RECENTLY, one of our well-known soap brands uploaded a mini-film portraying the life of Norman King, the first Aeta to graduate from the prestigious University of the Philippines.
King, who hails from the province of Pampanga, first hogged headlines about a year ago when he gave tribute to his heritage, after wearing the traditional loincloth worn by his tribe when he received his diploma in his course, Bachelor of Arts in Behavioral Science.
Now he has again taken the Internet by storm through a short film "Pabaon sa Buhay" (Protection for Life).
The now viral clip, which has received more than 8.5 million views and was shared for more than 83,000 times (as of this article's posting) tells King's remarkable journey to realizing his dream.
Subtitled in English, it asks this question: "Who is worthy of admiration? One who has led an easy life? Or one who has overcome extreme hardship?"
That's so lit, right?
No wonder the four-minute clip has garnered mostly positive reactions, though some felt unresolved about it. And it's easy to see why.
As a marketer and a content creator myself, the ad is so effective beyond mileage, me thinks, but it may be putting the university's community in a bad light if we will refer to some scenes where other students appeared to be appalled to see King wearing his #OOTD (Outfit of the day).
But consequently, some people just cried -- Filipinos and foreigners alike.
So at the end of the day, it was a still good display of the Filipino spirit. Let's just hope in a way that the company can give back to the Aeta community after having featured the history-maker in their product commercial.
What about you? How do you feel about this ad?
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