the power of the picture in capturing and communicating ideas

 

 

we have heard it many times before – a picture captures a thousand words. this picture has 10 words in it but beyond that, the picture speaks of a thousand unspoken words on what the picture is communicating, the title of the picture  “judgement”. or how women are judged on the length of her skirt or dress. we don’t just enjoy looking, we also enjoy attaching one of the 10 words based on the length of the dress or skirt about the woman wearing it.

it is a very simple picture and yet it communicates the message very well, with utmost ease and in a very provocative way. words need not be used to communicate the message, we just have to look at the picture.

this is one of the amazing pictures we have even seen in our entire career.

 

 

source:

Rosea Lake, Vancouver Student, Posts Powerful ‘Judgments’ Photo Of Skirt Lengths (PHOTO)

Prudish. Flirty. Whore. Proper. Cheeky. Slut. These are just a few of the words that could be used to describe a woman’s sexual behavior based on her appearance alone, and 18-year-old college freshman Rosea Lake chose to display them starkly — on a young woman’s legs in a photo that has since gone viral. (Scroll down to see the image.)

Lake, who studies graphic design and illustration at Capilano University in Vancouver, never thought she’d become an Internet sensation when she posted her“Judgments” photo project to her Tumblr on January 5th. But something about the picture struck a chord with those who saw it, and within 24 hours the image had been re-blogged 100,000 times.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/18/rosea-lake-vancouver-judgments-skirt-length-photo_n_2504950.html

ultimate disc – giving the frisbee a sexy sport name

it is not for the faint of heart. a strong heart, legs and arms and lots of stamina are required for this new sport called “ultimate disc”.  its no surprise that it is played mostly by teenagers. it used to be called the frisbee but when played as a sport, it is called a disc.

 

double click pic to enlarge view

double click pic to enlarge view

double click pic to enlarge view

Ford Focus direct mail effort – impressive spending but unimpressive mailer material that fails

i got a surprising knock at my house from LBC – they delivered an odd sized package to me. quickly, i made a mental audit – am i expecting a package or document from anyone? the quick answer was – none. bells in my mind  rang!  oh, is this a surprise from someone? 

i opened the pack and i found a mailer from Ford on their new car, the Focus. i checked the envelope and yes it was addressed to me and it had my address. i wondered if it was sent to “occupant” or if it was sent to my house by mistake. no such mistake.

i was impressed with the direct mailing effort of Ford!

it was impressive as this was the first direct mail i got through LBC and this was addressed specifically to me. sending direct mail through LBC is a very expensive proposition. LBC cost alone is a killer of advertising budgets.

the other thing that is equally impressive was that it was  specifically for me. i was surprised they got my name and address. coming from marketing and advertising myself, i have for many years not given out my name, address and even cell phone number to almost anyone or any organization that i thought can  turn my personal information into data in a direct mail effort.

the most i do is sign my name when asked by any organization, including the schools of my children, retail outlets, stores or any other organization. when an address is required, all i put is the city name, not the complete address. for telephone or cell phone numbers, i would usually put some random number and very far from my real cell phone number.

this ford focus mailer was very targeted, having the ability to reach potential buyers. a targeted direct mail effort is very difficult for many direct mail agencies to pull off. this means this direct mail agency has a very good data base.

although i was impressed with the direct mail effort, i was not at all impressed with the mailer material they sent out.

front page & letter

the main weakness of the mailer is that it is just a re-layout of their print ads and a restating of the key elements of their TV ad. not saying the mailer should have a different advertising strategy and ad components from the TV and print ad, as  they should have the same but they should have changed the execution and implementation of the elements.

the mailer does not look like a mailer, it looks like a print ad but printed in glossy paper and folded. except for the letter that came with it, the mailer had nothing in it from a design and content standpoint that will get the recipient to take action or even just enjoy the mailer.

aside from coming up with a new design appropriate for a mailer, it should have some elements that exploit the mailer format medium. it could have been more interactive or leading where the recipient will want to read, interact with or manipulate  the mailer because it is interesting or creative.

the Focus has a few features that are unique in the market and potentially very attractive to potential car buyers. while these were mentioned in the mailer, it was not exploited in a way that is creative and compelling.

the mailer as an advertising medium is self contained and has the target audience practically as captive, designing the mailer to exploit the great features of the car and the characteristics of the medium would have served Ford very well.

inside pages

another key weakness of this mailer is that it does not include some kind of an incentive for the recipient to take action – for the recipient to go to the Ford showroom and look at the car or as the letter suggests to test drive the car.

the end objective of this mailer is not just to generate awareness on the features of the car, it is to get the target audience to go to the showroom to look and test drive the car. the weak design of the mailer fails in achieving this key objective.

the mailer may succeed in informing the target audience of the features of the car but it may be failing in getting them to take action.

lacking this incentive and the weakness of the design and concept makes this mailer a WAWAM! What A Waste Of Advertising Money!

———-

we will be going to a Ford showroom to complete the experience and effort of this mailer. will post a write-up here.

