Mark Peckson

I have to blog this one guy I am really proud of, and surprisingly this colleague of mine is currently making big waves and earning some popularity because of his unable to speak the Filipino language. So apparently Saatchi & Saatchi Manila made Mark as part of the Yabang Pinoy's Linggo ng Wika Campaign. The campaign is called "The Mark Peckson Project." I am encouraging you to visit his site and see how he chronicled his battles on learning how to speak proper Tagalog on his day to day conversation with other people. He will surely give you a laughter with his crooked tagalog and funny ways of pronouncing the words he uttered.

Yabang Pinoy did a website for Mark to narrate his struggles and adventures on learning how to converse in Tagalog. Yabang pinoy sells different items like shirts, bags, wrist bands and more--made of 100% Filipino in concept.

These are the series of posters that were also printed on shirts and being sold in all Yabang Pinoy outlets. I think I'll buy some for myself and some for the foreign dudes I've met here in Saigon. Saatchi & Saatchi Manila did the campaign with the following creatives: Executive Creative Director Tony Sarmiento and writers Angelo Suarez & Bia Fernandez. This campaign won the Platinum award in the recent Araw Values Award for Advertising last December 2008.


Mark Peckson is a former Accounts person from JWT turned Copywriter in Saatchi Saatchi. We used to be seatmates when I was still working with Saatchi. He's always loaded with ideas and some are mind boggling and very creative that I often ponder if those ideas can be transcended especially if your account is SM. I doubt dude. I had fun brainstorming with this fella especially when we went to 121 and had some beers. I often give this dude some food when I bring some to the office because this guy loves to eat. Despite that he remained fit and healthy. He always have his jar of water and some Lemon juice. Aside from that he surfs a lot too, so we always see him with sun kissed skin. And what I missed about my seatmate Mark, is his long board under his cabinet that I often ride and skate around Saatchi house. From that long board I learned some little ways on how to skate.

Sigh. How time flies. Saatchi days are just memories now. I am proud seeing Mark on this project. Some people in the office doubted if he would make it as a copywriter since he cannot write a Filipino copy. But I believe it's not too late to learn. And in advertising language is not a big barrier. What's important is, you can think of big ideas and successful campaigns. Good thing Mark made it! He's now a regular employee of Saatchi & Saatchi as a COPYWRITER!

I'm sooo proud of you PECKERS! See yah soon :-)

hugs,
joanie xxx