Aiming to rise above the clutter in values advertising, Colegio de San Juan de Letran’s Institute of Communication presented “AdSpeak 2008: Sending the Right Signals” last February 8, 2008. The yearly student convention reminded college boys and girls to stop, look and listen before heading to the traffic of the ad world.
Five major speakers, 20 participating schools, 600 students. What started in 2001 as an annual seminar for the Communication Arts students of Letran grew into a national student assembly,< width="200" height="283" align="right" src=" VA-Best-Print. " alt="" /> attracting people from as far as Lucena, Quezon Province. With ad giants like Emily Abrera, Minyong Ordoñez, Yoly Ong and Jimmy Santiago in past attendance, the program is an opportunity that just can’t be missed.
This year’s line-up consisted of JayJay Calero, former chairman emeritus of JWT; David Guerrero, chairman and CCO of BBDO Guerrero Ortega; Grace Chong, former EVP of Dentsu Young & Rubicam-Alcantara; Raul Castro, EVP and CCO of McCann Worldgroup Philippines; and Jose Rafael Hernandez, president & CEO of Well Advertising and trustee of the Ad Foundation.
Thru a partnership with the Advertising Foundation of the Philippines and sponsors Johnson’s Pure Essentials, Enervon Multivitamins, ABS-CBN, Drysdale Juice Drink, Coffee House Iced Coffee, Radio Veritas, Casting Library and adobo magazine, AdSpeak became open to the public free of charge. The participants increased in number and student entries for the creative competition mounted to thousands.
< align="left" src=" SC-Best-Print. " alt="" />Industry practitioners chose the ten finalists for Print, Radio, TV and Campaign categories. Winners were judged by the five speakers. A new division called Student’s Choice Awards allowed the audience to choose their favorite ads from the roster of finalists. Students from Ateneo de Manila University, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, University of Asia and the Pacific, University of Santo Tomas and UP Diliman rose above the clutter, claiming top spots in Student’s Choice and Values Advertising Awards.
From the looks of things, the local ad industry would not stop reaching out to the student communities. Ad Foundation’s Jose Rafael Hernandez invited students to be part of the Araw Values Advertising selection process. In a short chat with adobo, McCann-Erickson’s Raul Castro stressed the importance of mentoring the future generation of admen and women. He imparts, “If you can share the fortune that you’ve had, if you can inspire even just one person…darling, it’s worth it.”
But nothing hits the nail on the head better than adobo columnist Willy Arcilla. “Values are not the monopoly of advertisers…because advertisers have to sell products. What you need to do is come up with resolutions and then take some real positive action. It can all start here, on this day. At the very same time that the leaders of our country are pointing fingers at each other for all the corruption surrounding the ZTE-NBN scandal, the youth can make a stand. We are making a stand right here, right now in this auditorium.”
