memo to villar ad people : mga kids, attention to details lang please. strike 2 na kayo!

ok, ok so we are belaboring the point here in 2010 Presidentiables – we are once again talking about the villar “itik” tv spot.

we are doing this as we are of the point of view that it is important for ad people to remember that when it comes to political ads, they need to be perfect. this is a political ad, errors are more magnified than for consumer brands. political opponents of the candidate you are advertising can make a big deal of your errors. the electorate themselves can make a big deal of your errors. more importantly, there is no round 2 for political ads because there is only one election date. a mistake made now is a mistake made forever.

so, it’s a good thing that villar’s ad people revised the ending of the itik tv spot, but it’s not a good thing that when they revised it, they did not do a 100% fix on it. tsk, tsk.

here’s why:

• they did not re-shoot the ad, they did CG work (computer graphics) in getting the dirt on villar’s shirt. the ideal would have been to re-shoot the ending. CG could have fine but they should have made sure it delivered.
• the shape of the dirt on the shirt at end the tv spot is inconsistent with the one at the middle of the tv spot. in the shot at the middle of the ad, it was more like a trail of mud caused by 3 fingers, not like the blob that appears at the end shot.
• the color is also inconsistent. the shot at the middle of the ad was light, the color at the end was dark. they over-applied at the end of the ad. in other words, the actual dirt that villar wiped on his shirt was not as much as they had placed on CG at the end of the ad.
• placement is off – in the middle of the ad, it was more on the right side of the shirt which is consistent with villar wiping his right hand on his shirt which will naturally land more on the right side of the shirt. the dirt at the end was placed more on the center of the shirt.
• the dirt at the end “jumped” or “moved” as the scene played out. this meant the CG artist became lazy and did not painstakingly make sure it is consistent from frame to frame.

the above are easier to see on tv. it also points out that reshooting the scenes (they need to re-shoot the middle wiping on shirt and end shot but this time use the same shirt in both scenes) would have been the smarter thing to do. the problems, above, are the things you can expect to happen when you do a CG work of this sort, specially if you don’t hire a good CG artist.

mga kids, ayan na naman – palpak sa attention to details! strike 2 na kayo mga kids!

manny villar’s “itik” ad changed to show villar indeed has a dirty hand and a dirty shirt! 2010 Presidentiables claim victory for continuity?

a few days ago, a friend of 2010 Presidentiables sent us text messages that asked me if i have seen the manny villar ad on tv. i said no, i have not. we were told the ending has been changed to show villar’s shirt at the end is now dirty, unlike the ad posted here in 2010 presidentiables.

we posted a youtube link here of the itik ad on january 26, 2009 with the comment that the ad had a continuity error – the ad made a big deal of villar at the middle of the ad holding an itik, then wiping his dirty hand on his shirt only to show the same shirt at the end of the ad miraculously clean. the director of the ad and editor committed a grave continuity error, something very basic in film production/editing and a mortal sin.

go to the 2010 presidentiables post (title: “manny villar’s “itik” tv spot: dirty hand or clean hand?” click here:  https://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/manny-villars-itik-tv-spot/) to read the post and view the ad. the ad we refer to in that post has now been removed. click the youtube play button and you will get an error message: “This video has been removed by the user”. we suppose villar’s staff had removed the ad from youtube.

today, we saw the villar ad on tv and yes, this is a different ad from what we had posted here last january 26. this new ad now show villar’s shirt at the end of the ad now dirty!

look closely at the end-shot and you will see that the dirt on the shirt was applied optically, in other words the dirt on the shirt is computer graphics. that means they indeed shot that end-shot with villar wearing a clean shirt and instead of re-shooting the scene (costly and a pain in the you know what), they had a computer graphics artist apply dirt on the shirt. you can tell the dirt is computer graphics as the dirt “jumped” and changed shape at the middle of the shot when villar moved. not a very good computer graphics rendition of the dirt. 

we did searches on youtube to look for the two versions of the tv spot. and here is what we got:

we think this version is the same “itik” ad without the dirty shirt at the end that we posted here. the leader in the ad shows a title and a date : “ITIK 30s 01.14.09”. that must be the date they finished production of the ad and we remember the same date. this was posted in youtube by roicee on january 25, 2009. this is not exactly the same link we posted here in 2010 presidentiables but we are certain it is the same ad.

view the ad and look at the clean shirt at the end of the ad:

this is the “new” version and the one we now see on tv with a revised shirt shot at the end showing it is now dirty. this version was posted at youtube on february 4, 2009. we think this was posted by someone from villar’s staff as this is a clean copy and includes the leader in the ad.

we also now know who committed the continuity error – henry frejas who directed the ad and claude garde, editor of the ad.

it’s good to know that the ad people working for villar are good professionals for correcting the continuity error. next time, please lang  mga kids – attention to details! and please lang mga kids – next time, do a comprehensive and exhaustive pre-production meeting.

memo to manny villar : clean up the dirty hand

to manny villar:

there are two key points you need to attend to:

