A Vespa, a Jeepney & a vodka!
Hi! I’m John Rana and I’m a blog addict.
I’m out of the house for an overnight and I just feel the urge to blog. I even considered the 800 bucks to get my wife’s laptop be connected to the hotel’s wi-fi. Good thing she knocked some sense out of me and looked for an internet cafe here in the Tourist Belt area instead. It’s my first time to blog not using our old but reliable PC. On with what I wanted to blog about….
I have always been fascinated with advertisements as far as I remember. I still remember the catchy and cheesy jingles of “YC Bikini Brief” and “Sunny Orange, I love you” from yesteryears. In fact, I wanted to take an advertising course back in college. But my dad wanted a business course for me. This was about the same time I started noticing glossy print ads from imported magazines. My favorite ad campaigns has been the Got Milk? and the Absolut ads series. These are two of the most successful print ad campaigns, in my opnion.
Though I don’t look it, I’m really not an alcohol drinker (the size of my tummy just sends the wrong signal!). But that didn’t affect the appeal of the Absout ads on me. I have always been amused the with subtle humor in their bottle ads. When they started featuring cities around the world, things got more interesting. As visuals, they used a famous landmark or symbol the place is known for. I had to ask myself if the arches of the Brooklyn Bridge or the bird’s eyeview of Central Park is really shaped like a bottle. 
When they did “Absolut Rome”, there was one obvious symbol that would ably represent the place….
More and more cities were added in the series through the years. I remember hoping they would one day include Manila in the collection. In 2003, “Absolut Manila” was born! Like “Absolut Rome”, my beloved city is represented by a vehicle that the city has always been associated with. They featured a jeepney!
Its a good thing that my wife, Benz, reads tons of magazines so I was able to collect the said ad from most (or maybe, all!) of the local magazines it came out of. I posted info about the specific magazine titles that ad came out in various online communities. Little did I expect that I’ll be getting numerous offers for trade from some avid collectors.
I don’t know if “Absolut Manila” ever came out of foreign magazines. If it didn’t, I got some more stashed somewhere. Interested collectors, anyone? 
Absolut Vespanatic,
-o-
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J0HNRANA
john[dot]rana[at]gmail[dot]com
Hoy tama na blog… magtrabaho ka na!
bawal mag comment ng ganyan, kung ayaw masaktan! labs you!
how sweeet naman hihi
ako rin, i love the absolut & got milk series. kino-collect ko pa sila from magazines hehe
cool! may kapareho pala ako.
i had the chance to browse to the various blog entries you have here…. isa lang masasabi ko…. tiyaga mo!
but i have to admit i was entertained reading them— and got informed about a lot of things too.
i have to stop reading coz mauubos ang araw ko dahil i kept on opening all the related links
anyway, i made a shortcut on my desktop so i can just go back here again sometime…. pag wala ako magawa
.
btw… have you seen this one— http://othersiderainbow.blogspot.com/2006_05_14_archive.html
sister,
A comment coming from family means a lot… naks! *pahid luha*
Thank you!
Uuy nagpaparinig para yung ibang familia mag comment… hoping— hahaha!
Hi guys,
I’m looking for a big poster of
VODKA ABSOLUT ROME(with red vespa).
Anybody can help me?
thank you in advance.
Stefano