What's Your Mix?

Does the BAYO "mix" ad identify Pinays with a mixed race beautiful?

In a country that puts a premium on the mixed, what does being FULL or 100% mean?

Even our national hero is a % Chinese. The whole Bayo debacle is just mindless and offensive. Filipinos were never a homogenous race. We're all a mix of different races, ethnicities and cultures, thus comes out a people so unique yet so FILIPINO.

We are all a product of different races, but to highlight this and make it the way to global acceptance and conquest is a sheer act of ignorance! Knowing how Filipinos idolize WHITE CULTURE makes it all the more a bitter pill to swallow. Benetton is different. They blended ALL THE COLORS OF HUMAN SKIN in their ads whose message is ANTI RACISM!!! This moronic ad on the other hand PROMOTES RACISM!!!!!!!!

The Bayo Ad is wrong on so many levels but to keep it brief: first, it undermines the essence of a Filipina and second, the grammar.
Good intentions. Bad execution. This campaign was a not-so-subtle dig at the other local clothing brands who get foreign celebs as endorsers. Backfired on Bayo big time. LOL

We're not all mixed blood. Are you one of those people totally desperate to find an ounce of foreign blood in the mistaken belief that it makes you more attractive?

The manifesto, if it was indeed written by Bayo or somebody hired by Bayo, was offensive, racist, and more importantly, stupid. Race has nothing to do with Bayo's product, clothes. They were probably just trying to drum up publicity with an intentionally provocative ad.

Bayo insulted the Filipino majority who are proud to be brown & beautiful. The brand placed a high premium on mixed breeds. Shame on them!

The campaign ad is more like a persecution of those who are pure Filipino. It is appalling and is sending the wrong message to younger Filipino generations. Bayo is promoting elitism of those who are partially Filipino. What happened to your brand being "proudly Filipino" ? Concentration on ethnicity and putting % of it is so limiting and promotes shallowness. It sends the message that "beauty is only skin deep" I don't think its a well thought out campaign at all.

What happens when you are not a "baked and shaked" (mixed race)? As much as I love to shop at Bayo, I feel disgusted in regards to this campaign.

Does the ad convey an implicit message that the original Filipino blood, being the Aetas were doomed from the start? So in other words, we never stood a chance in history if di nahaluan ang lahi natin ng Spanish, Chinese, American, Japanese, at iba pa. Kawawang Aeta, sinabi ng di kagandahan, sinabi pang walang kinabukasan, hahaha..Malupet itong ad na ito, daming grammar mistakes. Magkano kaya to? And the one last attempt to deliver a message that "maka Filipino as saying "Buy Filipino", really is pathetic.. Di ba to pinag-isipan?

The understanding will be, you have to be a daughter or son of a foreigner to look good and to beat other people in different fields.

Netizens are starting to trash Bayo's "What's your mix?" campaign. It might be bad PR, but at the end of the day, it's still publicity.

Dear Bayo, I just don't get the sense of this campaign. Your last campaign was "Proud Pinay." What happened?

Poor concept. Race should never be used as a commercial item - it's a sensitive issue here, being a multi-racial country. It always boils down to intent and motivation. The motivation is clearly commercialism (sell more clothes), yet the intent is falsely translated as "to encourage people to embrace national identity no matter how diverse it is" (churva). People always see beyond intentions, especially if poorly communicated. Isip kagad ng nakararami, ang message ng ad "maganda magpalahi sa ibang race, gaganda ka at yayaman ka..." Kaya offensive.. So yun, tapos "Buy Filipino" katawatawa. (kulang ng kape nagisip nito).

Hindi pinag-isipan. But people seem to miss the point maybe because what they see in the ad are beautiful women, and now Bayo has unleashed power twitter personalities to counter the negative response to the ad.

If I may be so bold as to suggest to whoever is running the advertising for Bayo, I think the easiest way to turn this around would be to ride the wave of your campaign's memetic value. Don't take the campaign too seriously, and revel in the absurdity of it, while encouraging the insightful dialogue you've already unintentionally instigated. The momentum is now in your hands to make something positive out of all this.

