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ANOTHER BRIGHT IDEA

I was trying sleep when Brandie came into the room because he wanted to bounce off ideas about his new campaign. His story was about how Great Taste instant coffee tastes as good as brewed coffee or as great as espresso.

I hid under the blanket and told him to go away.

He proceeded to tell his storyboard anyway. It was supposed to star Leo Martinez and another lady and they were supposed to be husband and wife. A classy, rich neighbor came over to visit and asked for espresso.

Leo Martinez’s wife wanted to impress the society girl neighbor and told her husband to make espresso. Leo Martinez then runs into the kitchen and starts to mix the Great Taste in a cup of hot water while imitating the sounds of an espresso machine.

Of course, like most commercials, we have the “happy ending” where the product saves the day because it tastes so good… in this case, tastes like espresso.

By this time, I had sat up and started to pitch ideas on how to make the commercial funnier.

That happened back in 1993 (or was it 1992?) and Brandie was putting together that campaign for his UP Fine Arts class.

I don’t know if Brandie got a good grade for that TV commercial.

Cut-to: 13 years later, Brandie has already won several local and international advertising awards. I’d like to think he learned his lessons from UP FA very well. (So far, he has not yet worked on the Great Taste account and has not yet worked with Leo Martinez. But I think he’s doing quite well.)

Getting into advertising was never really my bright idea. I wanted to be THE NEXT GREAT FILIPINO COMIC BOOK WRITER / NOVELIST / SUPER HERO.

But during Brandie’s college days, he kept barging in my room because he wanted to tell me about his new great idea. He would usually read from his notebook all the lessons he learned during that day and then he’d tell me his idea. So, in a way, everything I needed to learn about advertising, I learned from Brandie. (And it was his bright idea that I get into advertising.)

Just wanted to say thanks and happy birthday to THE NEXT GREAT FILIPINO ADVERTISER—my brother, Brandie Tan


(Brandie, with his writer/team mate Carol Ong, receiving their Araw Award in the 2005 Ad Congress.)

Please do click-click and hop on over to his Phlog where you can greet him a happy new year (and even get to check out his latest bright ideas).

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