 

~~~ mindscape landmark ~~~
carrlo arvisu

 

2 dengue victims and 1 cure – tawa-tawa

this dengue story happened three years ago and I wrote this to share the experience with members of a yahoogroup composed of parents of my son’s batch when he was in grade 7. I wrote and shared it so that other parents in the batch of my son could be warned and perhaps learn and benefit from my experience with dengue.

there was a palpable dengue scare in the country at the time I wrote this with many dengue cases and dengue related deaths reported. the infection rate at that time was high and rising.

the write up is mostly intact from the original with a few things added for clarity and more details.

please read:

it’s important to note that I am writing this just as a regular parent of children who got dengue. I am not a doctor and my profession and background is not even related to any medical field. the information contained here are the things that I knew then and remember now and may or may not be correct from a medical standpoint.

this narration is purely anecdotal, without any scientific or medical basis or proof.  if dengue infects you or members of your family, you must consult a doctor immediately.  you must discuss, consult and get the agreement of the dengue patient’s attending physician for any action you will take as a result of reading this blog entry.

this is my dengue story:

the nightmare called dengue is done and over with for my family, thank God!  i just want to share a few things.

my son has fully recovered from dengue after being in the hospital for a week. but it was a double whammy for us as my daughter, my eldest and “ate” to my son had dengue too and was hospitalized just 2 days after my son was confined. both are already out of the hospital and fully recovered. thank God twice.

my whole family are now full converts of  tawa-tawa,  the “rumored” herbal cure for dengue. based on our twin experiences, tawa-tawa as

tawa-tawa plant

a cure for dengue is for real.

this is our dengue experience:

one  week-end, my son at night complained of very high fever. i needed to stay on a bed that was beside his to watch over him. even though it was the first night of high fever, he was unable to sleep and kept on complaining of feeling very hot. there was nothing I could do to relieve him of the fever with the medicine given to him does not seem to be working.  he had terrible chills and was shaking almost the whole night and gave a low moan because of the fever.

the next day, a Monday, we decided to take him to the hospital as we thought the high fever was very unusual. after two hours at the emergency room, we were shocked to find out that he had dengue. we immediately had him confined at the hospital.

as soon as I had the time,  i did internet research and read through those sent to the yahoogroup by other parents on the cure for dengue.  i found a lot of anecdotal evidence, mostly testimonies on how tawa-tawa has cured dengue from the internet and the philippine press. I thought that was worth a try.

anticipating that i might eventually use tawa-tawa,  i had the plant bought from the Manila Seedling Bank in quezon city. we bought the actual plant itself as we wanted to make sure we get the real thing.

a group of nuns and priests took it upon themselves to plant and propagate tawa-tawa at the Manila Seedling Bank so that residents of metro manila may be able to have them when needed. the tawa-tawa plant came with preparation instructions on how to make a tawa-tawa tea drink and placed the concoction  in the refrigerator.

i discussed it with my wife but she was not convinced on it. i printed the stuff i got from the internet and left it in the hospital room for her to read.

we also talked to my son’s doctor about it. the doctor, being a woman of science and medicine of course was not for it. her main concern for not agreeing to it was the lack of scientific or formal studies on its efficacy and more importantly the zero knowledge on its side effects. i understood that to her side effects are key issues as being my son’s doctor she will need to face these if they occur.

wawamTECH: how bad is globe service? smart launches a national ad campaign to exploit it

competitive advertising  is one of the most effective advertising concept and format. competitive advertising takes many forms, one is calling out the weakness of your competitor to set up your brand as the superior brand to the inferiority of your competitor. it is one of the most effective as consumers will always go for the superior brand.

not only that, users of your competitive brand, the inferior brand will be encouraged to switch to your brand. that is the main reason why smart telco has launched a new advertising campaign.

globe, it’s only other competitor has been experiencing network problems for many months now.

click to read here : wawamTECH: globe handyphone service failing for months now, collapses metro manila wide on the weekend

globe service has been very unreliable with frequent downtime, inconsistent signal strength, fluctuating signal strength from zero to 2 bars, 30 minute to several hours of receiving and sending text and inability of subscribers to make calls. this has been happening to globe for several months now. this happens area to area but the other weekend the globe system apparently failed metro manila wide.

smart very smartly exploited the inferiority of service that globe has been showing by launching an national ad campaign calling out globe’s network failures. the advertising objective is to get globe subscribers to switch to smart and to prevent new subscribers from going to globe.

this move of smart is very unusual from an advertising strategy standpoint. ads like what smart ran are usually aired by new brands just launching into the market, not by a brand that has been in the market for almost as long as globe is. newly introduced brands use this type of advertising to get loyal consumers of competitive brands already in the market to switch to the new entrant.

globe has been having network problems as a result of a mismanagement of their switch over to a new hardware and system from chinese supplier Huawei which was supposed to upgrade their service – faster service and bigger handling capacity. the change over is so bad that it is wrecking havoc to globe service. (read link, above)

smart obviously knew this as you don’t normally run ad campaigns that feature competitive weaknesses that can easily be solved and quickly. doing that will waste advertising money. smart must have known that the network problems of globe will be going on for a long time that they can actually air an ad campaign on it. smart’s competitive ad campaign has bite only if globe continues to have an inferior product.

this cellphone service war can very well be named as – how your own upgrade can kill yourself.

~~~mindscape landmark~~~
carlo p arvisu 

bayo apologizes and pulls out their mixed race ad campaign – what’s next for bayo?

bayo finally does the right thing by recognizing their error, not making excuses for it, apologizing for their error  and announcing they will pull out the offensive ad campaign.

Bayo says sorry for ads, will bring down billboards

By Francine M. Marquez, InterAksyon.com · Thursday, June 7, 2012 · 11:06 pm

On Thursday evening, an official statement issued by the company through its VP for Product Research and Development, Lyn Agustin, said: “We at BAYO deeply apologize for the message our campaign—‘What’s Your Mix?’—has unintentionally conveyed. We would like to express our regret to those who have been offended or felt discriminated against.

“Our company and our partners have always taken pride in being pro-Filipino as we continue to celebrate our uniqueness and achievements. We believe that being a Filipino will always make you 100% beautiful. It is unfortunate that this message got lost along the way.

“We thank everyone who has shown support for our thrust of promoting Filipino beauty, talent, and creativity.”

In a phone interview with Bayo’s GM Pinky Estrebillo, the clothing brand’s executive said that the company will also temporarily bring down all its billboards with the said ads. The campaign, she said, was conceptualized by its in-house creative team with the help of a consultant.

http://www.interaksyon.com/lifestyle/bayo-says-sorry-for-ad-will-bring-down-billboards

the statements of apology no longer come from the spokesperson but two other company officials. that is a good move. the spokesperson who released a statement first did not do a good job at it and we even think may have harmed the brand even more by attempting to rationalize their error.

they should have released the latest statement of apology and ad recall at the very start. people have been offended by the ads,. no amount of debate, argument or excuses can change that. making excuses for the error will only deepen the hurt and prolong the agony of a failed and insulting ad campaign.

what’s next for bayo?

1. new ad campaign – quick! they need to release a new ad campaign quickly. this may take longer than usual as they need to do some very serious thinking on the next ad campaign. this will be a tough assignment as the new ad campaign need to take into consideration the ill effects of mixed race ad campaign.

they need to find the correct balance. in a situation like this, doing too little and too much are both detrimental to the brand. will they ignore what happened? or will they recognize it?

very serious strategic thinking need to be applied on the next ad campaign.  more importantly, they should do things other than just advertising. a holistic, strategy driven and integrated effort need to be done.

2. comprehensive PR campaign – now! while they are developing their new ads, they need to go on a PR offensive to smooth things out with the public  and their target market.

equally important, they need to do a PR campaign for their suppliers, the malls that house their retail outlets and their employees. for sure many of their partners and employees feel demoralized from what happened. bayo needs to restore confidence and faith on the company and company management.

3. get rid of  the consultant, do not engage in house communication group to do next ad campaign –  the press statement said a consultant and their in house communication group did the ads. getting them to do the next ad campaign will be counter productive. getting them involve will not result to good things as they will for sure feel defensive and tainted.

4. re-train and re-tool in store dealing with customers by sales personnel -  byo should not forget that being a retail operation, the company does have direct contact with their customers at the stores. theirs is  unlike mass consumer goods marketers whose contact with the customers is mostly through advertising. people who buy a bottle of coke or sanitary napkin for example just go to the stores and buy the product, no other interaction takes place with the customer.

that is not true with retail stores. the clothing company actually has direct contact with their customers via the sales ladies in their retail stores. these sales ladies need to be given guidelines and training as to how they will behave and what to say to customers.  for sure the bayo sales ladies will be faced with questions on the ad campaign by customers. they need to know what to say and how to say it.

