Gay lingo test!!

Got this from James' Multiply site. I rarely read Multiply in the middle of the work day, much less POST, but I just couldn't resist!

90% ang nakuha mo, ateng!

 

Winnie the Pooh ka, bakla! Talo mo pa ang may PHD in Foreign Languages! Walang tsismis na nakakalusot sa yo!

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How NOT to do a rebrand, from ZestAir

I love budget airlines for how they've made travel easy and accessible -- especially since we live on an archipelago, where it's next to impossible to get anywhere that's somewhere except by air. That's why AirAsia, Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific were welcome alternatives to PAL's distinctive balance of ridiculously high fares and unmistakably crappy travel experiences.

Some weeks back, I noticed some small billboards along EDSA advertising a new airline: "ZestAir." How exciting! A new airline would mean a new travel option, and additional pressure on existing airlines to offer even more competitive rates, services, routes.

But when I visited the website (www.zestair.com.ph) hoping to find out what new travel adventures this new airline would open up, I was met by:

1. The knowledge that ZestAir is nothing more than a rebrand of Asian Spirit, now tagged as "Asia's Most Refreshing Airline."

2. Some of the crappiest copy in the world, attempting to explain the thinking behind the rebrand. See below.

3. A HUGE photo of their CEO. It's the first thing you see on their home page, even before the planes, their destinations, their promotions, or even their logo. How refreshing, right? And really now, you don't put your CEO's photo on your website's home page unless your CEO is Lance Gokongwei, Fred Uytengsu, or Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala.

Talking about my website visit with some officemates some days later, they asked, " 'ZestAir, Asia's most refreshing airline'... what the hell is that supposed to mean?" I replied, "Maybe it means the planes are open air. Like ordinary fare buses..."

Well, what a coincidence -- a few weeks later, I found out that I was booked on Asian Spirit / ZestAir for our upcoming Boracay office offsite (i.e., company junket). I was mildly curious about what the changes would be.

Here's where the fun started. Along with a handful of others, my Manila - Caticlan flight was supposed to be at 12:30 PM on Wednesday. Hooray, that meant I had a whole afternoon to enjoy the island.

But on Tuesday evening, I got an e-mail saying that the flight had been moved to 3 PM on Friday. Crap, goodbye to the happy afternoon plans.

So I'm in the office on Wednesday morning, taking my time getting work done, since I don't have to be at the airport until 2 PM.

And then, at 12:50 PM, while having a pleasant lunch with officemates, I get a call from Tani, who's on the same flight as me -- "Chad and I are already at the airport, and we just found out our flight has been moved earlier to 2 PM. You have to get here by 1:15 PM otherwise you'll have to take the 3:30 PM... to Kalibo."

WTF, right!? And the nerve of them to not even call us, but rather, leave it to kind colleagues to call us to inform us of the change!? Diva that I am, I said to Tani, "NO, I won't be there at 1:15 PM, duh." And so Falqi, Anj, and I -- the ones who didn't make it by 1:15 PM to catch the Asian Spirit / ZestAir flight -- got tickets on PAL Express instead.

Lucky for me, I was still going to fly Asian Spirit / ZestAir going back to Manila on Saturday. And I learned Asian Spirit's / ZestAir's efforts to educate the public about the re-brand were more aggressive in Boracay. When the girl at the resort's front desk called the Asian Spirit ticket office, she said, "Hello, Asian Spirit? Oh, I'm sorry, yes, ZestAir." Then, when I had to have my ticket stamped for a schedule change, I had trouble finding the ticket office at D'Mall because the once-big Asian Spirit sign above their door had now been changed with a little bond-paper-sized sign, "ZestAir." And at the Caticlan airport, a big ZestAir banner was hanging over the check-in counter (with a little parenthetical remark of an "Asian Spirit" banner hanging below it); the baggage trucks had "ZestAir" stickers; and green and orange flags fluttered along the path to the ZestAir pre-departure lounge beside the terminal.

But the plane was my favorite part. It was still an ancient, zero-maintenance-budget propeller planes -- yes, one of those of those which won them the reputation, "You take off as an Asian and you land as a spirit" -- complete with rusty surfaces, unlaundered seat covers, dripping air conditioning vents, joints that threaten to come off at any minute. The only difference was that the whole plane's exterior was painted white -- naturally, to make way for the orange and green paint that would herald that it was now "ZestAir."

Anyway, our flight landed in Manila half an hour late. Incidentally, the same evening I landed, I found out from Tatay that Tita Inday flew back to Boracay that same day via Asian Spirit / ZestAir -- and found out at the last minute that her flight was rerouted to Kalibo. At least they're consistent, right?

If there's anything worthwhile that came out of this whole experience, it's the amazement that a re-brand could actually be executed so crappily. You don't rebrand unless you have a significant change in consumer experience behind it -- otherwise it's just superficial and disappointing. You don't execute a rebrand until you're ready to rebrand everything -- or else, the piecemeal implementation just falls flat in its early stages. And if you're going to talk about yourself being a "Asia's most refreshing", you'd better make sure people know why -- and it's not about some poorly written copy in a message from a CEO who doesn't look refreshing at all.

Lego responds... the Universe makes her move

I originally posted this as a reply to my "letter to Lego" entry, but I realized it's easy to miss there. So I made it a separate post.

