I’ve been waiting for the appropriate time to share these creative works with Filipinas worldwide. Preparing for FilipinaImages.com’s first anniversary on August 5, 2008 felt right. Our contributors — brave and inspiring human beings that they are — have indeed showcased a kaleidoscopic diversity of Filipina Images through its simple SEO campaign. Once in a great while, award-winning creatives such as Roger Pe unleash provocative, compelling messages through their advertising creations. Roger, who I had met when he was the Executive Creative Director of DDB Philippines, working with the organizers of the Third Global Filipino Networking Convention (he developed the Public Service Announcements for print and TV which resulted in a phenomenal increase of local convention attendees’ registrations), is the 2007 winner of the London International Advertising Award Silver Trophy.

Roger wrote me and explained, “Thousands of Filipinas are sold overseas through/by Mail-Order-Bride syndicates. We helped curb this activity through an awareness campaign – for victims to speak up so that activities of people operating to traffic Filipinas can be checked and minimized.”

Let’s take a look at Roger Pe’s award-winning ad:

“Stamp” ad by Roger Pe (Campaign against Filipina Mail-Order-Brides,Teodora) DDB Philippines
2002 Bronze World Medal Winner, New York Festivals

Check out this year’s winner:

“Duct Tape” by DM9 JS Manila (Gabriela)
2008 Cannes Media Bronze winner

Let’s take a closer look at Roger’s ad:

And let’s see what the “call to action” is:

A picture indeed says a million words.

I’m enclosing snippets from the article about the “Duct Tape” ad wherein I highlighted certain portions.

Gabriela ad campaign wins bronze at Cannes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:34:00 06/20/2008

CANNES, FRANCE—DM9 JaymeSyfu, a Manila ad agency affiliated with the DDB network of communications companies, was awarded on Tuesday the Bronze Media Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival.

The first Cannes Media Lion won by a Philippine ad agency at the weeklong festival was for DM9 JaymeSyfu’s “Duct Tape” campaign for Gabriela Philippines, a women’s group opposing women abuse.

To dramatize the maltreatment of women, the campaign used duct tape to hold up posters of women which made it appear that the women in the posters were either gagged or blindfolded. The ad calls on abused women to speak up.

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i was delighted to find Filipina images blog online around last year. today, i checked and Filipina images is ranking 2nd in search results for “filipina” at google! congratulations ladies! and just now, i was delighted that i could join this blog and contribute. wow! what a great idea you have here, Lorna and all.

i’ve been creating filipina sites and linking to other filipina sites for many years now. i’ve even linked my sites to “yan ang pinay” which now has donated its great logo to this blog. you see, i’ve been watching these searches for “filipina” since around 1995-96.

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Here are some questions I have gathered or been asked in talks, entries and emails. I will reword some of them.

1. Why did you interview Mayen?

The idea came from a request of Don who was the first to blog about the Tierra Maria Estates Scam outside of FilipinaImages.com. He wanted to hear her side of the story. Lorna, a co-founder of FilipinaImages.com also suggested that an interview is a perfect opportunity to talk to a Filipina who has used a dating site. The interview was not intended to clear Tierra Maria Estates, as the victim is clearly Mayen. Unlike most of us, Mayen does not have the financial resources to use the internet or even blog about it. Like Don, I was keen on hearing her side of the story.

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100% Pinoy interviewed me for a segment on “Modernong Maria Clara” that was aired Thursday, April 24, 2008. The episode talked on the image and the evolution of Filipino women.

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