5. completely drop the mixed race advertising campaign, not even with a ten foot pole   – they should NOT, not even put a hint on the mixed race campaign.

the fact is the ad campaign they had was a race-driven campaign, it was not even about clothes or fashion, it was about race. race and religion are the two things in this world that no advertising or brand should have in their advertising campaign. race and religion are always very touchy subject matters where the line between doing good for the brand and doing bad is a very, very thin line.

to begin with, the advertising strategy for their mixed race ad campaign was a total failure. the ad campaign was selling the idea of mixed-fashion which is not unique to their brand and something that other clothing companies can claim. it is a very generic claim that does not build brand equity for them.

just to simplify the point, they could have for example sold their clothing line on the basis of having the best yellow color in the industry. that is ownable and unique . mixed fashion is not.

the ad campaign was selling the idea of mixed race, zeroing in on the celebrity talents they had in their ads. race has nothing to do with clothes or fashion.

this ad campaign is a celebrity endorsement ad campaign gone wrong and done badly.   they took the idea of celebrity endorsement ad campaign to the extreme – selling their endorsers instead of the product which is clothes.

this is the weakness of the philippine advertising industry as a whole. the ad industry in this country knows nothing else but celebrity endorsement ad campaigns. a huge 80% to 90% of the total ads aired on tv and radio and published in print feature celebrity endorsers. celebrity endorsement has become a go-to ad campaign concept for the industry.  it has become the default ad campaign concept.

the bayo mixed-race ad campaign has taken that ad campaign concept to the extreme that they were already selling the mixed race element of their celebrity endorser rather than the clothes they were supposed to advertise.

in developing all of the above, the company needs to face the fact that they have offended the general public and their target market.  not only that, most people will now know them as the clothing brand that insulted the filipino. that is no easy issue to face.

~~~ mindscape landmark ~~~
carlo p arvisu 

bayo’s anti-filipino ad – advertising creativity gone horribly wrong with twisted logic

we join the multitude of netizens condemning the bayo ad as anti-filipino. we join them as a filipino and as a marketing/advertising practitioner.

from the advertising and marketing standpoints, it  is very unfortunate since bayo is one of the country’s local fashion shops who is doing well in the market with many outlets in almost all the major shopping malls in the country. there is nothing worst that any one brand can do in advertising  than being anti-filipino for a filipino clothing line whose market are filipinos.

for us, there is no question on the meaning of this copy : “Call it biased, but the mixing and matching of different nationalists with Filipino blood is almost a sure formula for someone beautiful and world class.”

filipinos with mixed blood are “beautiful and world class” while unsaid, the implication is clear that those with pure filipino blood are less beautiful and not world class.

there is no mistaking the meaning of that line. the whole intent of the line is to put “mixing” as a better or even superior option to the “pure” kind. of course they refer primarily to clothing choices but the reference to mixed races is clear. the use of an australian-filipino celebrity as model for the ad makes that crystal clear as well.

how can a filipino advertising agency and a filipino clothing company make such awful statements?

before that, let’s  first go to a lesson in advertising 101 courtesy of the bayo spokesperson quoted by rappler.com

“The words are badly put but the intention there was never to offend. Who would want to offend anybody?” said a Bayo representative who requested not to be named.

“At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to say that Bayo is all about mixing and matching things. That’s how we relate it to mixed races. It’s sad that something positive…na-twist nang konti,” she told Rappler. The representative, however, admitted that the ad “was really open to misunderstanding.“

in fact the bayo spokesperson need to learn more than one advertising 101 lessons:

1. do not release ads with words that are “badly put”. ads are supposed to make people feel good about the product being advertised. words used in ads are supposed to put the brand always in a good light. being put in a good light is definitely a necessity before desirability and purchase action  kicks in.  words in ads are as important as the pictures in them.
2. “what you see is what you get“- that is one of the first things you learn when you take an advertising job for the first time after college. the audience absorbs what you put out in the ad, both in visuals and copy (words or text). visuals and copy contain your message/s. what you write and show in your ad is what the audience gets, not intentions, even good intentions as the bayo spokesperson was trying to say in his/her attempt to make a lame excuse for the ad. intentions are always invisible to the audience. so making a point of it when asked by media about a failed ad shows a very poor understanding of the communication and advertising philosophy and its dynamics. rather than say this, the spokesperson whould have just apologized for the error. we think this bayo spokesperson has done slightly worst than the ad agency that did the ad for bayo.
3. release ads only if you are 100% sure it will build business – never, ever  release an ad that is “open to misunderstanding” , even the with the slightest chance of “misunderstanding”.  clients advertise because it wants to generate business. generating business through advertising demands brand building which includes brand image that leads to brand desirability which in turn leads to brand purchase. the ideal is to have advertising that generates all those positive points, the next best thing is “target market neutral” where they are not affected by the ad and  neither are they repulsed by it. the worst of course is when the target market is repulsed by your ad. we have done this many times in our career in advertising – we junk ads that have in them even a single element that has even a slight chance of being interpreted as negative. the fact that an ad element has the chance of being interpreted as negative is like putting a tiny grenade in your handbag. it may be a small grenade but if something happens in your handbag, it can still explode. small negative elements in ads can be made bigger as your consumers talk about it and others who may have missed it are now made aware of it.

we think the “mixed race’ campaign idea in the ad has been brought about by  the heightened national attention given to other “mixed race” celebrities that we have been recently admiring like the azkals soccer team, Robin Lim the winner of the CNN Heores, miami heat coach erik spoelstra and most recently just weeks ago, american idol runner up jessica sanchez just to name a few. the phenomenon of the celebrities with filipino blood being admired by the country is really a recent development, having started  something like  just in the past 4 to 5 years ago. the bayo ad wanted to ride on this bandwagon.

that is fine except that they used the idea of “mixed race” in a very wrong way. they wanted to create the analogy of mixed clothing is as good as mixed race. the mistake was that they put the idea of “mixed” on the superior level calling it “beautiful and world class”. the inclusion of  ”world class’  plays up to the point i raised about the azkals, spoelstra, lim and sanchez who are all seen as world class.

it is twisted logic at its best. it takes the proposition from the backdoor, rather than a straight up communication of the message. it is an ad that is too intelligent. it asks the audience to go through a complicated thinking process to appreciate the message. “intelligent ads” are very tricky and prone to misinterpretation.  these types of ads are very easy for the audience not to get what it means and or as it is in this case, to be misunderstood by them.

the creative team who wrote this ad cannot deny it – they were writing advertising with the intent of positioning the brand on a superiority platform. a superiority positioning is ALWAYS what creative writers aim for when they write advertising. superiority more often than not sells brands. consumers will hardly deny a brand that they think is superior over others.

that by itself is benign. a superiority positioning is the best kind of advertising. the problem is they referenced that brand superiority positioning with race – filipino  mixed with other races versus pure filipino.  that we think is more than insulting.

whenever we look at an advertising campaign, we always look for two things – what it says  about the brand and if there are things in the ads that can generate negatives. having a hundred positives in an ad is turned worthless with even just one negative. that is the nature of advertising.

whenever we look at advertising research, we always look at the negatives and consider them in the decision making. in fact there are even advertising  research tools that purposely look for negatives in ads.

advertising that works are those that are simple and easy to understand. having complicated ads not only result to poor communication, it can bring negatives to the brand as is the case in this bayo ad.

bottom line, it is a WAWAM – What A Waste Of Advertising Money.

