The first Filipino-American jazz festival held in New York for the first time last Dec. 11 took so many New Yorkers by surprise. Here’s a jazz review of the concert.

http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/artsandbooks/artsandbooks/view/20091221-243158/From-one-generation-to-another-Filipino-jazz-torch-is-passed

Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino boxing superstar, appeared on the cover of Time Magazine Asia last weekend. The cover reads, “The Great Hope: Why Manny Pacquiao is more than just the world’s best boxer.”

The most popular Filipino would certainly make a fine product endorser for the Asian American market or multicultural market. He is just as popular with the Hispanic community, having won against the top Mexican fighters.  Many say he could have been as popular as Muhammad Ali if boxing was on primetime TV and not in pay-per-view cable.

Manny joins the other boxing greats on Time Mag’s cover. These are Joe Louis, Max Schmeling, Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.

Currently, Pacquiao is set to fight Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico in  an attempt at a world record of seven world titles. This event, “Firepower” is set on November 14 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. A week-long documentary of his upcoming fight is set this week on HBO.

On Oct. 16, Admerasia celebrated Diwali,  a Hindu festival of lights celebrated from October to November, with South Asian sweets and snacks served to the staff.

Metro New York published what appears to be a misrepresented image in its story,  “Chinese letters reform explodes” on Oct. 21, quoting from another news source, RelaxNews.

The story was referred to us by Admerasia’s Yu-jin Lee.

“From the angle of the photograph, it appears that the Chinese letters were taken from a window, ” observed colleague Kaipo Leung.  For  that reason, the Chinese letters are inverted and incorrect.

The story delves on Chinese language reform, about simplifying a few dozen ideograms, without giving a point of reference for the word.  Merriam Webster defines ideogram as a picture or symbol used in a system of writing to represent a thing or an idea but not a particular word or phrase for it.

In the second paragraph of the story, there are proposals to change 44 characters by “the government.” However, it did not point out which government it is referring to, leaving that hanging and for us to answer for ourselves, according to creative director Tuan-pu Wang.

Metro New York has not yet returned our phone call or responded to our email letter.

To view the image and read the story, click here:  http://www.metro.us/us/article/2009/10/21/06/2738-82/index.xml

More than 700,000 people have seen this ghost video. While there is certainly room to doubt its authenticity, many–at least those who are not from Singapore—didn’t really think it was a viral video ad campaign of McCann Erikson for the GMP Group, a recruitment agency in Singapore.

The video features two executives coming to work late at night when in the office elevator, a ghost mysteriously appears. The Raffles Place Ghost campaign won the top prize, at the 2009 Effies Singapore Awards in July. The video bagged more awards in Asia Interactive.

Excerpted below from the blog, http://adverteasements.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/gmp-the-raffles-place-ghost-viral-campaign/

“The challenge: GMP faces competition from bigger, more established manpower agencies. GMP needed to increase market presence and position themselves as the ideal choice for jobseekers.

Two objectives were set; primary objective was to drive brand awareness among target audience – working adults, 20 to 35 years old; second is to generate candidate leads through CV uploads on its website.

The idea: GMP believes in work-life balance and that no one should have to work late if the job is right. The right career will present the right challenges, prospects and benefits hence leading to greater job satisfaction. A happy employee is more productive, and therefore the need to work overtime diminishes. And GMP believes its stringent placement process will help candidates find the right career.

Given the understanding that Singaporeans like to share paranormal sightings and stories, McCann came up with the big idea – “No one should work late” and the ghost-themed viral video was conceptualized.

With a S$100,000 budget (about $70,800), GMP had to find a creative and effective solution. Viral marketing was an excellent platform as the ghost theme, being a sensational topic locally, will cause a self-replicating effect that encourages advocates to spread the message.

The reveal made primetime news locally (e.g. CNA) and overseas (e.g. CNN). It was also featured by local dailies (e.g. Straits Times), trade publications (e.g. Media magazine) and discussed on over 300 websites. Everyone from paranormal societies to video-makers gave expert comments.

PR value from local media coverage alone is approximately S$200,000.

Discussion in the cyberspace was overwhelming. A Google search on “Raffles Place Ghost” shows 36 pages of relevant results. Of which, 82 bloggers (23%) embedded the video and discussed the campaign. There were 64 forums discussion (18%) and 81 sites where the video was uploaded (22.5%).

Besides attaining massive awareness, the number of CVs uploads increased by 48% on a YTY comparison.

It is a definitely a defining piece of Singapore advertising and a fantastic example of how a big idea can magnify a small advertising budget.”