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My mom hoped that her second child would be a girl.

That’s why she was planning to name her Franchesa-Bernadette, I honor of her two best friends.

As fate would have it, her second child turned out to be a boy.

And that’s why he got named Francis-Bernard.

My dad’s favorite drink, til the day he died, was Fundador Brandy. That’s what he usually drank when he got home at night, while watching TV and smoking his cigarettes. He’d take a sip of brandy and a sip from his tall glass of water.

And that’s why Francis-Bernard got the nickname Brandie.

When we were kids, my mom would always point out to guests that Brandie’s a Taurus and I’m a Scorpio and that’s why we’ll always clash. Maybe it was because I kept hearing that spiel over and over again and that’s why I didn’t want Brandie around me. (Or maybe baby brothers always have that amazing power to annoy you-- at whatever age.) Anyway, I remember the times when I’d try to keep him out of the playroom so I can have all the toys to myself. During grade school, my friends would come over and he’d always want to hang out in my room and I’d always try to throw him out.

Eventually, I got tired trying to throw him out because he was getting heavy.

Soon enough, he became part of the barkada and we all forgot there was a five year age gap between us.

When we still had our “Friday Night LFS Club”, he was the one who drove the van. And on the night me and Taps got puking-drunk at Tipsy’s, he was the one who drove me home, while I puked in a Filbar’s comic book bag. (Thankfully, I was able to remove the comic book before I started puking into it.)

During the years I was “freelancing” aka “the years I was trying to do Alamat stuff and wasn’t earning much”, Brandie was the one who got me writing gigs to go along with the photographs he took for magazines. I interviewed the babes. He took the pics. Thanks to Brandie, I got to meet and interview G. Toengi, Anjanette Abayari, and Lana Asanin.

After my dad died, Brandie was one who dragged me out of bed and made me type up my resume. We then drove to Makati, parked at Greenbelt, walked to several ad agencies, and dropped off our resumes.

I didn’t get any calls from those agencies, but Brandie got a call from McCann-Erickson, who told him there was an opening in their sister agency Harrison Communications. He didn’t get the job because they thought he was too young and that they didn’t have the time to train a young art director like him. And that’s when he decided to just go to the States and study at the Academy of Arts. A year later, he came home with a kick-ass portfolio and got in the adgency BBDO-Guerrero-Ortega, where he ended up winning a whole lot of awards. (He’s definitely won more creative awards that I have.)

Anyway, today is the birthday of Mr. Francis-Bernard Tan. So, you might want to go over to his phlog and greet him a happy new day!

Happy Birthday Brandie!


On a related note...
http://money.inq7.net/features/view_features.php?yyyy=2005&mon=04&dd=08&file=2

A TEAM of young Filipino creatives placed fourth in the recent Young Creative Competition during the Asia-Pacific Advertising Festival held in Thailand recently. The team, composed of Brandie Tan and Tin Sanchez of BBDO Guerrero Ortega, competed against 34 participants from 17 cities.

The brief was to find an idea to launch "Contagious," a new UK quarterly information magazine, in Cannes.
....
The BBDO Guerrero Ortega team was the second-place winner in the Philippine Creative Guild's Camp Young Creatives workshop held late last year where 17 advertising agencies participated. The teams were composed of junior art directors and copywriters.

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