iba ang pinoy, mas may puso!

I was in a bit of a nostalgic mood today. I was looking at some of the Superbowl commercials when I suddenly remembered the excellent Coca-Cola commercial a few years ago that featured Nikki Gil. So I immediately searched for it on YouTube and thank goodness I immediately found it (yehey!). and here it is:



But I also saw a couple of other videos of this ad that was done in other countries... Here is the original English (UK) version:



And here is the Spanish version:



After viewing these three versions, I would have to say that our local version is the best! As one of the commenters said, "Iba ang pinoy, mas may puso!" I really love the ending in our version... Nikki giving a bottle of coke to the little girl and the girl giving a flower as thanks never fails to bring tears to my eyes.

Vocally, I liked the Spanish girl the best. But I like our arrangement better. I believe this was done during a time when a capella groups were popular. I wonder who did the backing vocals.

I also love how "localized" our version is. Even with the sound turned off you'd immediately know that this ad is set in the Philippines... The jeepney, construction workers, students and vendors all walking about really contributes to the magnificent local color. In the UK and Spanish versions, there wasn't any local color at all. Or maybe their countries are really drab with nothing unique to show...

But really, all three ads were great (if only I could understand Spain's version)... Kudos to the person who thought of this idea first and kudos to Coke for putting out this very heart warming series of ads.

...

Last year, merong palaging ipinagpipilitan sa akin ang isa kong kaibigan. Kung ano man yung pinagpipilitan niya, sa akin na lang yun. Basta palagi akong nagdedeny tuwing nabbring up ang topic. I always try to change the topic or dinadaan ko sa mga jokes, matigil lang ang usapan. Denial King eh... Pero kahapon, di ko na kinaya. Hindi naman niya brining up yung topic, ako na lang yung biglaang umamin na totoo nga ang iniisip niya. Sobrang biglaan kong sinabi sa kanya. Kumakain kami nun tapos bigla kong binuksan ang aking bibig at sinabi ang katotohanan. Tapos dumating ang iba naming kasama at sarado na bigla ang usapan na yun. Sampung segundo lang na mapapagod ang aking dila pero ngayon lang ako nagkaroon ng lakas ng loob na iconfirm ang hinala niya. Bakit ko naman biglang sinabi yun kung kelan hindi nga brining up ang isyu? Ewan ko lang... Siguro kinelangan ko lang ilabas dahil matagal na panahon ko na yun kinikimkim. O kaya siguro medyo hopeless na kasi ang sitwasyon ko, kelangan ko na siguro ng tulong... Ahh ewan...

Sherman Pore - Audition

I was not able to watch American Idol last night, there was something wrong with our cable connection. I was very disappointed because I promised to myself that I was gonna watch every single episode of this season. So today I started looking for videos of last night's auditions... There weren't that many, I wasn't very impressed by those who got through to Hollywood. Then I saw this video. At first I thought it was one of those deluded old people trying to get their 15 minutes of fame. Boy was I wrong... His story is so sad. And what he did for his "lady" is so sweet... I applaud this man.