Bayo's "What's Your Mix" Campaign

For someone who spends most of her time online with freelance writing and social media, I felt like a loser that there is some frenzy over a clothing ad  under my nose. I’ve seen it days ago but I haven’t read the ads. I just saw the pictures and yes, I found it smart and fit to campaign for mixing-and-matching your wardrobe.

When I “learned” and read blogs about this, my first reaction was ” It’s just a marketing ad..Relax, we Pinoys are too sensitive”. Controversies are not new to clothing companies either. Is this the first-time BAYO is under fire?

“Half-bloods”, is it something unusual amongst us? I even don’t like the term, sounds like a vampire. In my own tribe, we have these “mixes”.

I have two nieces who are “50% American and 50% Filipino”.

My husband’s paternal grandfather is “Torko“. I can’t verify if that means Turkish or Aryan Indian or if he was ” __% Turkish and __% Filipino”. So help me compute my son’s mix..

But what changed my mind is the 3rd sentence of the ad copy that says, ” Call it biased, but the mixing and matching of different nationalities with Filipino blood is almost a sure formula for someone beautiful and world class“. There! My jaw dropped tingling my double chin. Does that mean that we need to populate with a non-Filipino to be beautiful? I think my nieces will still be as beautiful even if their father is not American.

Though Bayo apologized as I read from their site, I think they should. What is my point here? Am I offended? Honestly, no. I have worked and attended meetings with language teachers  in Japan – American, Creole, Indian, British, Irish, Brazilian. Sorry, they worshiped my cocoa butter skin and thick wavy hair. Give credit to my mother and older sisters who served as good models for me when we speak about body image.

I hope these people could have researched from parents who have “mixed” children. On how their Dutch spouses swear on how pretty his daughter is. Or how Italian grandparents tease each other that  their half-Filipino grandson will surely be a heart-breaker. Can you see the irony here?

They could have “celebrated” these mixes in a different way. Or celebrate that a Filipino is a mixture of different bloodlines from intermarriages even before Magellan came.  And I thought that was what they tried to present when I first saw the pictures. With words and phrases like “Call it biased” and “almost” I have a feeling that they knew there will be a controversy. It is just contradicting to Bayo’s principles of “Buy Filipino” and Bayo is an Hiligaynon word for “clothes”.

I join this diskurso not solely on discrimination but more on marketing. I’m not shocked why Bayo released a public apology right away. From the outburst, the management may have reviewed the campaign all over again – every word of their ad copy; “Where did we go wrong?”. It totally contradicts to what they really wanted to project, I assume. I would say “sayang“, it could have been a witty strategy in promoting their products and urging customers to be bold and mix-and-match their clothing.

Sadly, the team behind this campaign knows nothing about BAYO. I’m not connected with Bayo and the last time I bought something from them was 6 years ago ( and it was my sister’s money). As a freelance writer and copywriter, Bayo failed. Yes, can you fire your copywriters and hire me instead? I’m kidding.