The Advertising Foundation of the Philippines has appointed Ed Sunico, Unilever Philippines’ customer development director, as chairman of the 2014 Araw Values Advertising (AVA) Awards. The AVA Awards is a biennial advertising awards usually held towards the end of the year, which serves as a faithful reminder to the industry that advertising could also help promote positive values.
“This is where the Araw Values Awards stands unique versus other award- or recognition-giving events in the industry,” says 2014 AVA Awards chairman Ed Sunico.
“It’s the only industry event that has industry values formation and advocacy as its main essence and we judge based on this above all the other criteria. I understand that the Araw Values Awards is the only one of its kind in the region and probably in the world.”
Now on its ninth season, AVA Awards was conceived in the 90s to encourage responsible advertising. It strives to uphold seven cornerstone values: (1) love of God and respect for all religious beliefs, (2) commitment to truth, honesty and integrity, (3) love of country and respect for national customs and traditions, (4) reverence for family unity marriage and responsible parenthood, (5) respect and care for human life, dignity and the rights of all, (6) respect for law and authority and the promotion of self-discipline and (7) concern for and preservation of environment. This year, the AVA Awards night will be held in November at ABS-CBN’s Dolphy Theater.
Sunico brings to AVA expertise in media and sales that saw him spend many years working with foreign markets, first as communications channel director in Vietnam, then as media director of South East Asia and Australia.
The 2014 AVA organizing committee that Mr. Sunico leads are organization volunteers like himself. They are not only contributing their time and efforts pro bono, they are also an idealistic and ambitious group.
“We aim to gather as much as 500 entries from the industry and the academe,” he begins.
“We want to have the best TV program and campaign to support Araw Values Awards and get more people to watch and, more importantly, be aware of the essence of the Araw Values Awards. The Araw Values Awards night show, to be produced by ABS-CBN, will be even bigger and better this year, with performances that would highlight each of ARAW’s seven cornerstone values. Lastly, our campaign will try to tap into the ever growing social media behavior of our consumers and we have a great campaign developed by DM9JaymeSyfu for this.”
Unilever, of course, is almost a fixture among the winners of celebrated industry events such as this. But keeping Unilever’s track record shiny is not what essentially drives Sunico in all his years in the industry. “I think winning an award is great for Unilever or for any company, but I think the motivation shouldn’t be winning an award rather the sincere desire to create big, positive change through our brands and services,” he says.
“We are all juggling a number of responsibilities knowing that we each have a role to play to make the industry more responsible and accountable,” he says of the organizing committee. I’m responsible for ensuring that the essence of the Araw Values Awards gets through to as many Filipinos as possible, hoping it would act as a catalyst for positive change to happen individually and collectively,” he added, envisioning his own role.
The hope is that AVA would be an inspiration to advertising as well as to consumers today, when ideals and values are challenged with problems unique to modern day living: people are still learning to live online, liberated with the ease of acquiring, yet also burdened with the responsibility of offering, unrestricted information; the Philippines is fraught with natural calamities and politicking. The difficulties of this age are many.
“The true test of the ad industry’s character as represented by the seven cornerstone values is more critical when we are confronted by big environmental, political and social issues,” Sunico says.
“As an industry, we constantly need to ask ourselves whether we are contributing to the promotion of positive values through our brand and corporate communication. This is important because we believe that the promotion and inculcation of positive values is vital to nation-building. Doing our share through the Araw Values Awards and other similar endeavors will assure us of a values-oriented citizenry in the many years ahead.”
The 2014 AVA Awards and Sunico are indeed ambitious, idealistic. This is exactly how the industry and its practitioners need to be in a profession that has the capacity to touch millions. With responsible advertising, brands could also sell positive values.
