We Taught them Something, Too

The most remarkable thing about the Philippine Ad Congress is that it always strives to go beyond stereotypes. There are no helpless maidens in their promotional ads, no women who want straight hair and white skin, no men who are overly and absurdly macho and independent. Last year, congress participants met at Subic, a Philippine municipality that was once home to a U.S. military base, and which is also the home of the Aeta, an indigenous Philippine group. In the past, Aetas were laughed at because of their curly hair and dark skin - but they were far from being mere indigenous peoples who simply sat back and watched the action as the Philippines went through wars and battles. As these ads show, Aetas were, and still are, survivors and teachers.



In this first ad, we hear someone speaking in the Aeta language, and talking about someone who learned to survive during the war, and in the Philippine jungles. This someone, we presume, is an American serviceman, as shown by the pictures through which the camera pans. In the end, however, the Aeta does say that the serviceman learned all that he needed from the Aetas of Subic.

The first part of the commercial is almost like a typecasting trick. We are almost led to believe that people somewhere are worshiping the survival skills of an American. Once the end comes, however, we find that the American owes his survival to the skills of a native. Although this might seem like a promotional bid for using natives to meet the needs of conquerors, the ad can be more a reminder of who helped the Americans win the war in the Far East. And even with the war over, the Aetas continue doing what they do, and living in the jungle that once was home to American servicemen. Movies and mass media will often show that American soldiers are foolhardy and stalwart, and learn everything that they need to learn in military school. This ad shows that soldiers, whoever they may be, survive by learning from locals.




This second advertisement shows students hiking through a jungle. They are carelessly laughing and trading banter, when one man falls. He scrapes his leg severely. When he looks up, he finds a native looking down at him. The native bares his knife; behind him, more natives appear; behind the wounded man, his comrades inch away. The native steps forward, raises the knife, and then bears it down - upon a plant next to the shocked, wounded man. The native then proceeds to dress the wound with the plant's leaves. The other natives come forward, look at the boy's leg, and say, "Sugat lang yan," or, in English, "It's just a wound."

As with the previous ad, this one tricks us with stereotypes. We have hikers who walk gleefully along, thinking themselves masters of the jungle. We have a native with his bared knife, signaling the presence of a savage, of someone outside of civilization. When the knife comes down, we find the roles reversed: the natives are the civilized masters of the jungle who know exactly how to care for wounds, and see them as mere wounds, nothing more; the hikers are visitors who have their own stereotypes about the natives, and are helpless in a world that is far removed from their own.

What I like about this ad is that it does not stereotype: it goes against trends, and acts as a reminder that the Philippines is not filled with uncivilized tribes - it is also peopled with so-called modern peoples who are unaware of the limits of their powers. The real heroes are the natives, and those who depend on them are the same people who think that they know everything.