~~~ mindscape landmark ~~~
carlo arvisu

=============================================

[VIRAL] Bayo’s ‘What’s your mix’ campaign earns ire of netizens

 BY RAPPLER.COM

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos on social media are reacting to a recently-launched campaign by local clothing brand Bayo.

The campaign, which caries the tagline, “What’s your mix?” features Filipino models of mixed descent accompanied by text that “breaks down” their genealogy.

The campaign in itself has been mildly controversial on social media, but one particular ad is being branded by netizens as “racist” and offensive.

The ad features Fil-Aussie Jasmine Curtis-Smith, and is accompanied by copy explaining the “What’s your mix?” concept.

“This is just all about MIXING and MATCHING. Nationalities, moods, personalities and of course your fashion pieces,” the copy reads.

“Call it biased, but the mixing and matching of different nationalists with Filipino blood is almost a sure formula for someone beautiful and world class.”

The ad was never released on any of the brand’s social media accounts, a Bayo representative told Rappler; it was uploaded on their official website to explain the rationale behind the campaign.

One user, however, supposedly took a screen shot of the ad — that’s when it went viral.

Foul

Users on the thread cried foul over the ad’s implication that Filipinos of mixed descent are superior to others, while others said that reactions to the ad were exaggerated, adding that they didn’t see anything offensive in it.

“The words are badly put but the intention there was never to offend. Who would want to offend anybody?” said a Bayo representative who requested not to be named.

“At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to say that Bayo is all about mixing and matching things. That’s how we relate it to mixed races. It’s sad that something positive…na-twist nang konti,” she told Rappler. The representative, however, admitted that the ad “was really open to misunderstanding.”

“its more fun in the philippines” campaign should get Jessica Sanchez in advertising campaign

the department of tourism of the philippinjes just launched its new tourism advertising campaign, “it’s more fun in the philippines”. it’s a great tourism ad campaign and we have seen it’s execution in tv ads somewhat when ads were aired at CNN when the news network featured the philippines just a few weeks ago. how good are those ads aired at CNN? that will  be for another topic.

one of advertising 101 principles is recency and relevance. this is pretty basic – for an ad to work you need it to talk to the audience of today. it does not matter what the age of the target audience is, the ad needs to feel, look and contain advertising promises and execution that says to the audience, the product being advertised exist right now and is talking to them right now.

just yesterday is one such event – jessica sanchez, the filipina-mexican-american 16 year old girl came in second in the very popular american idol singing reality tv show. jessica was born in the US, that’s where she got the “american” part while she has a mexican father and a filipina mother.

american idol is not only a popular tv show in the US but also all over the world. the show is closely followed by audiences worldwide.  for most watching the telecast after it’s aired in the US and in this case social media giving a blow by blow account of the performances. it follows that the contestants who battle it out in the show also gain worldwide acclaim and popularity.

and this is where jessica sanchez and the DOT’s  (department of tourism) tourism advertising campaign meet each other. the country’s tourism campaign by the nature of tourism being global, where tourists from all over the world is a target market makes jessica sanchez a natural choice for its ad campaign. aside from it is safe to assume jessica has a global following , jessica coming in as runner up at american idol says she has a very wide  fan base in the US, one of the largest if not largest market for tourism for the country.  the finale had a total of 130M votes, an american idol record. taking out multiple votes, at least 90 M people in the US know who jessica sanchez is. 90M people is the population size of some countries, like the philippines. having asian roots also make her a naturally strong magnet for tourists in asian countries.

bloggers and social media citizens have pointed out that based on social media responses to the results of the american idol finals,  philip philips who won is the “american idol” but jessica sanchez is the “world idol”. jessica apparently has gotten more positive feedback from all over the world than philip philips had.

the recency factor is also a big plus for jessica as an effective endorser.  but that also puts a lot of urgency for the department of tourism to sign up jessica for an ad campaign.  getting her to appear in an ad sooner will be better for the campaign as a whole.

a tv ad featuring jessica necessarily will need to involve jessica to sing. it is what she is known for and it is what people worldwide admire her for. the DOT may p[erhaps commission a filipino song writer to write the jingle. there are many talented song writers in the country and for sure it will be easy to get a most appropriate one.  this jingle needs to work well in english and in filipino. we;re thinking the ad needs to be shot in both languages.

the filipino version can be used mostly in the philippines  and not only will that generate domestic tourism, it will unite and generate nationalistic pride among the pinoys. the onky question of course is can jessica sing in filipino?

jessica’s global popularity is a built in advantage for the tourism ad campaign. people not only know her but also admire her. having her in a tourism ad will automatically generate a lot of goodwill and call attention.  it also helps a lot that pinoys in general like music and are known to be good singers. there is no hotel in asia that do not have filipino bands playing in the bar or restaurants. a tourism ad for the philippines that features a popular singer is a perfect combination.

the talent who will appear in the ad clearly determined, the only question will be what is the content of the tv ad. – what is the advertising strategy and what are the consumer insights. and how this will fold in nicely to the “it.s more fun on the philippines” concept. we think the last part is a must.

the risk of getting a popular endorser like jessica sanchez in an ad is that the ad agency forgets about strategies. insights and campaign concept and just write copy to exploit the power of the endorser. while this type of ads may pull in audience and recall, it will fail in building a brand for the country.

