The term ends

I guess this is the end for my MANCOMM reports. [Haha! Kala mo naman napakarami nun. Ü] I'm kinda satisfied on how this blog turned out so I won't end it here. I still have a few stuff inside my head to blog about, but I don't think that I can blog very often from now on. We'll see. Depende na lang kung ganahan ako talaga. Besides, I don't have much to blog about. My social life is not as broad and exciting as most bloggers out here. But I guess that's what makes this one different.

To Ms. Aileen Apolo, I'm really happy to be part of your first class ever and I really appreciate that you forced us to do blogs. I know I'm a newbie and giving positive feedback is a big thing coming from what I've heard to be one of the best known bloggers in the Philippines. I hope you continue teaching as I try to continue blogging. [Okaayyy... Masyadong sipsip ang dating so I'll stop here. Ü]

Thanks for the 2.5

MANACOM Report 4: Doublemint mints

I'm sure that you've seen this by now. Wrigley's Doublemint, one of the best known chewing gum in the Philippines, is now selling mints. Yep. Sugarfree mints in fact. But why though? Chewing gums are proven to be very beneficial. It controls craving, releaves stress, improves oral health, and makes you stay focused. I doubt that mints can do better. Maybe a lot of people just like mints. I do.

But why release it in the Philippines? It cost a whopping 79.50 pesos on the supermarket, and as much as 85 freaking pesos on other stores. People can buy doublemint gums anytime anywhere for a peso each.

Maybe it's a sort of social responsibility thing of Wrigley's. People just doesn't want to throw their trash properly [despite the reminders on every single wrigley gum wrapper]. Gum wrappers are everywhere and chewed gums under everything. There are no wrappers to throw when you have a recyclable container. Recyclable how? I can't think of anything to place it with and we ended up having six of them lying around my sister's bookshelves.

Yep. Six. We just like the stuff. Three Eclipse mints and two Extra mints from our trip to Hong Kong and Macau, and the Doublemint mints that I just bought recently. What's the difference between the three? Extra is very, very, very strong. Akala ko habambuhay ako maglalaway sa sobrang anghang. Between Eclipse and Doublemint, not a thing. They're the same mints, same flavors [Peppermint and Winterfrost. Who comes up with a flavor named winterfrost?! HELLO?!] in different containers.

What else can I say? The chewing gum is the more practical choice, but like I said, we just like the mints. I have always preferred chewing Orbit gum (another one of Wrigley's) over other gums, candies, and stuff. Maybe I'll just try the winterfrost flavor of doublemint before switching back. As much as I love the mints, they're just too much pricey for me.

Mas beneficial, mas mura, at mas matagal maubos ang chewing gum.
Mas masarap nga lang yung mints. Hay buhay.

MANACOM Report 3, Pugad Dencio's

Here's another post regarding my "thoughts and discoveries about communication strategies being used by practitioners," which is the point of making this blog in the first place.

This time, it's about the communication strategy made by Dencio's. If you haven't noticed yet, [Yeah, I know, It's been going on for quite a while] they are being endorsed by Pugad Baboy's creator, Pol Medina Jr., and my favorite band, Sugarfree. They even made a song called "Pugad" and its brilliant music video featuring the some of the Pugad Baboy residents. They have a bonus disc for this that comes with the "Sugarfree LIVE!" album. For me, it can't get any better than that.

I haven't got the chance to actually eat at Dencio's since the endorsing began, but I did saw the changes that they made to the place. From the outside, you can already see the windows covered with pictures of the band with the Pugad Baboy characters eating. That's all there is [from what I've seen] and they're everywhere. My friend, Maruel, mentioned that even their menus have the same thing. [Visit his blog!]

I wonder how much they spent on this project. Convincing both PMJr and the Sugarfree to endorse them looks expensive, with the music video and all, the billboards, their website, other promotional stuff, and the changes that they've done on all their branches in the country. I think that it will be worth it. A lot of people are fans of their endorsers and I may be one of the biggest fans of both of them. Next time I'll be celebrating something, it will definitely be at Dencio's.

