When me and my friends were in our schoolbus we passed by this big billboard owned by Bench in commonwealth. We normally enjoy looking at new styles of clothing or how the models posed, but just recently about a month ago we were shocked to see the new billboard of Bench being the "Bench Fever".
The billboard had two sides of it, on one side it is two guys wearing nothing but boxers and a disco ball on the background. On the other side, it was Alessandra de Rosi wearing very skimpy underwear and it looked like she was pole dancing on the chain of the disco ball. We were very disturbed. I dont have the exact photo's of the billboard but I have a few examples.
I was talking to my mother about it and she was horrified to see the billboards. For me, kids seeing these very graphic photo's at the age of 5 or 6 really confuses them, it makes them wonder why are they not wearing it out in the open.I know that maybe kids might not care about it but for them to be used to seeing these pictures which are very close to pornography around them is very bad.
Bench actually promotes buying tickets to seeing the modeling of their underwear in their show called "Bench Fever '06". Bench also sells DVD's of the past years show and I believe will also sell this year's too. I am very disturbes. Because of these photo's kids at young ages become gay seeing men wearing almost nothing at all. It makes young girls want to be like their idols who are wearing skimpy bra's and panty's. I am shocked.
I was reading an article about the show which was a commentary on what happened at the show last June 30, 2006.
I quote the article from Inquirer written by Dolly Anne Carvajal.
The new Bench undies are flirty and sporty. But it also has classic white and elegant black designs. They look too good to be worn under clothes.
As in previous Bench shows, it wasn’t only these that the audience had come to see, but also the celebs who did the catwalk. Some standouts were John Estrada, Keanna Reeves, Wendell Ramos, Ruffa Mae Quinto, Jay-R and Richard Gutierrez, not to mention the King and Queen of Bench—Richard and Lucy Gomez.
It was a visually delightful mixture of Kapuso and Kapamilya stars.
Ai-Ai de las Alas brought the house down, when she playfully touched the crotch of some male models.
Here are some examples of the photo's taken from the show:
As Dolly Anne Carvajal mentioned people go there looking for their favourite celebrities and getting all excited at seeing them in their underwear. I guess for me its just really bad media getting to see these things everyday. It causes people to have impure thoughts or actions even.
I quote what she said about Ai-ai de Las Alas playfully touching the crotch of another male model. People would now think, "Oh okay, since she did it maybe I could too". For me its just downright sinful what they Bench Corporation is doing. They should have stuck to whats right and true being, not showing these photo's on billboards to the public and not haveing these modelling shows.
I further quote:
Most enthusiastically applauded were Richard Gutierrez, Jay-R, Sam Milby, Christian Bautista, and PBB teen winners Gerald Anderson and Kim Sue Chui.
Joey Marquez and his ex-Alicia Mayer seemed to ignore each other on stage. He only had eyes for his daughter Winwin who also modeled some numbers.
The grand finale was the appearance of ’70s idols Sister Sledge and Village People who sang anthems of the funky decade. It was anticlimactic, though. But all in all, it was one groovy evening. Everyone went home as “carriers” of the contagious fever.
Seeing young people at the age of 16 or 17 doing these modelling shows makes me outraged. Now people wont know what ir "right" or "wrong". But to be fair with the Bench Corporation their marketing strategy really did fly. It really worked for the Philippines. We are all attracted to the billboards and always go looking for Bench boutiques in malls. I commend them on a very successful project. No doubt their sales will go up. Dolly Anne Carvajal also said that she enjoyed the show, being it 70's. She loved the music and really felt the "fever".
I believe that it was a good way of marketing but a bad way in terms of the how far they went crossing the line of ethics. I think it would be better if they promoted it in a not so strong way. Kids and adults alike have a certain effect on them, including me, seeing all these photo's.
