Manila Vanilla

What it's like to be a U.S. Fulbright scholar, basketball player, journalist, and the whitest man in Metro Manila.

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Location: Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines

New Yorker by birth, shipped across the globe to the world of malls, shanty-towns, patronage, corruption, basketball and a curious burnt-toast smell that wafts around at dusk

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Back with a vengeance ... and a video!

Friends! Long time no see. I've got big plans for Manila Vanilla, which I probably will never follow through on, so let's start off nice and relaxed with a video. This isn't just a video; it's also a contest. Since many of the people who bother reading this Web site know me personally, I challenge you to find me in this commercial for Anchor Beer. I shot it last February and only now discovered it online. It was filmed in Manila by world-class commercial director and wanker Franco Marinelli, but it was intended for TV audiences in Taiwan and Thailand, where the appetite for advertisements starring average-looking Caucasians is apparently just as voracious as it is here in the Philippines. If I can rouse up the nerve to revisit my hideous memories from the day I spent at this shoot, I will write more about it. For now, however, watch the commercial and try to spot me, then leave a comment with your answer! Maybe I'll give out prizes. But be warned: This commercial is chock full of white assholes, and singling me out will be no cakewalk. It will be like the infamous "Waldo World" spread in the final Where's Waldo? book.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your mug is in the first shot in that silly ass hat holding a duck, no?

5:40 AM  
Blogger RafeBoogs said...

Damn, I guess it's been a while, man. Try again.

8:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ok ... this is better than Waldo, but I'm gonna guess that you're the one dancing behind the guy playing the accordion and to the right of the guy in the black suit around the :29 second mark. And apologies to the entire Procak family if I'm wrong here.

10:29 AM  
Blogger RafeBoogs said...

Sorry, cuz, but I was lucky enough not to have been included in the Nazi era scene. You might have a better chance of spotting me by watching this bigger, higher resolution quicktime version of the commercial.

1:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

oh man, haha ... now I can recognize your goofy swag, you're at the bar all the way to the left in the last scene talking to that girl with a big fake grin on your face

9:28 PM  
Blogger RafeBoogs said...

Uhh, I'm taking that link down ASAP.

4:56 PM  
Blogger nwt said...

I know, I know, you're the guy grabbing his crotch. Haha... actually, I couldn't find you in the ultra-modern bar scene without the Quicktime version either. But I do recall something about your being instructed to wear "something fabulous and silver" to this shoot...

11:23 PM  

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