with the understanding that my worth will be reviewed after a month to see if my work and my contribution to the agency would be good enough to warrant a pay.
It was a small advertising agency named Bernard that was owned by the Guevarras and the Aranetas, two of the biggest business families in Manila at that time. The office was situated in the Tanduay area, in the mezzanine of what looked like an extension of the Volkswagen assembly plant which was owned by the Guevarras. The office was really Spartan, we had wooden furniture that could have been hand me downs from the other offices. The air-conditioning units worked but emitted an incessant “kachug…kachug…kachug” that kept one awake even with the worst of hangovers. You need to keep awake anyway to throw out the water from the pail underneath the aircon unit that got filled every hour and a half.

The businesses covered by the combined empires were automotive assemblies, appliances, technical schools, the foods business, animal feeds and a few others. All the branded products in the conglomerate alliance used the ad agency to do their thematic advertising requirements as well as buy media for the group. It was a busy shop with not anyone of the bosses having time to give me a formal training. They just gave me tasks. Without briefs they asked me to write about a product, or put together a one-minute “live” commercial script for a car. On the best of days they would ask me to write headlines and body copy for print ads.

I got paid after a month’s gratis work. The General Manager, Lucky, announced that I deserved to be paid and started me off with a slightly higher than minimum wage salary. With my first half-month’s pay I bought roast chicken which I brought to my girl’s house to celebrate with the rest of her family my first paycheck. The second half-month of my salary went to a poker game. Seventy-five pesos on table stakes did not last very long. My mother couldn’t believe her ears when I asked money from her a day after payday.

20. The Radio Room

I had enough free time in college. My teachers were quite lenient and didn’t mind my occasional no-show in classes. I would get good grades in quizzes and acceptable recitations despite my deficient attendance. The teachers were quite happy to have someone give answers, though oftentimes plausible, for as long as these were in done in coherent English.

Oregon University Musicale -

I spent most of my free hours in the Radio Room of the Speech and Drama department. Sarah Joaquin who at that time headed the Speech and Drama department of the university and who was considered one of the pillars of Philippine theater held court in the Radio Room. The place became the haunt of the campus theater people. Among the habitués of the Radio room whom I would meet again in the field of advertising were Way Rocha, Job Montecillo, Jing Montealegre, Ely Mansor, Rene Lacson and Greg Makabenta.

I attended the Humanities class under Jes Cruz regularly. I truly liked the subject but more importantly it gave me the opportunity to show off to a girl who was introduced to me in the Radio Room of the college of Speech and Drama, Alma San Juan. Alma recently transferred to FEU from the University of the Philippines. True to form, my brother Pete, as he would with any new pretty thing, quickly became an acquaintance. He was the one who introduced me to her. Alma was a Speech and Drama major and she occasionally went to the radio room during her free hours to do line rehearsals for play projects but most of the time just to socialize.

I was completely taken by her. I found myself spending more time in the radio room so as to have more chance meetings with her. I even went to the extent of knowing from Way Rocha, who was working in the registrar’s office at that time, the subjects she enrolled in so that I can get in them too. I could have learned a thing or two about girls from my brothers. They were regular ladies’ men with savoir-faire, a quality I lacked. My idea of courtship was to be around the girl in as much time as possible, hoping that imprinting would work. Visibility making up for inability did not apply here. This was a lesson I only knew too well. It took quite a while but finally I succeeded in having a fairy tale ending of living happily ever after with my princess in tow.

Scene from Romeo and Juliet: With Jing Montealegre

Guest role in FEU Faculty play