Philippines — Grace Pharmacy, the Philippines-based chain of drugstores, has launched a new campaign to highlight its ethos of service to everyone – ’Serbisyo Nga Wala Pili’. The campaign, entitled ‘Aswang’, was done in partnership with the advertising agency, Charlolo.
The ad takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride of emotions as it changes tones from fantasy to horror, to comedy. Reminiscent of old Filipino horror flicks, the campaign follows an ‘aswang’, the Filipino equivalent of ghouls, as it goes about its usual night. The problem arises when it starts feeling a bout of allergies. Staying true to its principles of serving anyone, Grace Pharmacy hands the supernatural monster some cetirizine, much to the terror of other customers.
Playing on the ‘service to everyone’ ethos of the drugstore chain, the choice to pick a supernatural creature to represent the minorities was deliberate according to Charlolo. Meant as a hook for audiences, the aswang later became a vehicle to deliver the campaign’s message.
According to Charlolo, a lot of planning and testing was done to accurately capture their target audience, the younger demographic. The team also wanted to trick the audience into watching the ad as if they were watching a movie scene, increasing the retention rate of the video.
In an exclusive interview with Charlton Jocson, founder of Charlolo, he commented on their project, saying “Before we became an advertising agency, we already specialized in creating creative short films for a couple of years now so it was not so hard for us to adapt our traditional filmmaking knowledge to creating this ad.”
Jocson added, “We also have a talented team of individuals who each specialize in a certain aspect of the film such as special effects, cinematography, and writing. Each crew member had a specific job to focus on so almost all of us did not have to wear multiple hats which made the workflow more efficient and smooth.”
Jocson also shared how they’re looking forward to their agency’s growth and how they can give back to their communities.
