MANILA, PHILIPPINES, JUNE 8, 2012: Women’s fashion brand Bayo has issued an apology and is set to launch a “better, more sensitive campaign” after its “What’s Your Mix” ads drew the ire of Filipino netizens.
Launched earlier this month, the Bayo campaign features a photos of Filipino-Australian actress Jasmine Curtis-Smith, accompanied by the copy “50% Australian and 50% Filipino”. Other models were given other tag lines, seemingly illustrating their mixed heritage: “80% Chinese and 20% Filipino,” “40% British and 60% Filipino,” and 30% Indian and 70% Filipino.”
Initially, reactions and engagement that the campaign inspired were memes that played up on other celebrities, such as Philippine showbiz stalwart German Moreno (50% German, 50% Moreno). Fictional characters, such as those from the TV series Game of Thrones, were also included in the fun. Even American Idol Season 11 champion Philip Philips (50% Singular, 50% Plural) made it to the memes, courtesy of BBDO Guerrero’s Jao Bautista.
With the ad’s body copy, however, the shift from fun to furious was almost instantaneous.
“Call it biased, but the mixing and matching of different nationalities with Filipino blood is almost a sure formula for someone beautiful and world-class. We always have the fighting chance to make it in the world arena of almost all aspects,” the ad went.
Bayo stressed that the campaign aims to highlight being unique, but others viewed the ads as suggestive of inferiority of 100% Filipinos. Netizens turned to their blogs and social networking sites to express their opinions of the ad, “racist”, “demeaning”, and “poorly executed”, among them. Questions on how the genealogy or heritage of the models were “computed” also arose.
There were others, however, who thought the campaign was a good idea but the presentation was “terrible”. Herbert Hernandez, creative director at Y&R Philippines, said in his Twitter account that it was a good campaign until it went to explain the insight behind it. He finished his tweet with the hashtag #notobodycopy, in relation to the “manifesto” that accompanied the Bayo campaign.
Maricar Lim, former marketing communications manager of MTV Asia and freelance consultant, said in a post through her own Facebook account that the campaign would have “made more sense to show diverse lifestyle from school to sports to dinner with (the) boyfriend’s parents.”
Bayo has since taken down the ads from their stores and issued the following apology through an official statement made by the company’s vice president, Lyn Agustin.
“We, at Bayo, deeply apologize for the message our campaign―What’s Your Mix?―has unintentionally conveyed. We would like to express our regrets 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.

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