Pinarap

I cannot forget this TV ad of a chubby little boy dipping a piece of barbecue in lemon and soy sauce condiment and after tasting the food, he shouted “pinarap”; while his chubby mother smiles holding a bottle of Marca Pina soy sauce. The boy is maybe my age or a little older than me because that ad was a TV staple during my elementary and pre-school days, around the late 70’s and early eighties, and that ad was aired unchanged until well into the year 2000. In the 90’s and the 2000 the ad can only be viewed in the minor TV channels usually the government owned and controlled ones. Maybe it’s the cost, the ad was unchanged and watching it shown in faded color, complete with the ant march and the hissing audio one may be inclined to buy Marca Pina out of pity. But it brings back a lot of memories: the style of the kitchen where the ad was shot is reminiscent of how my aunts’ and our old house’ kitchen looked like when I was a kid. Now they are all renovated, rebuilt is more like it. The design on the plates and saucers shows how beautiful the chinas in those days were, the dress the chubby mother wore, the hairstyle, the dining table and the chair…

One day, a few years or months ago (my sense of time is not functioning properly), while I was channel surfing I saw this ad showing a middle-aged father preparing food for his son. The man is shown putting the food on the table and then the son tried his father’s cooking, but first he dipped his food in a lemon and soy sauce condiment, tasted the food and then the boy shouted “Pinarap!” The father winked and a small TV window popped at the bottom part of the TV showing an old ad featuring a chubby little boy dipping his food in soy sauce, tasting the food and then shouting “Pinarap.” My ole sentimental heart is choking my neck.

I was waiting for it to be shown again, I saw it once or twice, but I was never able to see it again. With ads like that…yes, Marca Pina soy sauce, buy it.

Comparing the old ad with the new ad showed how fast things changes: Microwave ovens, smaller ref, smaller, sterile kitchen; smaller dining table, and it’s now the father who’s in the kitchen preparing food for his son.

The times they are always a changing.