5 Most Popular Filipino Brands & Their Amazing History
Here are five of the most popular Filipino brands that we are using today and their amazing origin stories that made a mark in the Philippine history.
Nowadays, many Filipino people were using the brand’s name instead of the product’s name such as how we refer to toothpaste as ‘Colgate’, photocopier as ‘Xerox’, and etc.
Most of the younger generation are not aware that they were using brand names since people were used to call the product by its brand and not the name itself.
Local brands have also become a generic name for some products, which was mostly used by Filipino people today.
However, did you know where those brands came from? Here are some of the popular Filipino brands and their history:
- Alaska
Alaska milk is a truly Filipino product and was first manufactured in the Philippines and did not come from Alaska.
The iconic golden-haired boy on the cover of Alaska milk was only a fictional character rendered by an artist, according to the company apart from the speculations that it was Michael Uytengsu, the son of the late AMC Chairman, Wilfred Uytengsu when he was young.
- Datu Puti
“Datu Puti” is one of the nine Bornean Datus during the pre-colonial period but he does not own the vinegar brand.
Datu Puti traditional palm vinegar was owned by the Reyes family who got the brand’s name from their mother’s surname “Puti”.
- Ginebra San Miguel
Don Enrique Zobel, the owner of Ginebra S. Miguel was impressed with the work of Fernando Amorsolo who paint an angel triumphing over the devil on the brand’s logo.
Zobel gave Amorsolo a chance to study at Academia de San Fernando in Madrid but the school offered him to be one of the school’s professor.
- Max’s Restaurant
Maximo Gimenez, a graduate of Stanford University founded the Max’s Restaurant. He had American GI’s as friends who usually went to their house for a round of drinking.
Maximo’s daughter Ruby Trota made a special chicken recipe for the guest, which open the gates of business opportunity for them. They wanted to name the restaurant “Maximo” but Americans had a hard time pronouncing it so they called it “Max’s”.
- National Bookstore
Soccoro Cancio or known as Nanay Coring, the co-founder of the popular bookstore used to work at her brother’s bookstore where she met ‘Tatay’ Jose Ramos.
The brand ‘National Book Store’ came from the brand of their cash register, but Nanay Coring renamed it as “National Slipper Store” during World War II due to the huge demand of slippers from Japanese soldiers.
What can you say about this? Just feel free to leave your comments and reactions to this article.
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