 

~~~mindscape landmark ~~~
carlo p arvisu 

marketing & advertising 101 : how to apply hard core mass consumer marketing & advertising to the intangible product “family planning”

we have started a series of articles on our experience on applying hard core mass consumer  marketing & advertising to the intangible product called “family planning”

 this will be a first of a series of articles that will explore how hard core mass consumer marketing and advertising have been successfully applied to a near intangible product called “family planning”. the product “family planning” is actually a mindset and a practice and something you cannot buy like a detergent bar for washing clothes that you can get in a supermarket or sari-sari store (neighborhood store),

while family planning can eventually take the form of real and tangible products like condoms or pills which has real brand names and packages that can be bought in retail and drug stores, what the effort intended to do was to get the target audience to buy in or believe in “family planning” and for the same target audience to decide to use any one of family planning methods available.

source :  http://bit.ly/ycZ5QI

read the full article on the key findings on the first  part of the qualitative research done for family planning here:  http://bit.ly/ApfPVi (why pinoys who are single or married need family planning in their relationship)

read how the focus group discussion was designed within the lines of the kinds of research done for mass consumer products: applying mass consumer marketing & advertising to the intangible “family planning” product (click here:  http://bit.ly/ycZ5QI)

~~mindscape landscape~~

carlo p arvisu

12 years ago Kodak was warned of Chapter 11 bankruptcy risk

in september 2000 a power point presentation was sent to the chief marketing officer of eastman kodak that essentially warned the company of a collapse of its business if it did not take action in response to the emerging changes in consumer habits and the market it operated in.

the market that kodak was operating then was fast changing brought about by stand alone digital cameras, cameras in cell phones, the computer and the internet. at that time less and less people were using cameras that needed film, and therefore less pictures were printed and more and more pictures were being shared electronically or digitally.  while smartphones were not yet widespread then, cell phones already had basic cameras and were able to take acceptable pictures. cameras in cell phones was an emerging trend during that time.

that development among consumers were affecting the very market thatr kodak was operating in. it was starting to shrink at a rapid pace.

the market situation kodak was in in 2000

the change that was happening was among the consumers themselves. habits were being changed, usage was altered and consumers were substituting kodak products with other forms of products outside film and picture printing.  this was a major revolution in consumer needs and wants. kodak in effect was becoming irrelevant to the consumer and not even considered as a choice or option.

the powerpoint presentation was not based on any consumer or market research or any business data. it was just based on observing what was happening to consumers, the environment and the author’s personal experience.  it  was calling for a major and almost reinvention of the marketing philosophy and strategy for kodak.

not having real data, it was not exhaustive but the idea was to spark some start page thinking and to develop a roadmap for a major change in strategy for kodak with the end view of not just growing the business but actually helping ensure its survival as a company.

the powerpoint presentation intended to paint a preliminary picture of changing consumer habits, needs and wants that will change the market that kodak was competing in for a change in marketing strategy for the company and eventually lead to new product development for the company that will probably be very different from what kodak was manufacturing and selling at that time.

the powerpoint presentation was sent to another marketing officer, a woman but no action was taken on it.

we wonder now what would have happened if kodak took the contents of the powerpoint presentation and how kodak would have avoided filing a chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that it filed in january this year.

read the full powerpoint presentation here: KODAK Growth Focus

~~mindscape landmark~~
carlo arvisu 

first snow in boston, first snow in hand and the journey of first good-byes from the heart

i have  been monitoring the winter situation in the US almost on a daily basis since november last year. it has been a long wait for the real winter or at least for snow, the unofficial mascot of winter, it came late this winter in the US.  snow only arrived middle of january instead of november or december of  previous years.

having lived in snow-less asia all your life makes the arrival of snow both an exciting and daunting experience.

i remember the first time i saw snow in the US – it was in the early morning of a november month  many years ago somewhere in  new jersey where we stayed in a good friend’s house. we woke up early in the morning as we were flying back out to california. it was a shock, in a good way,  to go out of the house and suddenly saw the whole neighborhood covered with a  fine white snow blanket.  color was absent except for white over every space.  the place had color just the previous day!

the 3-year-old enjoying her first winter

it felt like we were looking at a painting of the place we have been staying in but the artist decided to put an abundant layer of white on the whole painting. it felt like a giant spray paint was used to lay on it an even spread of fine white snow. it was early morning and the painting was untouched and unbroken by anything, just beauty and wonderment in white snow.

it was really spectacular and would have wanted to get a near boil coffee in a mug,  get thick blankets and sit on the porch and enjoy the view.  but we didn’t have time to enjoy it as we needed to catch our flight back to california.

we were going to be driving to the airport and our host was good enough to give us a briefing on what to expect and what to do in driving through snow, it would be our first time to do that. aside from getting the all important briefing on driving through snow,  we also needed to load our stuff into the rental which does not leave us a lot of time.  more than half of the things we had belong to my 3-year-old daughter.

my android phone monitoring snow in boston

my android cellphone and ipod touch have the Weather Channel applications on them, even a widget on the android so that it automatically tracks and  informs me of weather changes in boston.  i woke up last saturday, manila time with tiny specks of snow on the weather channel application on my android phone. i immediately sent an email to boston asking – “have you seen snow yet?”.

i  got an email reply, no words, just 4 pictures probably taken from a cellphone or ipod touch camera.

the reply was yet the most eloquent i ever got on email.  it did that for many reasons beyond the pictures sent to me.  it’s like some invisible melody coming from some place deep.  this email, even without words  talked straight to my heart and my heart spoke back.

like a painting where the artist applied an over abundance of  even white where there was color just a day before

time seemed to have stood still in the pictures.  i wondered if seeing snow for the first time this way, which was very much like what we saw years ago evoked the same kind of feelings i felt then.

the first picture, above, is one taken from inside a window looking out to the scene outside. it reminded me of how many things have changed. things from the inside and the outside.  in this picture life seemed to have changed in a very major way in over  just a day so it seems.  it was a familiar place because you saw it every day but now all of it seems gone,  the same place redefined in a major way. while many have changed, you knew it is the same place.

all of it looking very different and yet it is the same place and knowing that with certainty.  there is no contradiction there. it’s just how time and seasons operate and how it affects us and our lives in ways that sometimes we don’t understand and without permission.  there is comfort there and  mixed with some mystery. that is what happens when you see from the inside looking out.

a kiss, a wave good bye and next footsteps moving away from you

i felt different things when i saw the picture above. while it seemed solitary and even sad, i saw a kiss, next a wave good bye and soon enough i see footsteps breaking the snow as they move  away from me.