MANACOM Report 2, Palistuhan

Now it's time to post some "thoughts and discoveries about communication strategies being used by practitioners."

It's been going on for a while but since it's still happening, I might as well post it.

Nescafe, I think, made a very great way to promote its product and make their audience enjoy it. I'm talking about the new Nescafe Iced Coffee. I heard on the radio that contestants can actually rap agianst each other, answering each rap until they blank out, just like what they did in the TV ad. And boy what a great commercial it is.

Pairing up master rapper Francis Magalona with funny man Ramon Bautista is I think, very brilliant. As in genious! It made my stomach hurt laughing. If you've watched only the 30 second commercial, you may not be getting what I'm saying. Watch the whole thing right here [under "About the Product"]

You should also try the palistuhan game. It has hard, simple, and even stupid questions whose answers would make you go: "Why didn't I think of that?" It's a very good way to waste time while surfing the net. You'll enjoy the questions, you'll find yourself moving with the beat, you can find out your rapper name [I turned out to be "Kid Nasty Jab"], and you won't even notice that you can win a prize doing it.

Of course, it's all for promoting and selling the product. For 10 pesos, it's actually very small [Just look at my hand on the picture], but I think it's fair for an iced coffee and it definitely won't stop me for buying them again. The guys at nescafe really did a great job promoting it. They are just brilliant. Otherwise, I wont be blogging about it. Hehe...

I'm on my way completing my second set of 100 questions on the palistuhan quiz. You guys should try it. Click the link above. So ano? Listo ka ba?

Edit: R.I.P. Francis Magalona. Saludo ako sa'yo at sa mga pinoy na kagaya mo.

MANACOM Report 1, Orgcom

Dont mind the title, I just like to call them "reports."

So, since this blog is one required for us in school, we were told that it has to contain our "thoughts and discoveries about communication strategies being used by practitioners." As of now, I really can't think of any.

Luckily, we were told that we "might want to share [our] thoughts about why orgcomm practitioners are important in organizations." Haha... it's one of the questions frequently asked to us every term.

Well, organizational practitioners are people who are trained to deal with communications, internally or externally, in an organization. We are trained on different communication theories, methods, and skills for different situations that could arise in an organization. Public relations and organizational change and development are only examples that could give you an idea of what an organizational communication practioner does, and what it is all about.

Of course, other people might think that anybody can do that. I agree. Anyone who knows how to deal with people can do it. That is exactly what we are trained for. We are brought up to specialize in this field, with courses heavily focused on communication and organizational theories and research, and this can assure you that we know what we are doing. Communication is very important in an organization, and if it fails, so does the organization. That's why we are important. Besides, additional courses on photography, video production, graphic design, and other communication tehnologies can never hurt. Right?

The blog is on!

Hellooooooooo world!

Welcome to my blog. I would like to congratulate you for being the one of the first people reading this. Hi Ms. Apolo! [wala bang emoticons dito?]

Haha...

So, anyway, about me: I'm Michael Buen Abueva, a 20 year old, organizational communication student at the De La Salle University, and the only reason I am making this blog is because everyone in our class is required to make one. Hehe.

This is actually my second blog. The first one is also a requirement for my philosophy class 2 years ago. I didn't like how it turned out so I deleted it after the term. Hay nako... I'm obviously not one of those people who enjoy blogging but I'm keeping my fingers crossed so that this blog could survive well after the term. Haha.

I'm not expeting anyone to read this aside from my prof, my classmates, my family, and my friends. [I'll ask you guys later this week kung bumisita kayo at malalaman ko kung hindi. Hehe]

Forgive me if my first post is lame. Like I said, I'm not the blogger type. So join me and let's see if this blog can actually survive. This is Micky, Michael, and Buen's blog. This blog begins and ends with me.