1. don’t lose your focus on the agreed advertising strategy and plan – the OFW ads were good and consistently followed a defined strategy, they were single-minded. this “itik” ad may be the start of getting lost on the defined advertising strategy. while “entrepreneurship values” are good, adding these messages to the ad campaign waters down the agreed strategy and may bring the ad campaign down to a slippery slope of confusion and inconsistency. do not lose focus.
2. clean up the dirty hand, clean hand question on the itik ad –   (refer to comments in this post, click here:  https://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/manny-villars-itik-tv-spot/#comments). you aired a commercial that is seen by millions and it has a continuity error in it. that means you are exposing yourselves to criticism. the thinking is that we should only air “perfect ads” for our brands. we always want the audience to see our brands in the best light possible. of course it’s possible that it is only here in this blog that the continuity error was noticed, but your opponents may read this blog and they can decide to make an issue of it. it can be raised as an issue of sincerity and honesty.

we hope this helps.

yours truly,

2010 presidentiables.

manny villar’s “itik” tv spot : dirty hand or clean hand?

this is a continuation of the advertising strategy they have adapted for manny villar – big man for the small man.

we all know villar is one of the richest among the senators and in his recent ads, the ofw ads and this ad positions him as someone big helping the small man.

the first ads showed villar rescuing distressed or abused ofws to return home to manila and this one, a small businessman who needed help to restart his business. all of them were small people in need of help.

the ofw ads were very clear in intent and strategy, this itik ad  is not as clear as those.

this tv ad injects values – entrepreneurship, hard work and perseverance which every person, specially the small or those few in resources need to have to be able to succeed. that accounted for probably 60% of the ad. 

you had the feeling that villar’s  matulungin brand positioning was almost forgotten as it just came after the middle end of the ad. it was not visualized, just verbalized, where the woman announcer said villar gave the itik (duck) farmer re-start-up capital to rehabilitate his small business. that is where the matulungin positioning was communicated.

we do not think this point was made clear as we were mesmerized at the start of the ad on the talk on values and you would have missed the message that villar as being matulungin or providing the capital  if you were not listening intently.

there is a thought process jump from the values talk to villar’s matulungin positioning and that did not help in communicating the message clearly.

this is much unlike the ofw ads where the message was very clear on villar’s role in rescuing the ofws. the ads put the ofws and villar at the airport, communicating he brought them home. 

the ofw ads were single minded, this wasn’t.

but not all is lost on this ad. the target audience will still pick up the idea of big man helping the small man, it will not just be as crystal clear as it was in the ofw ads.

the commercial ends with villar and the itik farmer, mr. de la cruz, standing side by side and the farmer says “paglaki sa hirap, todo tulong sa mahirap” .

it’s a nice collection of words, poetic even but that line can be  confusing. it is unclear who the farmer was referring to. within the context of the storyline in the ad, the line comes from out of nowhere. the line and the thought just suddenly appeared in the ad. it was not at all properly set-up in the ad.

the line being said in the end is supposed to be the ad’s tagline but it was not really a good summary of what just happened.

unless you knew villar’s previous tv ads which ran in the last senatorial election, you won’t know what the line means. villar’s previous ad portrayed him as a rags to riches man. the itik farmer was actually referring to villar who was once poor, now rich and is now helping the poor.

this ad is a real people testimonial. the farmer at the start of the ad was identified in the supers as “Pacifico de la Cruz from Plaridel, Bulacan”. that is a good thing as real people lend credibility and reality to  ads.

but did they have to choose a man who has the family name “de la cruz”? it’s just too close to “juan de la cruz”, the fictional name we use to refer to the ordinary filipino. having that family name makes you wonder – is this man for real or fictional? 

some directorial trivia on this ad – we suppose in an effort to portray the big man villar being able to relate with the small man, we see villar stepping into the mud of the itik farm through a quick close up of the farmer’s shoes/legs and what looked like villar’s shoes/legs.

the shot pulls out to show who owns the two pairs of muddied shoes, the farmer and villar, then together they walk on the muddied farm,  then villar goes down to grab an itik.

now, here’s what i am sure was an “aha” moment for the director – as villar stands up from holding the itik, the director makes it a point to show villar wiping his supposedly muddied or dirty hand on his shirt.

nice touch? hmmm…..

that’s supposed to show that this big man (rich man) villar not showing any qualms about getting his hands dirty and in the process getting his clothes dirty, too. being rich, we assume he was wearing an expensive shirt, but he had no problems getting it dirty. a big man for the small man.

it could have been a nice touch, really, but there is a problem on continuity.

that hand wiping mud on the shirt continued to the end with villar still wearing the same shirt, but voila! the shirt he was wearing on which he wiped his dirty hand on was miraculously clean!

makes you wonder –  if his shirt at the end of the ad was clean, what the hell was he wiping his hand on his shirt for? and if he wiped his dirty hand on his shirt, why didn’t his shirt at the end of the ad show dirt on it? hmmm…… did villar have his shirt washed right on the farm before the end shot was made?

hmmm……

manny villar’s new “itik” tv ad

saw the new tv ad of manny villar last night, this time the situation is in an “itik” (ducks) farm. waiting for it to be available in you tube and will post here.

looking at this ad and the previous ofw ads of manny villar, we are adding “matulungin” (helpful) to manny villar’s brand positioning.

manny villar: champion of ofws; matulungin