the footsteps will eventually go past my field of vision, beyond what i can see. and that is a good thing. more than what i can see means pathways i was unable to reach now conquered. that is always reason to be happy.

the good thing about pathways is that if it is there for the going, it is also there for the coming.  in afternoons already too many to count, that has always happened. a doorbell, the same kiss and this time a hug instead of a wave good bye happened with regularity.  the unsettled returns to what it was from  the day that started in the morning.

but this is now snow. that is a whole different story altogether.  i had broken snow myself on a pathway just a few times a long time ago. this new pathway and this snow will be broken almost everyday and soon it will be too many to count as well, made by  different footsteps and not mine.

for now, i can only hope that this pathway returns to me eventually, in some future time.  for sure not on a daily basis but at least once in awhile and that will be enough to fill the waiting and the half empty heart with overflowing  joy.

the 3 year old is now 18 and in her hand, this time wearing red gloves, is snow. the picture above.

the snow was pressed , i can see her fingers’ indention on the snow. she went out, scooped some snow in her hand and pressed it to get a feel of snow. that is perhaps to make sure she is really there in boston. it is a good way to experience snow for the first time.  it’s a very natural thing to do – squeeze the snow as if to find out what it is made of. i would have done the same.

it is also a very good way to answer the  question i emailed her – “have you seen snow yet?”.

i immediately remembered that picture of hers, one of my favorites,  when she was 3 when we went to  New York. we had to bundle her up, with multiple layers of clothing as it was her first time to experience winter. coming from sunny philippines all her life, catching a cold is a key concern, 24/7.

for some reason she decided that her little hands held high and her face tilted  with a big smile just like it is in that picture, above, will be the only pose she will ever have in that US trip.  so all her pictures during that US trip had her in that exact pose. we didn’t bother asking her why she chose that pose nor did we ask her to change to other poses.  it made her happy, so we let her be.

why is it that during her first trip to winter in New York when she was 3 that  her hands  were  most prominent and now, 15 years after, she being  18 now, her first encounter with snow, the same hand is also prominent?  it feels like some poetic string sprouted from that time , grew and  traveled 15 years through time to this  moment in that boston picture.

they are the same hands, its just that then they were from a  3 year old in that picture and now from an  18 year old holding snow.

i have read in baby books that the infant is born without yet knowing her body parts and that included her hands. the books said there will come a time when the baby will realize she has hands.

i was there when that happened to her.

it was an afternoon, she was on the bed, after a nice warm bath and she momentarily stopped wiggling her feet.  i saw her whole body sort of freeze, then she stared at her hand, fixed her gaze at it then  moved  her head to  follow it as she moved her hand from side to side. realizing what just happened, i quickly removed the cloth gloves we always put on her (prevents her from scratching her own face or poke her eye). i wanted  her to see her own fingers too.

it happened  exactly the way the baby books described it. it was sort of funny for me as i found the idea of not knowing you have hands sounded ridiculous and discovering it the way she did was even funnier.  she looked silly keeping her gaze at her own hand and moving  her head to follow her hand as she moved it.

while finding it funny, i felt a beautiful warm feeling came over me. i knew she has reached a new milestone in her life., just 3 months old.  it felt good and i felt very honored to be right there to witness it when it happened. it was very special for a father to be right there with your daughter as she crossed a milestone, no matter how small it is.  this was the first beginning of a new phase in her life that i had witnessed and through the years, there were many more firsts that i had witnessed.

a little sadness,  more like missing her that i felt when i saw that picture of  snow for the first time being in her hand.  with oceans separating us, i could only experience it with her through an emailed picture. how i wish i was with her.

i had seen the same  hands do many things for the first time – taking it out of her mouth from finger sucking to holding a nursing bottle to pulling at my arm and pressing my hand when she felt terrified while watching a scary movie to getting comfort as the doctor gave her an injection.

i saw that hand through different times of her life – from her first discovery that she had hands, to teaching her how to use that hand to hold things, to  getting comfort and strength from me, to holding it to give her affection to a wave good bye at the airport.  it has now grown to almost the size of my hand. that boston picture of snow in hand told it to me so eloquently – she is an  adult now and all that i can do for now is to see what those hands are doing  with several time zones separating us through a picture sent by email.

the upside is those hands that she discovered when she was 3 months old, then raised for pictures at 3 years old  and now holding snow at 18 for sure will be doing great things that i will enjoy and be proud of soon enough. there is something  in that a hand meant to touch is being able to touch my heart without physical contact. while i  smile, my heart cries a little.

to bring back some warmth to my heart, i search for one end of that poetic  string and attach it to my heart. then i heard my heart  whisper through that string –  ”you are missed badly. and loved completely.  then, now and forever.”

~~ a love letter to happiness ~~
carlo arvisu 

jpegs of Steve Jobs in iHeaven

 

 

what becomes of Apple A.S.J. (After Steve Jobs)? – take the poll

what will happen to apple  post steve jobs? that is probably the one question most people are asking.  it is not a morbid question, it is one of admiration and acknowledgement of the power and influence of steve jobs not only on apple but the rest of the technology world and yes our lives. that IS the impact of steve jobs to the company, to the industry and in our lives.

pundits and analysts are still out pondering on that question. in the meantime, take the poll:

Nokia C3 product defect made worst with Nokia Customer Care who does not care

the case of the 2 defective Nokia C3 is not yet over.  not only is it still on-going, the most recent dealing with Nokia Care, Nokia’s customer “care” service made it worst by showing they really don’t care about customers.

after a string of failures with ronald of the Nokia Care center at Greenhills, we have decided to get the information we needed on our own. through our contacts from nokia itself and from the industry, we are able to get the names of the key officers of Nokia Philippines – it’s general manager, marketing director and customer care manager.  we were able to get through to the office of the general manager and the assistant in that office listened to our complaints and got our contact numbers.

the result was swift, we immediately got a call. from a certain Byan who we think is the manager in charge of the Nokia Care center operations.  we guess getting a call from the office of the general manager of Nokia Philippines has pushed the right button.

bryan in his mild mannered tone told me at the outset that he has been briefed by Nokia Care Greenhills and is aware of our request for a refund. he quickly told me that  they are prepared to make an offer.  he said they are giving us two (2) options : option 1 – replace the 2 C3 units with brand new C3 units or option 2 – refund the purchase price of the 2 units. the latter was actually my request.

we asked him more questions to fully understand the offers he made. i asked him what guarantee can he give me that the brand new C3 units he will replace the defective ones will no longer have the same problems as the ones i bought? i asked if there were changes in hardware parts since the time i bought them. he said there were no changes in hardware parts.

he told me that it should have no problem with the ones i bought because these new units will have the latest software. i told him i doubt if that will solve the problems. i told him that the 2 units that i bought have been loaded with new and the latest software several times at their Nokia Care Center and the problems continued to reoccur.

on the refund – i asked him what was the process involved and how long will it take them to give me the refund. he said the refund will take a little bit longer to accomplish as it will involve “coordinating” with the resellers or the stores from which the units were bought from.

