BAYO's Advertising Blunder

        Bayo’s “What’s Your Mix?” ad campaign has generated a lot of criticisms, to such an extent that the clothing company had to apologize for it. But no amount of acts of contrition can simmer down the condemnations that it received, for dents have already been inflicted on the ego of most Filipinos. The first time that the ads came out, a designer friend of mine asked me to write something about it. I knew right away that it would be a good material or topic for my blog. Unfortunately, I had to step back since I don’t want to write anything about racism, as respect for my friends and other people whom I know who have foreign blood running through their veins. But nonetheless, here is my take on those infamous ads. To make this blog entry as personal and as original as possible, I shunned reading opinions and articles about Bayo’s advertising mishap.

What went wrong

Based on a simple research that I have done, Bayo’s latest ads aim to promote and highlight the Filipino lineage as a sure fire formula for “success”. However, the ads talk not of one hundred percent Filipino lineage, but of Filipino lineage that is interlaced with “other” lineage. Now this is the part that bruised the racial pride of most Filipinos. Bayo’s ads featured models who are a percent of Filipino lineage, and a parcel of another. But in my opinion, what Bayo wanted to convey to its market and to the public in general, is that a foreigner with Filipino lineage has a greater chance at success. Thus, it magnifies the importance of having Filipino blood or ancestry.  However, Bayo failed to foretell that Filipinos might interpret it inversely, that a Filipino with foreign lineage will have a greater chance of becoming successful. Can you see the difference? Filipinos looked at those ads not from the vantage point that Bayo views them. 

Western concept of beauty

Filipinos have this salivating penchant for anything that is “imported”. We take pride in acquiring things that are made, for example, in the US of A. Admit it or not, imported products have become our trophies or most prized possessions. Now, this mentality has become communicable and has infected our concept of beauty as well. The kind of beauty that we patronize is a perfect combination of fair skin and an upright nose, which are physical qualities that Americans and Europeans possess. The slightest deviation from this formula will make you “not beautiful enough.” It is important to note though, that the concept of beauty has been altered in the recent decades by the prominence of “colored” models, beauty queens, singers, and actors. But still, at the end of the day, no amount of Beyonces can edge out those with creamy white complexion. We prefer dark, but only if it is chocolate.

Influx of foreign models

The Philippine Modeling Association of the Philippines created quite a stir when it made a pronouncement that Filipino models were losing job assignments to the so called “Brapanese” models. Perhaps, there is a degree of truth to it. Almost all billboards scattered all over the metropolis, almost all fashion spreads in newspapers, glossy magazines and catalogues, and almost all fashion runways are being dominated by foreign-looking models, if not by completely foreign models. Filipino clothing retail giants have even gone to the extent of having Hollywood celebrities as models and endorsers, to capitalize on Filipinos’ very Western concept of beauty.  What do all these mean? Brown color does not sell.

Phylbert Pagestrom a.k.a. Bea Alonzo

Not their fault

We cannot deny the fact that Filipinos of mixed lineage do look good. Their foreign genes must have done wonders to give them finer features, and thus, conform to our Western concept of beauty. But it is not their fault if they look good. You are insane to surmise that they must have handpicked their parents prior to their birth. Hence, it is not their fault if either their Mom or Dad is non-Filipino.  Perhaps, we are just envious of them, since we are not as tall as them, not as fair complexioned as them, and our noses do not even come close to their almost perfect ones. It just so happened that in the biological lottery, they won the top prizes, and we went home with the consolation ones. 

Conclusion

           Filipinos' Western concept of beauty is clearly a by-product of our country being dominated before by Western colonizers. For many decades, our country served as an annex to mighty countries such as Spain and America. During such periods, Filipinos lost their identity, most especially the Filipino elites who chose to be assimilated into the colonial system to avoid persecution and to preserve their wealth. Little by little, the colonizers inculcated into the minds of the natives that they, the colonizers, belong to a superior race. Little by little also, our own ethnic culture, values, and beliefs, were displaced by those of the colonizers. Hence, the Western orientation of many generations of Filipinos. 

             Bayo's "What's your mix?" ads, obviously, are remnants of those colonial ruins. Same with our concept of beauty. Bayo is a well established clothing brand. Hopefully, the advertising blunder that it committed, and all the flak that it received, will not in any way affect its future sales and its reputation. Anyway, Filipinos have a very forgiving nature, and are usually prone to amnesia.