Anyway... two mornings ago, Lego answered! :-) :-) :-) No, not a job offer (in my dreams!), but the Universe has made her move, and it's time for me to make mine.

(In retrospect... when I applied for P&G 3 years ago, it was also a "what the heck" kind of thing. Hahaha)

I'll bring everyone Danish pastries as pasalubong :-D

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Dear Paulo
Thanks for getting in touch with us.

We would like to thank you for the very nice email about how devoted to LEGO you were and still are. It is true that many customers have just very nice memories about their childhood when speaking about those plastic bricks they spent their free time with.

Actually, the idea of LEGO is to bring fun for very long time and to preserve ages. Believe me, here in our company all the colleagues are adult but still loving to play with LEGO.

As for the jobs which are offered in our company, you can find all the positions on our webpage. We update it once a week. So may be you could find something for you as well. Please, just go to the link:

http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=vacancies

(the path is : LEGO.com, scroll down to "about us", then go to "jobs" and finally to "vacancies")
At the moment, as you can see there are only positions in Denmark available but as mentioned, these offers change
and there were already positions for US or UK available, for Germany as well.

We wish you that your dreams for working with LEGO come true and we hope you will have much fun in the future building our lovely sets and models

Best regards,

Peter Sekerak
LEGO Direct

Olay introduces REGENERIST with a ONE-DAY PRE-SALE

Filipina women who have experienced and loved leading anti-ageing line Olay Regenerist from their trips in the United States, United Kingdom, China, Australia and Singapore can now get their anti-ageing fix closer to home as skin care brand Olay launches Olay Regenerist in the Philippines this November.

And this October, Filipina women will even have the chance to try it before it hits the stores through the Olay Regenerist One-Day Pre-Sale to be held during mall hours on October 18 at SM Makati Department Store, SM Megamall Department Store, SM North EDSA Department Store, Watsons SM Mall of Asia, and Watsons SM Cebu North Wing.

Olay Regenerist represents a revolution in anti-ageing as it goes beyond skin care to cell care, giving women dramatically younger looking skin. Inspired by clinical treatments, it helps regenerate your skin at the cellular level through its unique amino-peptide complex, which penetrates and renews skin cell by cell.

Four Olay Regenerist products will be available during the Pre-Sale: Regenerating Serum (50 mL); Regenerating Cream, with SPF 15 (50g); Night Firming Cream (50g); and Eye Lifting Serum (15 mL). Each of these products is priced at Php999.

Since stocks of Olay Regenerist will be limited during the Pre-Sale, women are encouraged to sign up for the Pre-Sale Priority List at www.olay.com.ph, or with the Olay Beauty Consultants at the five Pre-Sale stores. From 10 AM to 2 PM on October 18, the Pre-Sale will be open exclusively to those on the priority list. From 2 PM onwards, the Pre-Sale will be open to the public.

Olay made its anti-ageing debut in the Philippines in 2006, when it introduced Olay Total Effects, which fights 7 signs of skin ageing in just 1 bottle. Regenerist is the skin care brand’s premium anti-ageing line, known around the world for its ability to dramatically reduce lines and wrinkles. Its exclusive amino-peptide complex beautifully regenerates skin cells so skin looks, feels and behaves more like new skin.

Searching for my dream job

Yup, I actually sent this e-mail just now. Who knows, maybe I'll be packing up for Denmark pretty soon! :-)

Hi LEGO team,

My name is Paulo Tirol, 30 years old and living in the Philippines.

I grew up loving Lego. From 1982 to 1992, I acquired over 100 sets. I would spend all my money on Lego; when I got good grades (which was pretty much all the time :-) ) my Mom would buy me Lego; when my Dad would go abroad, he would bring me back Lego; and from time to time an uncle living in Frankfurt would send Lego too.

At home, my bedroom and our living room was filled with castles, pirate lairs, cities, and train sets. All my free time was devoted to playing with Lego -- building, creating dioramas, acting out stories out with it. And around fifth grade, I was thrilled when Lego actually responded to a letter I wrote, and sent a whole bunch of materials on facts and figures, Lego's corporate history, and the Legoland parks.

Today, I work as an Assistant Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble Philippines. I handled diaper brand Pampers for 2 years, then was reassigned to handle skin care brand Olay last June.

Being a busy grown-up and living away from my parents' house where all my Lego was, it had been years since I last touched any my Lego -- until two weeks ago, when I moved into a new flat and thought some Lego would make a nice touch, and I re-assembled my pirate ship (model 6285 :-) ).

It was a thrilling experience that brought back wonderful childhood memories -- and an experience which made me decide to e-mail you.

There have been times when my friends and I in the marketing field talk about our "dream brands" to handle. My answer is always "Lego", a brand which I grew up with, continue to love, and will always believe in. And while I do love my current job at Procter & Gamble, I figure it's high time I tried to see if my dream job is actually something within reach. :-)

With that, I get to the point of my e-mail: are there actually marketing jobs available for someone like me, either in the region (Singapore?) or even outside (Denmark?)? I know that I should have inquired about this through your "jobs" site, but with a 300-character requirement, I don't think any inquiry I posted there could ever have done justice to my passion for Lego. So, I hope that you could forward this message to your HR instead, and I do hope I get a response.

Thank you for your time, and thank you for the unforgettable childhood you gave me, and continue to give to children all around the world. God willing, I would love to be a part of it someday.

Sincerely yours,

paulo