since the users of the cellphone were my teen-age children and not me, i told bryan i needed  some time to make the decision. i wanted my children to make the decision on what they want to do with their defective Nokia C3 units. we were given two options, i wanted each child to make up his/her own mind as to what option to take.

true enogjh, my two children had different preferences – my 13 year old son wanted a refund. he does not want to have anything to do with a nokia phone. my daughter continue to like the C3 and her decision was for the replacement of a brand new unit.

since i was going to buy a new cellphone myself, i had my two children come with me to the stores for them to see other brands before they make a final decision. we spent a whole  afternoon looking at cellphones in the malls. in the end my son stayed with a refund and my duaghter changed her mind and now wanted a refund,  both now had firm ideas on the brand and model they wanted to have and both are not nokias.

with the decisions made, i told bryan what they were the next time he called me. i asked him again – what are the processes that they will need to follow and when will i get the refund. he gave the same answers – he will need to coordinate with the resellers and it will take one week. he said he will call me the following week, on a tuesday.

so last wednesday on the first working hour, i called bryan to ask about the refund, he was not answering his phone. after lunch, he finally called me and this call was a dramatic disappointment.

he told me that they will not be able to give a refund on the units we bought from nokia. this was very shocking to me. he did not mention any problems with the refund during the previous two times we talked about it. i asked him very direct questions and all he said length of time was the only issue and nothing else.

bryan was now denying he made the offer of the refund. he said that the offer made then was tentative and that after further review, they found out they cannot offer it to me.

i was adamant – i had told my children about the refund and we even spent time to look at cellphone options to make a proper decision. and now, i will need to tell my children no refund was forthcoming.

a few more discussions ensued. i explained to him why we preferred the refund which was basically we did not think Nokia can guarantee that replacing the defective units with brand new ones will solve the problem. i told him i no longer wanted to keep going back to the Nokia Care Center for any repair.  cellphone units are not supposed to break down every two months, they are supposed to last for a long time .

sensing this was a dead end with byan, i asked him for the name of his superior. i thought that itr was time to elevate the matter to a higher level. he refused to give me the name of the person of hyis superior. i asked him what department he belonged to, he also refused to give me the specific name of the department and only said he worked at Nokia Philippines.

i asked him several times the name of his superior at Nokia Philippines and he simply ignored my question. what got me ticked was he ev en pretended not to hear what I was asking him, saying the connection was bad and he could not hear me.

that really got me very angry. i thought this bryan in his mild mannered tone was completely unprofessional.  i also thought that he was hiding something,, he probably knew he had screwed up the discussion with me and he did not have the balls to give the name of his superior as he will be found out by Nokia higher management.

i hanged up the phone even more determined to get the refund and to expose bryan.

Nokia C3 product defect unsolved, 3rd time for repair

the nightmare called Nokia C3 continues. we had previously posted here product defect problems with 2 brand new units of Nokia C3 . one was bought in august 2010 and another in december 2010. the august 2010 unit has been sent to the Nokia Care Center for repairs 4 times already while the december 2010 unit 2 times.

the december unit has been repaired but after only 2 weeks, we have sent it back again to Nokia Care Center for more repairs. this will be the 3rd time we have brought it for repairs since it was bought. we brought the unit back to the greenhills nokia care center yesterday, april 17, 2011.

this is a repeat of the previous problems – the unit very often turns itself off when it is charged  and it turns itself off when being used at times. this is one of the problems we have had with this unit when we had brought it in for repairs. it has not been solved apparently.

a slight good news – it has not deleted all the contacts and files when it turns itself off which was one of the major problems encountered previously.

for this 3rd repair, the nokia care center manager, ronald said they will now need to replace the whole motherboard. they had apparently not done so in the 2nd repair.

if this was a laptop, replacing the motherboard is the most  major repair one can do to a laptop. the cost apparently is almost as high as buying a new laptop. if you had to pay for this kind of repair, the advise you will get is not to have the motherboard replaced but buy a brand new laptop instead. this is probably true for cell phones.

i had asked about my previous request to refund the money we paid for the nokia C3 but  ronald, the nokia care center manager said they will not be able to refund the cost. asked why not, he was unable to give any reason.

i asked who i can talk to about it. he gave me a name and cellphone number to call, a certain janelle. i asked him to call this janelle person so i can talk to her. he went to an inner room and spent some minutes using the telephone but he came out to tell me  janelle was not answering her cellphone. bi wondered what he did on the phone for some minutes if she did not answer.

ronald promised me janelle will call me in the evening of sunday or today. i dialed the cellphone number and he was right, the number just kept ringing.

we will be posting more here later.

read other posts here:

• Nokia C3 product defect – hard resets by itself, deletes contact list, messages and files : http://wp.me/paTrm-1tS
• nokia care center – stupid things at call centers : 3 versions of stupid: http://wp.me/paTrm-1uh

who is dumb – philippine tv or the phillippine tv audience?

the willie revillame mess at his tv show “willing willie” has taken a higher level discussion now from the question was there  child abuse in revillame’s show or none to what is philippine tv and should it be?

we applaud monique wilson for speaking out and for urging other filipino talents to speak their minds on the issue.  she makes a very good point that in recent years we have been seeing more and more

filipinos breaking out and being admired in the world stage. there is now a huge army of them with filipinos and half filipinos who have become and are hailed as world-class in their firleds from many persuasions – music, arts, sports, design, modeling, journalism, medicine, visual arts, business  and many others.

with so many filipinos taking on the stature and reputation as being world-class,  why is philippine tv doing a “dumb down” on the philippine audience?

Don’t dumb down viewers, TV urged

Actress, solon seek quality programs

by Volt Contreras
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:11:00 04/11/2011

MANILA, Philippines—Even the theater star who brought “The Vagina Monologues” to the Philippine stage is aghast.

The list of Willie Revillame’s critics now includes acclaimed actress-director Monique Wilson, who called on local artists to band together, overcome fears of crossing potential employers, and help put the pressure on TV networks that “dumb down” the Filipino audience.

“We keep saying Filipino artists are world-class. Well, let’s prove it now,” Wilson wrote on her blog as she weighed in on the latest controversy hounding the game show host.

“The debate is no longer whether it was child abuse or not,” Wilson said, referring to the widely criticized episode of Revillame’s “Willing Willie” show on TV5 that had a 6-year-old boy gyrating like a macho dancer while breaking into tears for a P10,000 cash prize.

“The facts are plain to see. No one with a sense of respect for another human being can dispute that,” Wilson said.

“The discourse now is how we, as Filipinos, as artists involved in the same industry that created Willie Revillame and shows like his, could have allowed this to go on for as long as it has.”

read in full here: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20110411-330486/Dont-dumb-down-viewers-TV-urged

“True Filipino Heroes” – pinoys got it right 9 out 10, fails in 1

read it here : http://wp.me/pnw03-1rZ

 

nokia care center – stupid things at call centers : 3 versions of stupid

