Life as AFAC

Last tuesday night after pitch #1, I got an email that my Singapore project this weekend won’t push through. I was so frustrated. I had my mind set on Sing already and be warmed by the sun again. Plus I really like the radio scripts I slaved over for the last 3 weeks. It was one of my first projects in BBH, a Tagalog rc. Even the set up is interesting: I went all the way to Shanghai to do an Asiapac project for Singapore to be aired in the Philippines. What economic sense! ahahaha. Originally they were just looking for a translator but when they discovered I’m a writer they just told me to do my thing. I really liked the scripts I wrote and believe it would’ve made an impact in the local scene. I would stay up late in the office looking for the right voice pegs, initiating prod stuff not asked of me because I want to produce it well. Then last Tuesday client decided to put budgets elsewhere. WHATTTT??! It only takes USD1400-2000 to produce a spot in Manila and USD100 to air one. To put things in perspective, the production cost and whole media monies for the radio campaign would cost about three 30sec TVspot on primetime. Three bathroom breaks for a whole radio campaign! I hope clients will reconsider, and produce it in Manila rather than expensive Sing.
I was so pissed I had to eat a fabulous dinner. Good food never fails to lift my mood. Anna suggested we go shopping instead. Not a bad idea as well! Hmmm… eat food, be happy and fat? or shop for clothes, be happy and look good plus stay not so fat? Hmmm… we decided to do both.
Chiewy brought us to a local designer’s boutique called Even Penniless. The designs are fabulous! One shirt can be worn in at least two ways. But after looking at the price tag we realized why it was named as such. You’d go penniless after shopping here. There is a red and gray shirt that has my name on it. It’s just so me! After trying it on 3 times I decided to buy it. But it was soooo painful. It costs RMB 1103 after discount. That’s my most expensive buy to date. I have to use my Cost Per Puti logic.
Cost Per Puri (or Cost Per Praise) is a term I coined for my infalliable logic when shopping for clothes. Here’s how it works: You divide the cost by the number of praises you got. For example, everytime someone asks if you lost weight or say “blooming ka ah” or hits on you etc, the cost of the dress halves. So a dress that costs PHP5000 that got noticed 20 times has a CCP of only PHP250. A 600 peso dress that got you nothing still costs P600. So it turns out more expensive than the P5000 one. Makes sense right?
Same thing when buying shoes for weddings. Some women just buy the cheapest silver shoes because you wear it once anyway. But see, if you buy something nicer, then you can wear it again and again with your outfits. So it has more value than the ugly shoes that just takes space in your closet. One of my fave designers Kate Torralba laughed when she heard about my Cost Per Puri.
To bring down the cost of the shirt, I tried to make as many combinations as I can, so it would seem I bought ten shirts instead of one. So far I only got to four interesting shapes But I guess that’s good enough because the designer only designed it for two.

Next time you’re torn between something cheap ‘n cheerful and something gorgeous but costs a bit sinful, remember… Cost Per Puti.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 14th, 2006 at 8:36 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.