#globe ph

First time kong hindi mag-“skip ad” sa Youtube. Read to find why.

Okay, I do not own an iPhone nor any of its overpriced siblings. I am a Globe user, at least. But this has nothing to do with any of what I just said.

So basically I am intrigued by Globe's latest TV commercial about the iPhone. The ad is simple: Two decent-looking guys, one dressed like a yuppie in monochromatic brown and the other more casually in jeans and a hoodie over a blue shirt. Both of them own an iPhone, presumably subscribed to different networks. The clear message is that Globe is a better network to be with if you own an iPhone.

Watch the ad here.

Guy 1 was made to look like a regular office guy bored to death that's why he got himself the phone from a rival network. He's got very Pinoy features and is ridiculously excited at the onset of the ad. On the other hand, Guy 2 is with Globe and seems very cool and composed and classy. Also worth noting is his unmistakable Caucasian features. This visual contrast, although effective, is ridiculous. It seems like for one to have an iPhone, one has to be cool or laid-back or whatever. Button-down and slacks are boring or not cool, while jeans and jacket are so much better. The entire ad is definitely perpetuating unhealthy stereotypes to the audience.

Both of them speak English anyway, which gives us an idea about the target market of the iPhone - young professionals or plain filthy rich people (maybe also white people, no i'm kidding). This is noticeably contrastive with their prepaid commercials which deliberately use a language that appeals to the masses but fails miserably, at least in grammar. Go lang ng go! ought to be Go lang nang go! 

iPhone is ridiculously expensive, so the use of English in the ad also reinforces that fact. In the Philippines, English is a prestige language that signifies power, wealth, education among other things. The advertisers sure know the sociolinguistic situation in this country. Looking in retrospect, the ad still makes me flinch. It is very misleading, as though an iPhone and the network's data plan is a very important commodity.