this is in relation to the the nokia C3  product problems we have elevated to the nokia care center.

we  had called  the nokia care center a few days ago. we called again yesterday to follow up.  when the call center agent talked to us,  we promptly gave the reference number we had for the case. after a few seconds, to give time for the computer of call center agent to have our record appear on his computer monitor, we told him why we called:

me : i called a few days ago and the agent told me she will call me up gain during that day to let me know status of my request. she did not call back then and i have not received a call since then, for 3 days now.

nokia care center agent: sir, nobody called you yet about it?

me : yes, nobody has called me and i want to know the status.

nokia care center agent : did anyone call you , sir?

me: no, nobody has called me yet.

nokia care center agent : sir, nobody has told you the status for your case?

me: wait a minute – look i have already told you nobody has called me about it yet. you have asked me the same question in 3 versions already,  i will give you the same answer. please do not ask me the same question in a 4th version .

listen to me – nobody has called me since i first called to tell me what the status of  the case is. let’s move on and tell me what the status is.

i did not understand why the call center agent asked me the same question in 3 versions. i had to stop him after the 3rd time as i felt he was preparing to ask me the same thing in a 4th version. what was the point of it? did he think i will change my answer if he asked me again? 3 stupid questions in a single call!

the net effect of asking the same question in 3 versions is only to lengthen the conversation. asking the same 3 times will not give the call center agent any other information nor make his understanding of it better but it will only annoy the customer.

Nokia C3 product defect – hard resets by itself, deletes contact list, messages and files

we have never had a nokia cell phone before,  we have had a motorola, sony ericcsson and a samsung.  no particular reason why we never bought a nokia, it was just the cell phones we have had like the sony ericcsson and samsung have done very well that we did not consider getting other brands. based on experience, sonny ericcsson and samsung cell phones are self-sustaining – they hardly break, the user experience is easy, very reliable and they last long.

nokia C3 product defect

but not for teen-agers. teen-agers seem to be in love with nokia cell phones. when it was time to replace her old cell phone, my teen-age daughter looked for a replacement phone and she was convinced a nokia c3 was the best buy.

looking at the specs, she was correct – it was a qwerty phone, bigger than normal screen, wi-fi, decent camera, nice color and at a very good value price of only P6,500+. the phone actually had  everything she wanted at a very good price.

think again.

we bought the phone in august 2010 and since the time we bought it, we had gone back to the nokia repair center 4 times, an average of every 2 months to have the phone repaired for the SAME reason –  her phone hard resets on its own. what happens is it turns off on its own and when you power  it back on, everything in the cell phone is gone – address book, files and even the games that came pre-installed with the phone when it was purchased.  there were also times when she can’t send text and can ‘t connect to the internet through wi-fi.

sometime in december, 2010, my son needed to replace his own cell phone as well, thinking that maybe the experience of my daughter is isolated and since it had great features at a good value price, we bought a 2nd C3 for my son.

guess what – we have been to the nokia repair center twice already with my son’s C3 for exactly the same reason we have been going back for my daughter’s cell phone.

for those 6 times we have brought the 2 Nokia C3 cell phone, what they had done was “update” the OS. unfortunately, it does not seem to work as after some time of the update, the same problem reappears. so now i am thinking this is no longer an OS problem but a hardware problem. and since the same problem occurred in two units, i think this is a product defect already.

being that, i had asked nokia for a refund of our money. i just did not want to keep on going back to the nokia repair center every 2 months for each nokia C3 that we bought. aside from the hassle and gasoline expense, the  inconvenience of having my children’s contact lists, files and messages deleted every 2 months is just too much of a bother.

we have called nokia for this request. we will update this blog as things develop.

13 year old addresses the UN to plant trees

this 13 year old boy is trying to make a difference and if he succeeds,  it will benefit everyone in the planet.  meet Felix Finkbeiner, the 13 year old who started a school project that went on to become a big organization attempting to make big things happen for all of us and the earth we live in.

13 year old felix and hollywood actor harrison ford

they have an ad campaign with the line “stop talking, start planting”. it is something that most adults do –  all talk, little or no action.  this boy is telling us adults something we have forgotten to do – act now.

this ad campaign features all sorts of adults who are famous and those who are achievers. the ad here features the actor harrison ford. (view other ads here: http://www.plant-for-the-planet.org/es/take-action/stop-talking-start-planting)

they also have a website, click here: http://www.plant-for-the-planet.org/es

let’s hope other 13 year old pinoys take the same cause.

The 13-year-old tree ambassador

February 23, 2011|By Whitney Hurst, CNN

It’s not every day that a 13-year-old boy gets a chance to address the United Nations General Assembly. But Felix Finkbeiner is no ordinary teenager.

Finkbeiner is already the head of his own organization, Plant for the Planet, dedicated to planting millions of trees all around the world.

At the U.N. earlier this month, Finkbeiner had one item on his agenda: taking adults to task for their lack of action on planting trees.

In the normally staid U.N., Finkbeiner had a field day telling off a group of adults. His message to the diplomats was simple: “stop talking and start planting.”

Finkbeiner warned the countries that disappearing trees would create a climate crisis for children’s future.

“We children understand that the adults know everything about these crises, but we children don’t understand why there’s so little action,” he said.

Plant for the Planet was founded in, of all places, a fourth grade classroom in his native Germany.

A presentation Finkbeiner gave in class about Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, who planted 30 million trees in Kenya, inspired the movement.

But Finkbeiner believes this tree crusade can only be successful if it is led by children.

“We children are the majority in the world but we can only make a difference if we work together. So we have to work together because if we do this, we can have a big impact,” he says.

This tree-planting campaign has already had an impact worldwide. Finkbeiner says there are 100,000 children participating in 91 countries with 3.5 million trees planted.

Maathai, who also addressed the U.N. on the same occasion, was impressed with Finkbeiner’s success.

“It is an indication of the kind of inspiration and hope we should all have because when they start this young with the conviction and the commitment, then you know definitely there’s hope.”

After her speech, Maathai and Finkbeiner shared some tree talk and a hug in the hall.

Later on further uptown, Finkbeiner addressed an entire audience of teens at a New York City middle school. His speech was a battle cry to his peers. “It’s not about saving the polar bear. It’s about saving our future.”

Finkbeiner offered the students, who rarely see trees in the concrete jungle of Manhattan, some suggestions on planting trees.

He encouraged the students to organize tree-planting parties in their community. Twitter and Facebook could be used to spread the word on tree events, Finkbeiner told the curious group of youngsters.

For those seeking even more sophisticated means of getting news out, Finkbeiner offered tips on writing press releases.

Jonathan Mejia, a student who attended the presentation, left feeling inspired to “go out with a couple of my friends to a park and plant a lot of trees in a common area that everyone goes, like maybe Central Park.”

This is exactly the kind of momentum Finkbeiner hopes to inspire in children around the world.

“We cannot trust that the adults alone will save our future,” the young tree ambassadors says. “We have to take our future in our own hands.”

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-23/living/teenage.tree.ambassador_1_tree-planting-inspiration-and-hope-concrete-jungle?_s=PM:LIVING