If I could paraphrase Lourd De Veyra, this all boils down to one simple thing: "walang basagan ng mix". All this navel-gazing taken into consideration, though, I think it's still boss to poke fun at the whole "controversy"...

"Is it an overreaction? Did that whatchamacallit "politically correct" posturing gone way overboard? Is "What's your mix?" an honest question, an honest proposition? Was it not asking, "What breed are you?" Is it an honest ad for a clothing line because people tend to mix and match what they're gonna wear?

In this age of political correctness though, people overthink a lot and they'll take it as a racial slur even when there's no slur to begin with! Perceived slights, anyone?"

"Like when was the last time a major TV/movie studio or ad agency pushed a model/spokesman who was 100% Pinoy born and bred? In fairness, I appreciate the entry of mixed-race talent if only to up the game of Filipino representation in media, but when it comes to the point when Pinoys develop an inferiority complex over being "not mestiza" or not having a dad who's an Australian (we're talking about you, Anne & Jasmine) or British (we're talking about you, Derek and Georgina), that wen I draw the line. The last Bb. Pilipinas tilt, for instance, had several standout beauties representing our indigenous tribes - but who clinched the title? Yet another Fil-Am!!! To quote Bing Crosby, "...ain't that a kick in the head!"

"Its interesting how Bayo has invested on their advertising campaign only for it to end up as a national mockery. What their saying now is something that didn't hold much water in the first place. Capitalizing on interracial beauty crosses too many social and cultural boundaries that its easier to understand that they didn't really have a full grasp of what they were doing when they came up with this ad.

Bayo should know better that good advertising needs no further explanation -- that's why a picture is worth a thousand words."

"It would be overly dramatic to accuse Bayo of racism or sexism. Clearly the idea of their campaign is not to advocate mass foreign impregnation of local women to produce genetically superior babies. The brand, however, would do well to reconsider just what went wrong with their campaign. It's a very telling lesson, and every company these days ought to know that you're always only one click away from getting bashed all over the Internet. Best-case scenario: you get turned into a particularly funny meme."

I still don’t understand the mathematics involved that results in a lady with 80/20 blood lineage, but who am I to question the mathematical process involved in determining these things? This was probably 90% inspiration and 10% perspiration.  It seems like people were 90% furious, and 10% reading when they decided to get worked up over this. Is it something to get all worked up over, though? No, I honestly don’t think so. I’m just 50% amused, and 50% meh when it comes to the whole “issue,” because outside of bad copy writing, this isn’t nor should it be a national pride issue.

BAYO issued an apology for its entire "What's Your Mix" ad campaign:

"We at BAYO deeply apologize for the message our campaign has unintentionally conveyed. We would like to express our regrets to those who have been offended or felt discriminated against.

Our company and our partners have always taken pride in being pro-Filipino as we continue to celebrate our uniqueness and achievements. We believe that being a Filipino will always make you 100% beautiful. It is unfortunate that this message got lost along the way.

We thank everyone who has shown support for our thrust of promoting Filipino beauty, talent, and creativity.

Sincerely,

Lyn Agustin

Vice President, BAYO"

Too little, too late. Their ad just basically says that to be beautiful, you need to have a mix of something that isn't Filipino, which is stupid cause they are supposed to be a Filipino brand and being of mixed lineage really has nothing to do with the product they sell, CLOTHES.

Instead of saying percent this, percent that, why not just have the pictures without that unnecessary info? I know Bayo is trying to showcase "Diversity" but the first time I saw it, I was kinda insulted. It's more like saying "Half-Filipinos ARE better" than the native Filipino.

You said you're pro-Filipino. You said "We believe that being a Filipino will always make you 100% beautiful." Then why not advertise 100% Filipina beauty instead?

Hmmm... instead of seeing this as an insult to all full breed Filipinos, why not look at it another way around.

-  That Filipinos are great whether half or not.

- That other race or nationalities shine more when they have Filipino blood in their veins.

Positive outlook won't hurt us!