The first National Thank You Day is now part of history. It was a worthy celebration of this simple gesture often neglected by Filipinos. We are trained to say “po”, “opo” and “please” ever since childhood more than “thank you”. It wouldn’t hurt to start including “thank you” in the children’s vocabulary and train them to be always grateful about simple things in life.
There was a low turn out of people who supported the first ever National Thank You Day Concert. I have a few hypothesis:
1. Most people decided to avoid the malls after the Glorietta bombing which claimed the lives of 11 people and > 80 people injured.
2. There were two other competing activities within the same area: Channel 23 Day Break in the MOA Bay Area to celebrate semestral break ala Spring break and Anlene’s bid to break the most number of people dancing simultaneously in a single event as part of the World’s celebration of Osteoperosis in CCP.
3. Media is not really sold-in to the idea of Thank You Day since this is more of a marketing gimmick by Toblerone. You can’t even find any press news about last night’s Thank You Day in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
I would love to believe that it was number #1 but reality is, I don’t think we acknowledged that we have an issue with saying “Thank You”. What do you think? Please share your thoughts on this…
The Thank You Wall was full of thank you notes from those who attended the event. I wonder where will they put this Thank You Wall in MOA.
Thank You for all those who initially supported the Thank You.PH Art Campaign. This will be an ongoing campaign until next year. I will select the most creative thank you posts each month and the winner/(s) will be entitled to a signed complimentary copy of Our Awesome Planet: Philippines — a Travel Guide Book. My target is to complete the book in early 2009 or earlier in 2008. Thank you for all the encouragement for this project.
Check out the highlights of the first ever National Thank You Day…
Francis sang Kaleidoscope World and Maxine Magalona shared her Thank You message to her dad. The entire Eat Bulaga gang was in full support of the National Thank You Day!
One of the highlights of the night is when Hale came in and sang five of their famous songs.
Everyone was excited about the Toblerone choco shower coming from the Toblerone Blimp. So they used the umbrella given away and inverted it to get as much Toblerone chocolate as possible.
This is the closest that I could get to one of my showbiz-blogger idol. Actually, I had a chance to take a closer picture when the hosts acknowledged all the bloggers who supported the event and called them up on stage.
I was torn between having a picture with Bianca and the bloggers on stage or getting these shots of the Toblerone chocolate shower. I decided the latter one and I was happy with the results.
Most people were disappointed that it was only confetti shower of triangle shaped red/white paper and not the actual Toblerone chocolates as we were led to believe the entire show. It would have been cool if there were really Toblerone in that shower.
It was followed by fireworks displayed and I was lucky to took a shot of this green fireworks.
The night ended with The Dawn closing the event singing Salamat! , and Envelope Ideas…
Thank You Toblerone for making us part of this campaign! The blogging community is grateful and we are looking forward for a bigger celebration next year!!
aww… it looks good.. i missed all the fun! 🙁
Love your pics! Another great post. I always look to this blog to find the most amazing food. And it’s always a treat when you post about events like this one.
a thank you day, it’s a nice thought and it looked like a fun event. but like you said, it is a marketing gimmick. i don’t have any issues with saying thank you, but i don’t have to go to an event to say thank you especially when the people i have to thank are right beside me and also the people i encounter each day – so, for me, its not just a one-day event. also, with regard to your question, not being there doesn’t necessarily mean we have issues on saying thank you.
kudos on your thank you campaign though, i think a longer running awareness campaign to “remind” people to say thank you is actually better.
THANK YOU! 🙂
Dear Anton,
Thank you so so much for coming over with the rest of the blogging community! While we weren’t planning anymore on having a press con that night, we did a brief impromtu one because of the overwhelming attendance of the press.
In fairness to the the media and Inquirer particularly, whose support was overwhelming, the campaign was in the papers practically everyday 🙂 On October 20 itself, it merited a front page cover in the Star – the only bright spot amidst the calls for resignation, the bombing and even Muslim cessation.
Eat Bulaga even devoted an entire episode without any prompting on the organizer’s part. Very humbling!
The real victory for the campaign here is if people said thank you more or if we find ourselves saying thank you more.
I think it’s a message that transcends time, country and chocolate affiliation (as if that counted for anything). Ha ha ha.
Thank YOU!
Warmly,
Amor
I think the press has been there in full support of the event. I am pretty much aware of this… I won’t have a good recall that Toblerone sponsored this if not for media 🙂
My take is – well a strong inclination to #1 reason. Marketing gimik or not, I think people are always sold to marketing gimiks esp if you advertise that there’s a shower of chocolates?!? It’s just that the emotion over the bombing was still lingering during that time.
Well,this can still be done on an ongoing basis and on continuous attempt 🙂 So I don’t think it’s a lost cause.
Thank you for your support. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you:)
Alma
Mr. Anton, Thanks for your wonderful blogs. I accidentally discovered your blog because of my sister who frequents your site and i saw it in the history bar of the internet explorer. I have been reading your blogs ever since, particularly about food and my girlfriend and i have been exploring these places after your posts.
I hope you enjoyed my simple contribution of sharing the Splendido restaurant in Tagaytay because the food there is blog worthy. Especially my memory there of eating after hearing misa de gallo in Chapel on the Hill last Christmas which turned out to be the start of a blossoming relationship(just had to share!) =) .
So thank you for sharing the wonders of eating and I’d like to thank those people kind enough to comment on their food finds in your blog. So a heartfelt thanks to all of you with a big appetite and a much bigger heart. =)
Looking forward to your book! 🙂
Would you happen to have a map of Tagaytay? 🙂
Thanks!
Actually, Toblerone triangles falling from the sky would not be a pretty sight! Ouch:) Pero matitiis ko yun if I were there.
BIG NEWS: I do know that 13 years of perfect handling and distributor by Composite enterprises corp. And recently heard it was “hijack” by Mckenzie with insider “red tape” with Kraft Philippines team to get the exclusivity of handling the products. Truth will be told, Bad Karma to those groups who want to get it and don’t even have the right experience to do so. We should boycot kraft Philippines for doing such a bad move.
NO THANKS To YOU TOBLERONE PHILIPPINES. Shame on you !
Composite THANK YOU for distributing! We will continue and support with your other products!
Yes you don’t say chocolate lovers You are right on that one. Mckenzie been aggressively hijacking everyone’s products and then what do they do? They kill the brand and let you restart all over again.